Personal Rating: 5 stars Goodreads Rating: 4.03 Stars Content Rating: Light R (for language and described nudity) Trigger warnings: Racial slurs are used, a character is put in an uncomfortable somewhat sexual situation. By day, seventeen-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. (goodreads.com) I won this book in an Instagram giveaway hosted by Stephanie Garber (author of Caraval), so thank you very very much to Stephanie Garber! A friend of mine and a coworker both recommended this book to me around the same time, saying it was a wonderful read and that I had to read it. I am notoriously bad at actually picking up the books recommended to me by friends and coworkers (I’ll usually say something along the lines of “I’ll have to check it out!”, add it to my Goodreads TBR, and then, unfortunately, forget about it). However I do have a good streak of reading books I am given right away. So, thankfully, I picked this one up as soon as I was able and promptly devoured it. The first chapters are a little slow, but I still enjoyed them because there was quite a bit of talk about millinery and hat making, which is a topic that is fascinating to me (thanks to Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle). Even with the slow chapters, once you get into this book then you really are trapped there. I may or may not have stayed up until 3:30 AM in order to finish it because once those twists start coming they don’t stop coming (♪ fed to the rules and I hit the ground running, didn’t make sense not to live for fun, your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb…♪) and I got sucked in like a spider meeting a vacuum cleaner hose. The plot of this book had everything you could want from a historical fiction. It had mystery, social tensions, secrets, betrayals, hats, horses, seriously creepy crooks, newspapers, advice columns, and a dash of romance. The shocking reveals all seem to hit you at once and it’s like gut punch after incredible gut punch! I gasped aloud at some of the revelations and kept saying “one more chapter” until there were no more chapters. Along with the excellent plot, the writing itself was engaging and refined. There are so many beautiful words used in this story as the MC, Jo and another character speak about words and writing. The way that Stacey Lee spins out tired sayings with a new flair really kept my attention and sparked my brain. It was nice to read a story with writing that felt smart and polished. I may be praising this book too heavily, but it really was wonderful. And the characters were *chef’s kiss* magnificent. All of them felt SO WELL ROUNDED. They acted like real people and I didn’t always know what their next step was going to be or what was going on inside their head. As with real human beings, I could hazard a guess and project my own experiences on these characters to try and understand why they did what they did and what they were thinking. It was so interesting to me to have characters who I am not always being told the exact motives of. Sometimes you never learn why people do things or what impact their actions and the actions of others has on them and I think it is okay to never learn that about characters sometimes too. Every character, even the loathsome ones felt like they could have been real people. On another note, I never knew much of anything about the Chinese immigrants to America during the late 1800s. I had no idea what some of the issues they faced were and it was incredibly fascinating to learn. Much of the time we see race issues in the history of America as just being black and white, but there was and is so much more to it and this book does a good job of showing that. I am so glad to have read this book and I highly recommend it. Please give it a read! Well, I’m off to write to Miss Sweetie for advice! Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33224061-the-downstairs-girl
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I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Corrie, isn't this website primarily for reviewing books? Why the heck are you making so many sub par YouTube videos? And why haven't you reviewed any books in so long? Huh? Huh? You think I come here to hear you say 'and then' and 'but anyways' and 'regardless' twenty times per video? I do not!" And to that I say... it takes me a lot less time to film a video than it does to read a book these days, but I promise I'm working on it! By working on it I mean that I am reading a book currently that falls into the usual parameters for a book that I would review (meaning it isn't a graphic novel or classic or a nonfiction book). So hopefully soon you'll have an honest to goodness book review again. But in the meantime, here is another video that I had a lot of fun making: You know, they're called book tags because people are supposed to tag you to do them... but that hasn't stopped me yet! Most of my BookTube content is probably going to be tags because I'm literally just doing this to have a good time and that's what I think of as fun so... they say to cater to your audience and I am the majority of my audience. Basically, I DO WHAT I WANT MWAHAHAHA. Anywhoozle... I have just finished filming another fun BookTube video, feel free to check it out! :) |
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