A review by kathykekmrs
An Acquaintance with Darkness by Ann Rinaldi

5.0

This was an excellent story about growing up and facing one's fears. Emily Pigbush goes to live with her maternal Uncle Valentine Bransby after her mother's death. She had wanted to live with her neighbor and daughter Mary and Annie Surratt, but this was not to be. The Surratt's were known acquaintances of John Wilkes Booth and would go one to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. The Surrattes were real people, but the Bransby-Pigbush characters were invented by the author to tell a story about body snatching and friendship in 1865. The end of the Civil War was a tumultuous time in United States History. There were disenfranchised southerners still fighting for a world that had just ended. There were free slaves living in hovels in Washington, DC because they could not read or write to take jobs to support themselves. There were also many bodies being buried at what would become Arlington National Cemetery on Robert E. Lee's property as this was part of the terms of surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. In the midst of all of this turmoil Abraham Lincoln is shot and justice is swift and brutal.