Scan barcode
A review by votesforwomen
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
3.0
Waffling between 3 and 4 stars.
There was SO MUCH to love about this book. We get to see the South between slavery and segregation (I mean, who actually writes about how the South was affected during the Gilded Age? We are LONG overdue for this sort of a book and I loved it), from the POV of a Chinese girl who was a natural-born American citizen! Like...I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Such a unique premise and unique perspective. Please write more books like this, my ladies.
And the whole Miss Sweetie column...oh my word. Jo's sass is something else and I loved every one of her columns. So Southern--sweet and yet BITING and it was brilliant. For not being from the South, as Lee admits in the acknowledgements, she nails Southern culture so well.
The reveals felt rushed, and I had a bit of a time keeping up with some of the side characters, but overall, the main plot and the main character hold this book together BEAUTIFULLY. Really good. Mostly clean (just a couple of bad words and a little mild suggestive content, as well as a couple of people talking about affairs). This is the kind of his-fic I enjoy.
3.5 stars, probably? SO GOOD THO.
There was SO MUCH to love about this book. We get to see the South between slavery and segregation (I mean, who actually writes about how the South was affected during the Gilded Age? We are LONG overdue for this sort of a book and I loved it), from the POV of a Chinese girl who was a natural-born American citizen! Like...I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Such a unique premise and unique perspective. Please write more books like this, my ladies.
And the whole Miss Sweetie column...oh my word. Jo's sass is something else and I loved every one of her columns. So Southern--sweet and yet BITING and it was brilliant. For not being from the South, as Lee admits in the acknowledgements, she nails Southern culture so well.
The reveals felt rushed, and I had a bit of a time keeping up with some of the side characters, but overall, the main plot and the main character hold this book together BEAUTIFULLY. Really good. Mostly clean (just a couple of bad words and a little mild suggestive content, as well as a couple of people talking about affairs). This is the kind of his-fic I enjoy.
3.5 stars, probably? SO GOOD THO.