The House is on Fire

The House Is On Fire by Rachel Beanland 384 pages

 

I first learned of this book on a Facebook page (Book Chat with Debbie Monterrey + St. Louis Public Library). Fascinating interview between the host and author, which is still available on the Page..

 

Based on a true story, this novel is about a fire at a Richmond, Virginia, theater on December 26, 1811. At the time, this was the deadliest disaster in U.S. history with seventy-two dead. It is told from the points of view of four people, which gives the story a more comprehensive view of exactly what occurred that night.

 

The first speaker is Sally Henry Campbell. Newly widowed, Sally is glad to be among people and lay her grief aside for a few hours. She sits in a third-row box. Second is Cecily Patterson, a slave who isn’t interested in the play but is chaperoning her mistress, sits in the colored gallery. Next is Gilbert, a slave and one of the few people in Richmond not attending the performance. Finally there is Jack Gibson, a teenage stagehand, who works backstage moving the sets and backdrops.

 

It doesn’t take long for something horrible to go wrong.  When the performance is suddenly stopped and the words “the house is on fire,” ring from the stage, the entire audience panics. Everyone rushes to try to get out. The fire spreads quickly. Some internal exits disappear into the roaring flame (the staircase on one side of the theater). Those on the third floor are forced to jump.

 

As the novel progresses, readers get all sides of the story. It is a harrowing story, and I don’t want to give away too much. It is a story that I couldn’t put down. That is why The House Is On Fire receives 6 out of 5.

 

 

Veil of Doubt

Veil of Doubt by Sharon Virts 410 pages

 

Set in Virginia in 1872, “Veil of Doubt” tells the story of Emily Lloyd, a widow who is accused of murdering her youngest child, three-year-old Maud. Her death is gruesome and hard to watch. And what’s even more ghastly is that Maud’s autopsy takes place on her deathbed, right in front of Emily. (I admit I gagged a couple of times.)

 

Unfortunately, Emily is no stranger to death. Her other three children, her aunt and her husband have all mysteriously died. Maud’s death is the last straw. The authorities, and indeed the entire town, are convinced that there is something deeply wrong with the woman.

 

Her lawyer is Powell Harrison, a family who has recently returned to help his brother run his father’s law practice. When Powell is approached to defend Emily, he initially declines. He wants no part of it. But he relents, believing his strategy will be insanity. But as the investigation dives deeper and deeper, Powell is not so sure that she is insane. He believes that a prior traumatic event muddled her brain. It’s a slippery slope, but as his brother tells him, “you promised to defend her. You made no promise to defend the truth. It's not up to you to prove she is responsible for the deaths of her children or not.” 

 

“Veil of Doubt” got off to a slow start for me. Watching Maud die and Emily’s time in prison made for some difficult reading. But as the book progressed, I found it harder and harder to put down. As facts and the truth are uncovered, it’s obvious that Emily is not in her right mind. Or is she? I’m glad I was not one of the jurors; I vacillated between guilty and innocent from one page to the next. There are shocking and more shocking revelations as the story progresses. A shocking surprise ending made this novel worth the read. I think I gasped at least once every page of the trial. So many surprises and twists. And it was worth it!

 

“Veil of Doubt” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

NOTE: “Veil of Doubt” is based on a true crime.

 

 

Yellow Wife

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson  288 pages

I came of age when the Old South was in its final death throes, and I was no stranger to the horror stories of slavery. This well-researched, oftentimes hard to read, story evokes those stories that I heard as a kid.

Pheby Delores Brown lives on the Bell Plantation in Virginia with her mother, Ruth.  Sired by Master Jacob, he has promised Ruth that Pheby would be educated and freed on her eighteenth birthday. Pheby believes that she will have a good life and is in love with one of the other slaves, Essex Henry. But after her mother dies and Jacob is away traveling on business, Jacob’s wife, Miss Delphina, decides that the uppity young woman must learn that she is in charge.

Delphina sells Pheby to a notorious slave trader, Rubin Lapier, who reigns over Devil’s Half Acre, an infamous jail in Richmond where slaves are taken to be sold or to have their spirits broken. The beatings and whippings, described in minute detail, some of the slaves must endure is the stuff of nightmares. After a torturous walk from the Bell Plantation in Charles City to Richmond, Pheby is chosen by Rubin to be his mistress.

Pheby is treated better than most as Rubin sets her up with sewing clothes for the incoming slaves, especially the ones who he puts to work as prostitutes. Rubin wastes no time in making Pheby is mistress. As the year go by, Pheby longs for the promises of education and freedom that were denied her and she longs for her one true love, Essex.

By the time Essex is brought to the jail, Pheby has had several children with Rubin; Children he dotes on. They are raised in his home where Pheby now lives and sleeps in a bedroom across the hall from Rubin. He even introduces her as the the Mistress of the Jail.

But Pheby cannot forget the man who has her heart, and she does whatever she can to make things better for him.

Author Johnson does not shy away from the realities of slavery, from the fears of being sold to harsher masters, from the fear of the whip and from the fear of familial separation that haunt a slave’s every waking and sleeping minute.

This is not an easy book to read. I swear as I read, I could hear the crack of the whip, the screams as flesh is torn open.

I was disappointed in the ending. It seemed like Johnson got tired of writing and just wound it up. I was planning on giving Yellow Wife 6 out of 5 stars, but the ending forced me to lower its rating to 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

The Shore

The Shore by Sara Taylor  303 pages

 

I’m not sure how to classify Sara Taylor’s debut novel, The Shore. It’s part contemporary fiction, part historical fiction, and part futuristic fiction. Maybe this is one of those times that literary fiction fits the bill. as I was reading, it did remind me of Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio.

 

Told in related vignettes, these are the stories of those who live on a remote group of three islands off the coast of Virginia.  At times, the islands have a significant population and at times the population is so low it’s not worth counting. The population makes up three classes of people: the wealthy vacationers, those who work on the mainland, and those who are so poor that those who inhabit the Appalachian Mountains seem rich. However, Taylor focuses her stories on that lowest rung.

 

At the beginning, there is a complicated genealogy chart that became easier to decipher as I read. The first story is about Chloe and Renee. It’s a heartbreaking tale of abuse, poverty, and childhood. Chloe narrates this episode that has a shocking conclusion.

 

After the first narrative, I found it difficult to figure who exactly who was narrating, but usually by the time I read each chapter’s end, I could figure it out. However, (there’s that troublesome word again) in the chapters where the characters did not fit into the family tree, I had no idea who was talking.

 

I will admit that I only read about 10 pages of the last story. It takes place in 2143, and I couldn’t out how the characters fit in; they are not listed on the chart. I don’t feel like I missed anything by passing on the final few pages. 

 

I have mixed feelings about this novel. At times at I LOVED it; at times I HATED it.  That’s why I give The Shore 3 out of 5 stars.

 

 I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

 

Bliss House

Bliss House by Laura Benedict
400 Pages


 An old family mansion comes back into the family when Rainey Bliss Adams and her daughter move back to Virginia after a tragedy in Virginia.  The house seems to be helping her daughter Ariel recover from the burns that left her disfigured but things don't seem right.  Soon a murder starts to uncover a past in which the evil of the house seems to be a major factor.

While this gothic novel has all the right elements to be a hit, poor characterization frustrates the reader of this novel.  This plus many plot holes, diminish the effect of the story.