Author: Justina Ireland
Genre: historical fiction
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Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): Ophelia Harrison used to live in a small house in the Georgia countryside. But that was before the night in November 1922, and the cruel act that took her home and her father from her. Which was the same night that Ophie learned she can see ghosts.
Now Ophie and her mother are living in Pittsburgh with relatives they barely know. In the hopes of earning enough money to get their own place, Mama has gotten Ophie a job as a maid in the same old manor house where she works.
Daffodil Manor, like the wealthy Caruthers family who owns it, is haunted by memories and prejudices of the past—and, as Ophie discovers, ghosts as well. Ghosts who have their own loves and hatreds and desires, ghosts who have wronged others and ghosts who have themselves been wronged. And as Ophie forms a friendship with one spirit whose life ended suddenly and unjustly, she wonders if she might be able to help—even as she comes to realize that Daffodil Manor may hold more secrets than she bargained for.
My opinion: The general direction of this plot is pretty obvious from early on, but that's okay. In spite of predictability, the characters and atmosphere are well enough developed to make for a compelling read. We have a family broken by tragedy, held down by poverty and cruelty. Their situation is directly contrasted by the family they work for, a privileged family with no close ties. There's no affection at Daffodil manor, just carefully orchestrated roles. Even more importantly for a modern reader, the racism Ophie encounters isn't all in-you-face white-supremacy. She meets with a lot of micro-aggression, subtle slights that make her uncomfortable but for which she has no defenses. This provides a lot of opportunity for discussion with young readers. There are short chapters written from the perspective of the city, houses, the trolley, that take us out of the flow of the narrative but this is ultimately a minor annoyance rather than a real problem.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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