Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau was the best book I read this past summer. It was only published in May, and I had seen it advertised on Goodreads. When I went to my local library, I decided to pick it up as a fun beach read. That night I started it, and four hours later, I was crying in my bed at 1 am. 

I was overcome with this immense happiness I hadn’t gotten from a book in a while. I wasn’t crying because it was sad or depressing. I was so invested in the characters that, in the end, I couldn’t help but cry (I may have cried two times, but that’s beside the point). It’s not a perfect book, but the emotional reward is so high. 

Mary Jane was the perfect story for me. Set in 1970s Baltimore, it focuses on a fourteen-year-old girl named Mary Jane Dillard. Her parents are the epitome of conservative, upper-middle-class adults from the mid-20th century. If you looked up “1950s American family” in the dictionary, a picture of the Dillard family would be the first definition. 

However, Mary Jane ventures out from her family and starts nannying for the Cones. The father is a psychiatrist, and the mother is the exact opposite of Mary Jane’s mother. Izzy, the little girl who Mary Jane watches, is an inquisitive and smart five-year-old. What makes the summer even more interesting is that a famous rock star, Jimmy, will be staying with the Cones. After becoming sober, Jimmy moves in with them so that the father may treat him, and his equally famous wife, Sheba, comes along. As Mary Jane becomes closer to her new second family, she’s introduced to a world of rock and roll and liberation that changes her life forever.

Here are the reasons I love Mary Jane…

1. The music
   1. I am as far from being musically inclined as a person can get, and while I love listening to music, I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard music fan. However, Mary Jane fills you with this love of early rock and roll in the 1970s. I would quite literally sell anything to be able to see Jimmy’s band in real life. This might be an incredibly niche reference, but if anyone knows the show Miraculous, I picture Jimmy as a cooler Jagged Stone. Music is such a big part of this book that you become fully immersed in the soundtrack. On investigation, I found that the author actually made a Spotify playlist, and I strongly recommend you listen to it while reading. 
2. Found family dynamic 
   1. I adore the found family trope. It’s in some of my favorite books and watching Mary Jane find her place with the Cones, Jimmy, and Sheba was so rewarding. However, like any family, they’re still dysfunctional and flawed. What I liked so much is that the characters weren’t perfect. There were so many scenes where the characters fought, messed up, and worked out their differences (also content warning: this is definitely not a PG book. It’s a 70s rock and roll star so you get what you expect). 
3. The ending 
   1. This is what made me cry. When everyone must go back to their lives after a crazy summer, the final chapter bonds the characters together in an absolutely perfect way. I won’t say anymore but if you read this book, know that I can endlessly gush about this ending. 

If you like 1960/1970s music, fashion, or lifestyle then this book will appeal to you. I loved Daisy Jones and the Six, and while it’s not too similar, both books have a similar setting and themes. Even if you don’t like anything I’ve mentioned, you should still read this book. It’s that good. 

Works Cited

Mary Jane Book Cover. Amazon, www.amazon.com/dp/B08FK7MVPF/
ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1.