Monday’s Not Coming is told in three different timelines. “One Year Before the Before” chronicles the year before the protagonist, Claudia’s, best friend Monday disappears. “The Before” details Claudia’s search for Monday. And “The After” takes place two years after authorities find Monday’s body—though Claudia (and for much of the novel, the reader) isn’t aware that it’s been two years. Claudia goes through the “After” timeline believing she’s 13, when she’s actually nearing her 16th birthday.
In “One Year Before the Before,” Claudia and Monday are in seventh grade. The girls spend their time hanging out at Claudia’s house after school, making up dances to their favorite songs and talking about boys. Several days per week, they go to the library with Monday’s little brother, August. Claudia often gives Monday clothes, since Monday’s are usually threadbare. Their friendship begin to change when Monday decides to act on her feelings for Jacob Miller, the best-looking boy at school. Though Jacob and Monday hang out and kiss on the weekends, Jacob refuses to acknowledge Monday at school. Around this time, a rift develops between Claudia and Monday: Claudia resents Jacob for messing with her best friend, and for some reason, Monday becomes very angry with Claudia when Claudia keeps asking where Monday’s little brother, August, went. Rumors start to circulate that Monday is promiscuous and that she and Claudia are romantically involved with each other. Monday and Claudia beat up Jacob one day for refusing to counter the rumors. Several weeks later, after Monday does a disastrous job dyeing her hair, she hides in the bathroom and Claudia follows to comfort her. As they sit on the floor in a stall, someone takes a picture of them and circulates it on Facebook. The angle of the photo makes it look like Monday is performing oral sex on Claudia. Claudia’s parents, Ma and Daddy, threaten the school and get the picture taken down from the internet, but the damage is done. The girls grow further and further apart.
In the “Before” timeline, Claudia has just returned from spending the summer between seventh and eighth grade with her grandmother in Georgia. It’s been an odd summer because Monday hasn’t written to her like she usually does. Monday’s phone is disconnected, and Monday doesn’t show up to school at all the first week. Claudia finally goes to Monday’s house after school one day, but Monday’s mother, Mrs. Charles, acts aggressive and insists Monday is with her daddy. Claudia is distraught. She believes something may have happened to Monday, but Monday’s disappearance also poses a different problem for Claudia: Monday has been helping Claudia cover up her dyslexia for years, and now, Claudia is on her own. Without Monday’s help, Claudia fears she’ll never get into the prestigious Banneker High, the high school she and Monday planned on attending. Eventually, her teachers identify her dyslexia and send her to the Learning Center, where tutors help her learn to read and manage her diagnosis.
Claudia spends months trying to track down Monday. Ma and Daddy encourage her to not get involved, claiming that whatever’s going on with Monday’s family is “private family business.” When Claudia goes to the police, an officer named Detective Carson suggests that Monday just ran away, and he makes Claudia feel guilty for trying to take time and resources away from other missing girls. The only person who seems to share Claudia’s concern for Monday’s well-being is Mrs. Valente, her seventh-grade English teacher—though even Mrs. Valente can’t figure out where Monday is. Claudia runs into Monday’s older sister, April, at several points, but April brushes Claudia off every time. Finally, in the spring, April takes Claudia to her house. The house is filthy and dark, with a big chest freezer buzzing in the entryway. April takes Claudia to Monday’s bedroom, where Claudia finds Monday’s journal. When Mrs. Charles comes home unexpectedly, Claudia spends several hours hiding under Monday’s bed and, after nearly being discovered by Mrs. Charles, eventually sneaks out the bathroom window. She takes Monday’s journal and Monday’s library copy of Flowers in the Attic with her.
The next day, Claudia comes down with a high fever. When she hears police sirens and learns that the Ed Borough housing complex is blocked off, Claudia knows something is wrong. She bikes to the complex, where she learns that the police found two dead bodies in Mrs. Charles’s freezer: Monday and August. Not long after, Detective Carson and Detective Woods come to Claudia’s house to question Ma and Daddy. The cops insist on taking Monday’s journal as evidence, shattering Claudia—the journal is all she has left of Monday. Claudia falls into a deep depression and, when she returns to school several weeks later, she experiences a mental break and screams in the cafeteria. She doesn’t return to school after this.
In the “After” timeline, two years later, Claudia doesn’t remember that the police have already arrested Mrs. Charles for murdering Monday and August. She believes she’s 13 and that no one is taking her seriously about her missing friend. Claudia attends church activities at Ma’s request, where an older boy named Michael attempts to befriend her. She also attends tutoring sessions with an old lady named Ms. Walker and returns to dance classes. As the months pass, Claudia continues to seek out April. This never goes well—April always insults Claudia and insists that Claudia didn’t really know Monday. Meanwhile, Claudia and Michael grow close, and Claudia even befriends several girls in her dance class.
One day at the library, Claudia realizes that she has Monday’s copy of Flowers in the Attic in her bag and decides to return it—and asks the librarian, Ms. Paul, to see the other books Monday checked out. Although this is against the rules, Ms. Paul complies, and Claudia learns that most of the books that Monday checked out were about child abuse. Realizing that Monday was being abused, Claudia decides to seek out Monday’s father, Tip, who’s working in Maryland. Michael takes Claudia there, but the trip doesn’t go well: Claudia realizes that Monday must be dead, and she believes Tip killed her.
Later that night, Ma tells Claudia that Monday has been dead for almost three years; Claudia just keeps forgetting. Over the next week, Claudia begins to recover. Her parents give her an iPhone, so Claudia pores over articles and news clips covering Monday’s death. She dances in her final recital and feels like Monday is dancing with her, and Daddy gives Claudia photocopies of Monday’s journal. Ma decides that the entire family should go to therapy. Claudia’s therapist suggests she needs to find closure, so Claudia seeks out April one final time. April reveals that Claudia has forgotten about Monday’s death twice before—but April always played along, in part because she appreciated that Claudia never gave up on finding Monday. Claudia and Michael also begin to date, and Michael helps Claudia with one final task. Outside of Monday’s house, they listen to the recording of Mrs. Charles’s confession, in which she calmly details how she killed her children—and says she isn’t sorry. Then, Claudia goes to the Charles’s house and speaks to Monday’s neighbor, Ms. Roundtree. Claudia admits that what continues to haunt her is the buzzing sound the freezer made, but Ms. Roundtree tells Claudia to think of it as Monday humming a song instead.
