allegedly

Book 52 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Summary (via Goodreads)
Mary B. Addison killed a baby.
Allegedly. She didn't say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn't say.
Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn't really a "home" - no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.
There wasn't a point to setting the record straight before, but now she's got Ted - and their unborn child - to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

My Opinion
This review is not going to be a review because the book leads the reader down a very clear path and saying anything (did I see the ending coming or did the path twist at the last minute?) would be a spoiler.  But if you do read it, talk to me because I have thoughts.

Speaking about the situations described in the book, it made me sad because I know the stuff that happens to Mary during her time in jail and at the group home, where treatment orders are not being followed and she's slipping through the cracks, occurs in real life because the people who want to help vulnerable populations are overworked and the people merely collecting a paycheck can get by on bare minimum for a long time without being held accountable.