The first half was incredibly slow to the point where I almost quit. It got better towards the very end.

3 Stars

Content: one off-page kiss, a naked man, racism ( )

I preordered this book last year, but it sat in my TBR until I got around to it this year for #asianreadathon and... I definitely should've gotten to this earlier because I love it! It covers #2 for me: read a book featuring an Asian character or by an Asian author similar to you, and both the protagonist Jo and I are Chinese American girls from the South y'all. I *really* liked this, because I adore historical fiction and this is a protagonist I can fit myself into too (and in an era with pretty hats).

There's a fair amount of plot threads going on (Jo's Miss Sweetie column and staying anonymous, her working relationship with Caroline and the Payne family, keeping their household hidden, wondering who Shang is, what's Old Gin up to, etc.) and they do get woven together like an elaborate Chinese cord knot. Jo is witty and often has a hard time filtering her tongue which is very relatable. YA protagonists have teenage feelings and it's nice that they're present here but also not stupidly boneheaded. Race in America is often literally black and white, so as a minority of a minority it's hard to tell where we're supposed to be if anywhere, especially in structurally rigid Reconstruction South (more often than not in cases like the novel, Asian Americans are more of a curiosity than considered actual people :| also, resonant in 2020!) Also: historical white feminism with the suffragettes! There's a lot in the book I really liked.

A couple brief references to the bachelor Chinese community in Augusta tickles me because that's where my maternal side hails from- periodically videos about the Mississippi Delta Chinese American community make the social media rounds and people are often like, "it's weird to see thick Southern drawls out of a Chinese face" and to me that's... normal? Because that's literally how a lot of my aunties and uncles talk, also my mom? I just find it incredibly wonderful to be represented in this very specific context. ( )

Jo and Old Jim (the man who took her in as a baby when her parents abandoned her) secretly live in the basement of a newspaper print shop. During the day they both work for the same family – Old Jim as a stable hand, and Jo as a lady’s maid to the family’s daughter. But after working hours, Jo starts writing an advice column for the upstairs paper and manages to keep the secret of her identity along with her residence. The revelation of either one would be ruinous, since the people of Atlanta would hardly stand to be given advice by a young Chinese woman. As she is stirring up the public with her opinions on freedoms for women (including the right to vote and to ride a bicycle), she also sets out on another secret mission: to unfold the mystery of the old letter she’s found among Old Jim’s things, which may lead her to discovering just who her parents were and why they left her.

An engaging-enough story, and the characters are interesting, but the ending is way too pat and rushed, and that took away from the overall goodness. I did enjoy the way bits of the advice column are interspersed with the narrative in a way that mirrors what’s going on in the plot. ( )

I found The Downstairs Girl on a list of banned books and gave it a try. None of the content struck me as worth banning it... dark times when we strive to ban books.

I didn't know the history of Asian-Americans/Asians in early America, and I'm glad to have read this historical fiction to have gleaned some insight.

I really enjoyed this one! Jo is fiery and opinionated and relatively unafraid to show it - she handles her position in life with careful grace and does it so well! My only complaint is that it took SOOO long for the main conflict to come to a head that the end felt really rushed and a little unsatisfying. ( )