The House Is On Fire – Stephanie Caffrey, Author

This book was okay. I expected a deeper story about Briseis and the other women, but all I got was something very surface level. The POV and tense made the story feel very cold and distant. The addition of Achilles POV really irked me. You don’t advertise a book as a feminist retelling and have half the book from a male’s POV. And this wasn’t so much as a “re-telling” it was basically the Iliad. After having read Song of Achilles, which was amazing, this book really fell flat.

I read this as an ARC, and reviewed it separately! You can read my in-depth review here.

Obligatory re-read (or re-listen, rather) before watching the Prime series. Loved the book just as much as the first time, possibly even more. This book is probably one of my favorite books of all time. It is everything I love put into a book: 70s Rock, Behind the Music, strong female characters. Camila is and always will be my favorite character. If you haven’t read this yet, get the audiobook, it’s read by a full cast, and then watch the show on Prime.

After starting the month with a couple duds, it was really refreshing to read this one. Fortunes is a fun, light story about generations of a Vietnamese Family “cursed” to only have daughters. The story really shed a light on the relationships between mothers and daughters, especially in immigrant families. The book made me laugh out loud, and it made me cry. (BOTM)

A cookbook with history! This was a very interesting read about the history of the state of Iowa through the quintessential food of the state. I learned so much I didn’t know before, AND I now have some iconic recipes I can’t wait to try out.

Levi is easily one of my favorite romance protagonists in a long time. Bearded, socially awkward, the best. Georgie and Levi’s chemistry was on fire, and I really bought into the premise. the book was really cute and I devoured it in the matter of one day. (BOTM)

Another ARC review you can check out here.

Book club picks with my sisters are often hit or miss (see: Silence of the Girls above), but this one? Hit. I loved this book. LOVED. The romace! The Science! The CLIFFHANGER! Hazel is such a great character – her drive, her gumption, her independce while staying within the confines of the time period. The slow, tender love story between her and Jack was so beautiful. I was completely enthralled and didn’t want to put the book down.

A difficult, but necessary read, Stamped is a powerful, eye-opening book about the history of racism in America. As a history major, I thought I knew everything, but I really didn’t. There was so much I didn’t know. It was upsetting to learn how much politicians throughout history have sytematically built in ways to discriminate against Black people. Also, how many films were “disguised” racism. This book should be required reading in school.

Another ARC. This was the best book I read all month, and a contender for best book I’ve read all year. You can read all about why I thought so here.

Even though it was basically Orient Express but on a boat, the mystery was still good enought to keep me interested. I honestly had no idea who had done it.

Having loved the movie as a kid, I decided to finally read the book. I was not disappointed. It was so good, and the movie adaptation was very faithful to the text. Reading this book was like being wrapped in a warm blanket. It made me so happy.

THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE by RACHEL BEANLAND

Release Date: April 4, 2023

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book. I am giving this honest review freely.

The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland is a historical fiction set around the 1811 Richmond theater fire. What? You haven’t heard of the fire? Neither had I until I read this book. I probably would have plowed my way through this book without putting it down, except I had to go research more about this fire. This book definitely sent me down a rabbit hole. Which I loved.

The book follows four distinct characters: Sally, a young widow who is attending the theater with her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Cicely, a slave girl attending the theater with the daughter of her master, Jack, a young stage hand backstage during the play, and Gilbert, a slave who dreams of buying his and his wife’s freedom. The fire changed these four characters’ lives forever.

Fire is a beautifully written and well-researched book. Sally and Gilbert were real people actually involved in the fire. Cicely and Jack were based on real people. The story is definitely a fictionalized version of events, but there is so much historical accuracy, it reads almost like a series of first-hand accounts of the night.

Beanland really delves deep into the issues that women and slaves dealt with in 1811, not very many years after the United States gained their freedom from Britain. You can’t help but feel for Sally, Gilbert and Cicely as they navigate the obstacles they face as they navigate the days following the fire.

I absolutely loved this book. My degree is in US History, however, I had never heard of this event. Beanland not only drew me into the narrative of the story, which was enthralling, she inspired me to do my own research into the event. The characters felt so real, which they were, they were real people, but Beanland still made these names that can often feel two dimensional in a historical document become three-dimensional characters.

If you enjoy historical fiction, I recommend you pick up this book when it comes out. Rumor is this will be an April Book of the Month selection, so this could also be a wonderful opportunity to try that service out, if you’ve been interested.

Tag: The House Is On Fire

March 2023 Reads

Book Review: The House is On Fire by Rachel Beanland