Saturday Review: “Swamp Girls In Trouble: Class, Race, and The Patriarchy In The Prohibition-era South” a review by Dennis R. Turner, Jr. of The Girls in the Stilt House. by Kelly Mustian (2021) in NCLR Online Winter 2024
Mustian’s debut novel has already garnered much attention and acclaim, including being shortlisted for the 2021 Crook’s Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the South. Turner says, “Through this reluctant partnership of women bound by their misfortunes and needs, themes of race, class, and gender inequality are explored, but Mustian does not forget she is telling an old-fashioned Southern crime story.”
Turner’s review highlights the characters and societal issues in the story, rather than the plot points, so no worries about spoilers. Ada and Matilda, the two young women main characters, forge a friendship in 1923 across class and race lines. “Mustian points out that though we may be different in many ways, we can get further by working together against common obstacles and enemies.” Turner writes, “Mustian’s story is an ode to female grit in the face of adversity and a reminder that bygone days in the South were not so rosy if you were not white and male.” A reminder that as far as we’ve come 100 years later, we still have far to go.
Read the entire review in the Online Winter 2024 issue out now! And order the book from Bookshop.org.
