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A brave and searing book that will make you angry, sad, appalled — and if you are at all like this reader, somewhat muddled about what is right and what is wrong, in a historical world where women (and children) are property, morality is a weapon, and power is in the hands of those few who have somehow managed to hang onto (or even propagate) their wealth.

The year is 1933, the location is Oxford, Mississippi, and the story is a fictionalized rendition of life, (as a woman, as a child, as a Black person, as a non-heteronormative, as one of the not-wealthy) living through the economic turmoil consuming the middle of the Great Depression. And what a hard life that is.

The story follows two main protagonists — Birdie Calhoun, a twenty-four year old, self-proclaimed ‘churchy and chinless’ single woman; and Meg LeFleur, an eleven year old orphan and urchin, abandoned by her much-loved mama at nine years old.

Birdie and Meg’s stories will intersect, winding and weaving through the six-hundred plus pages of this book that for this reader, did mostly interest, entertain, and as mentioned above, engage a host of emotions, many of which were not the least bit pleasant. For make no mistake, this is a harsh world and one that is (uncomfortably) at its core, in many ways not that different from our world today.

Exactly how Birdie and Meg will deal with their calamities (their powerlessness and its ramifications), and just how far they must take things — to reach the very edges of their survival, and then go beyond — is the stuff this book is made of.

A worthy read and a compelling one, recommended for those readers of historical fiction who are willing to take that deep dive into the worlds of the subjugated, and the courage and compassion needed to (just maybe) see them through it.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.