Thursday, October 28, 2021

Lots of labels: YA + historical + fiction

 The Downstairs Girl

by Stacey Lee

Very unusual and entertaining story of a young girl living with her uncle (or some older relative) in a cellar under a newspaper office. No one knows they're there, and no one must ever know, because they are Asian in a time and place when Asians are not welcome. San Francisco, maybe?  I don't remember exactly where. The time was the turn of the century.

It's hard to tell any more without spoilers, but I'll say only that it was just scary enough to be realistic but not so much to keep it away from a younger audience. I, of course, am way out of the target audience age, but still I enjoyed it very much. The author had a clever turn of plotting and a decent facility at creating characters I really wanted to spend time with. And that says it.

No comments: