A review by ravenslanding
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

5.0

I picked this up in a kindle sale, and put off reading it because I was busy and frankly afraid for the Chinese American protagonist growing up at the start of Jim Crow, just after reconstruction ended (it is set in 1890 Atlanta). Jo is intensely likable, the story is straight forward but also a little twisty, there are good people and bad people, and lots of reprehensible middle ground people. I learned stuff I had never thought about before. I don't think I knew the South brought in Chinese after the Civil War to work as cheap labor--and then the Chinese left, too, because it turns out that when you treat people like animals, they leave.

It's a short and enjoyable read, with a lot of likable characters and secrets and plot, and everything works out in the end.