September 1, 2024
Eckstine debuts with a story set during the Civil War as the 16-year-old and enslaved Junie sees a new threat in her life, triggering the ghost of her dead sister and presenting her with choices that limn questions of love and power. Prepub Alert.
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December 9, 2024
In Eckstine’s finely crafted debut, an enslaved teen girl uncovers secrets about her family in 1860 Alabama. Junie labors with several relatives on a plantation, which is being run into the ground by its alcoholic owner, William McQueen. When Junie’s older sister, Minnie, dies of fever after rescuing Junie from a river she’d fallen into, she’s wracked with guilt. Junie serves as maid to William’s 17-year-old daughter, Violet, whom William and his wife hope will marry wealthy Louisiana cotton merchant Beauregard Taylor. Junie learns that if the marriage goes through, she’ll be forced to accompany Violet to New Orleans and leave her family behind. Distraught, she makes a late-night visit to Minnie’s grave. When she opens the small jar of Minnie’s favorite things left there by her relatives, she inadvertently summons Minnie’s ghost. It turns out Minnie is caught in the In-Between, which holds the spirits of Black people who have left their earthly missions undone. Minnie asks Junie to help free her spirit by locating a small box she has hidden in the plantation house. Junie succeeds, and finds evidence that her family and the McQueens are linked in ways she never imagined, which, along with news of Violet’s engagement, drive her desire to escape. The complex plot and righteous protagonist will keep readers turning the pages. Eckstine evokes the earthly and supernatural to equally powerful effect in this richly layered tale.
February 15, 2025
On the eve of the Civil War, an enslaved Black teen awakens her sister's ghost and embarks on a dangerous journey to freedom in this debut novel. For 16-year-old Junie, the cotton plantation of Bellereine in Lowndes County, Alabama, is the only home she's known. In the summer of 1860, the enslaved teenager spends her days working as a house servant with her bossy cousin, Bess, and tending to the needs of Violet McQueen, the redheaded only daughter of the plantation's white owners. Junie illicitly wanders the local woods at night, mourning her recently deceased older sister, Minnie. It was Minnie who had tried to curb Junie's carefree spirit, which was a source of tension among older relatives fearful of drawing unwanted attention from the master. The arrival of the wealthy Taylor siblings from Louisiana suggests the possibility of a match for Violet and exile for Junie as Violet's maid. To avoid this catastrophe, Junie commits a desperate act that raises Minnie's ghost from the grave and propels Junie down a dangerous path toward liberation. Drawing on her own family's history as outlined in a note at the end of the book, Eckstine offers a compelling portrait of the psychological, emotional, and social degradations of slavery. If Junie is naive about her status in the novel's early chapters, she grows determined and resilient as she realizes the true nature of her "friendship" with Violet and the impossibility of her life as an enslaved person on the plantation. Clunkers (characters "smirk" at least nine times) and anachronistic language (Violet curses like a sailor) occasionally mar the lush prose, but Eckstine is a talented writer to watch. Featuring a spirited protagonist, this compelling mix of the historical and the supernatural will resonate.
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Starred review from February 1, 2025
Growing up enslaved on an Alabama cotton plantation, Junie is often called carefree by her older sister Minnie, but it's not a compliment. Taught to read and treated as a confidante by the McQueens' only daughter, Violet, 16-year-old Junie is impetuous and romantic, seeking ""the sublime"" described by her favorite poet, Wordsworth. After Minnie's sudden death, Junie struggles to take her sister's place as a maid in the McQueen house. Plagued by nightmares and secret remorse, Junie returns again and again to the site of Minnie's death. The McQueen family is also in disarray. At risk of losing their land, Mr. McQueen schemes to make an advantageous match for his only daughter. Junie is conflicted about the impending marriage; as Violet's maid, she will be sent to live with her mistress, far away from her family. Seeking a way out, she inadvertently conjures up the troubled spirit of her dead sister. As Junie uncovers hard truths about her family and the McQueens, she struggles to figure out where her loyalties lie. Eckstine combines the lyricism of Jesmyn Ward and Toni Morrison with the speculative historical fiction of Tananarive Due and Leslye Penelope in a stunning debut that will also appeal to fans of Percival Everett's James (2024).
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