
I requested this ARC, with little hope of receiving it, because it’s about a historical event: the 1811 Richmond Theater fire that cost the lives of over 70 people.
Reader beware: graphic descriptions of rape and other physical abuse of a Black enslaved girl by a white man; forced and violent incest; exploration of the physical and mental torture of enslavement; racism, both ‘casual’/quotidian, and the rabid, seething kind; ditto for antisemitism and misogyny.
Also, it’s narrated in third person present tense; the writing worked exceedingly well for me, but I absolutely recommend reading the sample first.
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