It’s 1936 Georgia, and seventeen-year-old Opal Pruitt works alongside her Granny Birdie as cook and housekeeper for Miss Peggy and her family—her daughter, Mss Corinne, and her college-age grandson, Jimmy Earl. She even has a crush on Jimmy Earl, but he is white and lives in Parsons while she is colored and lives three miles away, in Colored Town.
Jimmy warns Granny Birdie that the Ku Klux Klan will be “visiting” Colored Town. Some think the best response is to stay inside, while others believe they should fight. As When Stars Rain Down shows, both answers have merit … and both answers have issues.
Yes, When Stars Rain Down is a novel about racists and racism.
The author has a strong voice that brings out the difference between the characters in a way that feels natural yet is still easy to read, despite the difficult subject matter. We need more novels like this to be published and read. In particular, we need more novels from own voices or BIPOC authors … authors who have lived these experiences and can share their own feelings and reactions. As Opal says:
I didn’t want to hear another voice of another white person try to tell me my feelings weren’t mine to feel.
It’s not always an easy read, but it’s also not easy to stop reading. It’s a compelling read that shows some of the difficulties of being born Colored in the South in a when the Ku Klux Klan were openly active, when everyone knew who hid under the masks but no one did anything. Mostly.
It would be nice to think these kind of activities have been relegated to victory, but as I write this review, a white teenager has just livestreamed himself opening fire in a supermarket and killing ten Black people. The Ku Klux Klan may not exist in the same way as they did in 1930s Georgia, but the attitudes haven’t changed and the violence has only become worse.
But the novel is also uplifting, particularly as Opal, her grandmother, and many other residents of Colored Town show and life their Christian faith. Recommended.
Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing an ebook for review.
About Angela Jackson-Brown
Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is a member of the graduate faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. In the fall semester of 2022, she will be joining the creative writing program at Indiana University Bloomington as an associate professor. Angela is a graduate of Troy University, Auburn University, and the Spalding low-residency MFA program in creative writing. She has published her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in journals like the Louisville Courier Journal and Appalachian Review.
She is the author of Drinking from a Bitter Cup, House Repairs, When Stars Rain Down, and the upcoming novel The Light Always Breaks. When Stars Rain Down is a highly acclaimed novel that received a starred review from Library Journal and glowing reviews from Alabama Public Library, Buzzfeed, Parade magazine, and Woman’s Weekly. It was also a finalist for the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American historical fiction.
Find Angela Jackson-Brown online at:
About When Stars Rain Down
The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming 18th birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. She and her Grandma Birdie work as housekeepers for the white widow Miss Peggy, and Opal desperately wants some time to be young and carefree with her cousins and friends.
But when the Ku Klux Klan descends on Opal’s neighborhood, the tight-knit community is shaken in every way possible. Parsons’s residents—both Black and white—are forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their post-Reconstruction era town. To complicate matters, Opal finds herself torn between two unexpected romantic interests—the son of her pastor, Cedric Perkins, and the white grandson of the woman she works for, Jimmy Earl Ketchums. Both young men awaken emotions Opal has never felt before.
Faced with love, loss, and a harsh awakening to an ugly world, Opal holds tight to her family and faith—and the hope for change.
You can find When Stars Rain Down online at:
Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads
