We Deserve Monuments: List 3

by Jas Hammonds
When seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson moves from Washington, D.C. to a small town in Georgia, she encounters conflicts linked to painful family secrets.

This list covers Chapters 7–13.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
35 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. vignette
    a small illustrative sketch
    She shoved the pamphlet across the table, and I reached for it like it was alive and capable of biting. On the front, surrounded by a fuchsia vignette, an old white woman gazed out a window with a tiny smile.
  2. hospice
    a program of medical care for the terminally ill
    By the river, words like wills and hospice care and life insurance and the dying process didn’t exist.
  3. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    “You have little touches. Subtle. Like you.”
  4. rift
    a personal or social separation
    All I know is that there’s always been some rift between her and my mom. They had a really bad fight that I barely remember, and my mom never came home again.
  5. trivial
    of little substance or significance
    None of that trivial stuff matters when someone dies. If your mom doesn’t want to talk about it, then fine.
  6. penchant
    a strong liking or preference
    I quickly discovered Mama Letty’s penchant for critique extended beyond the bounds of Sweetness Lane.
  7. rapt
    feeling great delight and interest
    She skipped around in their timeline, rewinding to that first train ride when Ray checked on her repeatedly, listening raptly while she told him what was bringing her to Orlando.
  8. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    “You woulda thought I was some Hollywood starlet heading to a premiere with the way he was doting on me,” Mama Letty said, lifting her chin.
  9. admonish
    scold or reprimand; take to task
    He was easily distracted by the passing landscapes, being admonished multiple times for marveling at a pink DC sunset when he should’ve been turning down beds or admiring a tangerine Lowcountry sunrise when he should’ve been preparing coffee orders.
  10. pretentious
    creating an appearance of importance or distinction
    When Raymond noticed it, he felt a detour carving its way through the careful plan his pretentious upper-middle class parents had pushed on him for twenty-three years.
  11. tasteful
    in keeping with what is considered appropriate and stylish
    The room matched the Draper’s lobby, tastefully decorated with sleek, modern gray furniture.
  12. bleak
    offering little or no hope
    “We’re sorry your friends in DC were horrible, no-good, rotten poop faces,” Simone continued, “and we know Bardell can seem pretty damn bleak. But we can offer our friendship, if you want.”
  13. splay
    widen or spread apart
    After setting her phone down, she promptly fell asleep in the middle of a sentence, blonde curls splayed across the down-feather pillows.
  14. chasm
    an unbridgeable gap, break, or disagreement
    I looked over at Simone's house and felt the chasm in my heart split wider.
  15. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    They didn’t even notice me. I could tell by the way they were looking at each other; they couldn’t see anything else. A spaceship could’ve landed on top of the Draper, and they would’ve been oblivious.
  16. grapple
    work hard to come to terms with or deal with something
    “Ray was murdered,” she said, as simply as someone saying the sun was hot or the moon was a quarter of a million miles away. She said it with the finality of someone who’d had time to grapple with the weight of the words and understood there was nothing she could do about it.
  17. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    Suddenly I was standing, heading toward the tracks in a sun-hot daze, tears streaming down my face, bile rising in my throat.
  18. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    Her face transformed into the soft, terrifying calm she usually reserved for men who asked her condescending questions on panels.
  19. dredge up
    bring to mind something unpleasant from the past
    “She’s an old woman, Avery. She’s dying. Those memories are painful, and I want the last bit of her life to be joyful and relaxing. Not focused on the dredging up of old memories.”
  20. grim
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    When we passed the road that led to the train station, I had a flash of Mama Letty's grim face, recounting the story of Ray’s murder, and shivered.
  21. affinity
    a natural attraction or feeling of kinship
    Isaac, a younger Black guy with oversized glasses and an affinity for horror movies, seemed to be Mama Letty's favorite because her attitude didn’t bother him one bit.
  22. itinerary
    a proposed route of travel
    Before I knew it, we had a whole day of pampering booked for me, Mom, and Mama Letty.
    “It’s on the house,” Jade told me when she handed me the itinerary one day at lunch.
  23. unanimous
    in complete agreement
    We planned a group Halloween costume after unanimously voting on pirates.
  24. garish
    tastelessly showy
    Her smile was as white as the baby grand piano, but it was her garish lemon-yellow suit that commanded the most attention.
  25. pique
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    Interest piqued across Tallulah’s face.
  26. croon
    sing softly
    Mom turned on the satellite radio, and a group of men from the seventies crooned about only having eyes for one woman.
  27. idle
    run disconnected
    The Jeep idled at the end of the driveway.
  28. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    Jade let me borrow a plain black one-piece, and we brought a bag of chips and a portable speaker to her sprawling backyard.
  29. bask
    expose oneself to warmth and light, as for relaxation
    We spent the rest of the afternoon on pool loungers wrapped in fluffy towels, basking in the sun.
  30. drawl
    a slow speech pattern with prolonged vowels
    They were all polite but way too loud, talking over one another in booming drawls.
  31. imperceptible
    impossible or difficult to sense
    Jade glanced at me, but I gave her an imperceptible nod.
  32. intrigue
    cause to be interested or curious
    “What brings you to Bardell?”
    I gave her the same condensed version I gave Tallulah. Elizabeth looked intrigued.
  33. stoke
    increase or intensify an emotion or response
    An unfamiliar fury stoked in my stomach before crawling up to my throat.
  34. stupor
    feeling of distress and disbelief when something bad happens
    The sharp scent of gasoline and garden soil broke through my furious stupor. I blinked hard, trying to decide if that really went down or if it was something out of a daydream.
  35. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    She glanced past me, and we both turned to see Tallulah and Elizabeth glowering at us from the porch.
Created on Thu Sep 21 16:20:48 EDT 2023 (updated Tue Oct 03 14:21:22 EDT 2023)

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