The Downstairs Girl

Happy end of August! For this month, I read The Downstairs Girl, written by Stacey Lee.

The novel follows Jo Kuan, a young Chinese girl living in Atlanta in the 1890s. While struggling to stand up and use her voice against racial and gender discrimination, Jo sends in anonymous agony aunt articles to her upstairs neighbors who happen to be the publishers and creators of a popular newspaper, the Focus. As her column grows popular, Jo finds herself writing on issues such as seat segregation, a woman's place in marriage, and voting rights for women. Jo also soon understands the reality of the women's suffrage movement when working for a wealthy paper mill family, and discovers its goals only cater to white women. Though as an Asian woman her rights are extremely limited, Jo's column gives her a brand new confidence that allows her to advocate for not just herself but all other women of colour.

I thought that The Downstairs Girl was an amazing and inspiring read that highlighted the intersectionality of gender and race as well as the exclusivity that is not as known in the suffrage movement.