My review of The Girls in the Stilt House is for the novel by Kelly Mustian that appeared in 2021. It’s the story of Ada and Matilda, two young women who grow up poor in 1920s Mississippi.

The young ladies live on the Natchez Trace in a swampy area (that’s why the house needs stilts) that is home to a variety of people. All are poor, except the Creedle family, who owns a plantation and exploits sharecroppers. The isolation of the area means a number of secrets lie buried. And, given that the scene is 1920s Mississippi, the law is whatever local white people say it is.

Plot

If you read much historical fiction featuring African Americans, the plot of this story will feel familiar. In fact, it comes from page one of the playbook on African American historical fiction. Ada is white. Matilda is black. Their lives intertwine, their individual secrets bringing them together as they make choices that will alter both their fates forever, in an unforgettable, irresistible, unputdownable, uplifting, heartwarming story of overcoming obstacles and reaching their dreams. (Did I overdo it on the sarcasm? Is unputdownable even a word? Anyway, you get the idea. The plot is very stock.) This is, almost literally, the plot of an entire subgenre of historical fiction books.

You think I exaggerate? Here’s a taste of the book’s description on its Amazon sales page. “As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.”

Okay, so the book’s framework isn’t original at all. That being said, was the book worth reading despite that?

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Review of The Girls in the Stilt House – The Good Parts

To my pleasant surprise, I found many. The reader gets a good feel for small town life in the South in the early 20th century. This is not the genteel South of movies, however. This is the rural, hardscrabble, wretchedly poor South that was the reality for most Southerners, black or white, for most of Southern history.

The thing the book did best was to drive home the difference between the poor. What I mean is that whites, no matter how poor, could lord their whiteness over blacks. No matter how illiterate, dirty, and good-for-nothing their lives were, Mississippi whites could treat blacks like trash without consequence. Even to the point of murder. Not only is this historical fact, it also provided many diverse ways to move the plot forward.

Mustian also did a quality job of making the environment and setting matter. Living in a cypress swamp is not something with which most readers are familiar. I’ve read just one book set in similar circumstances. I thought she did justice to giving the reader a good feel for this setting.

Finally, the story itself was engaging. Not very original, like I wrote above, but engaging all the same. I read the book quickly and it only bogged down briefly in a couple spots.

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Review of The Girls in the Stilt House – The Less Good Parts

To my pleasant surprise, I found few. The only substantial thing that comes to mind is why Ada accepted Matilda into her life so easily. Ada’s father Virgil carried deep racial prejudice. Why Ada does not is never explained to much satisfaction.

Perhaps the author was going for the “our common problems bring us together more than our color separates us” line of thinking. Plus, lead characters with racial prejudice probably don’t sell that many books in 2022. But was this realistic in 1920s Mississippi? Whites and blacks living there had had common economic problems for decades. They never united to resist their oppressors. So, Ada’s attitude seems doubtful. At least, not without a better explanation of why this unusual circumstance prevails.

Maybe authors feel that racial cooperation is important to set an example for modern America. Hard to say. But this was the main aspect of the book I wasn’t comfortable with from a believability standpoint.

Mustian is also what I call a “lookeye” writer. Her characters have an uncanny ability to correctly interpret eye movement and glances. I’m not sure about this. As a former teacher/professor, I can verify that it’s easy to do wrong. However, in 1920s Mississippi, doing this correctly was a critical skill for African Americans. So, maybe a problem, maybe not on this one. It’ll depend on the reader.

Who Might Enjoy the Book

This book should appeal to lots of historical fiction readers, women in particular. The characters show some growth and the problems they face are substantial. The atmosphere of the book fits the story well. The villains are amply villainous. If you enjoy books set in unusual places, that’s another plus. Likewise for people who want to meet characters with a very different way of life from their own. Assuming you enjoy historical fiction, the only big turn-off for this book is that you’ve probably read something like it before in terms of plot structure. Otherwise, the writing and execution of the story were usually quite good.

I rate this one of the better novels I’ve reviewed on my blog. Hopefully my review of The Girls in the Stilt House has done it justice.

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