Rating: 4 stars for a diverse, historical period piece set in Atlanta in the 1800's
My Thoughts:
Stacey Lee is also author of Under a Painted Sky which is about a Chinese girl in Missouri and an escaped slave girl in 1849. They dress up as boys and head west on the Oregon trail. In The Downstairs Girl, Lee again puts her young Chinese character in 1800s America, this time in Atlanta.
Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for a nasty young debutante, but she and her adopted father also secretly live under a newspaper publisher's house where she grows her vocabulary and listens in on the latest news from the family upstairs. When her Lady Whistledown moment comes up, she sends a teaser article anonymously to the family upstairs which helps to keep the newspaper afloat.
There are Bridgerton moments with more realistic American racism, but also a mystery around her parentage and multiple forbidden love stories. Jo's spunk and tenacity are endearing and refreshing. I love these diverse characters that can be put squarely into American society and refuse to let the society victimize them. Hooray for diverse stories of courage and spunk.
As an audiobook, the narrator is easy to listen to. Emily Woo Zeller makes the 10 hour listen time go by quickly.
From the Publisher:
From the critically-acclaimed author of Under a Painted Sky and Outrun the Moon and founding member of We Need Diverse Books comes a powerful novel about identity, betrayal, and the meaning of family.
By day, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie". When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender.
While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light.
With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South.
Publication Information:
Author: Stacey Lee
Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller
Publisher: Tantor Audio (August 13, 2019)
Listening length: 10 hours 22 minutes
No comments:
Post a Comment