It Happened in Silence by Karla M. Jay

The book is set around 1921 in the south.  We follow three lead characters throughout the book:  Willow Stewart, a fifteen year old mute girl; Briar Stewart, Willow's twenty-one year old brother, who has been out on his own for about a year, working his way across the country; and Mrs. Ardith Dobbs, an evil woman involved with WKKK, Women's Klu Klux Klan organization.  
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Willow has been sent down from her homeplace at Stewart Mountain in the Appalachian Mountains to the nearest town with a preacher, to bring him back to perform her baby brother's funeral service.  She gets sidetracked through no fault of her own, and eventually runs into her oldest brother Briar.

Briar Stewart has been pressed into a chain gang, for having less than $1.00 in his pocket, while in town.  He has eventually worked up to the position of Trustee, where he is allowed more freedoms, than a regular inmate.  He is working in a lumber camp, under a sadistic guard named Taggert.

Mrs. Ardith Dobbs is the wife of a prominent advertising executive in Marietta, Georgia.  She has a five year old son and is also very pregnant.  Ardith thinks that she's too good for everyone around her and smarter than everyone.  She has dealings with an unscrupulous baby farm, as she attempts to pass off more lies.  She's always getting into horrible scrapes that are very damaging to those around her, but she barely manages to lie her way through them.  One day, it all catches up to her.  She is a member and the treasurer for WKKK, Women's Klu Klux Klan.

The Stewart siblings come together at Ardith's home as Ardith's lies are catching up to her and threatening everything she holds dear.

The book is dedicated to all those who do and have suffered unspeakable horrors because of the small mindedness of the society around them.

This time in our history is very shameful, for the way others are treated, because when you get down to the basics of life, all people are the same color once you peel back their skin.

Many thanks to IBPA Publishing and NetGalley for the complimentary copy, I was under no obligation to post a review.

In the hands of a talented author, historical fiction shines a deep and effective light on so much we don't know. IT HAPPENED IN SILENCE is a heartbreaking, intensely compelling look into a totally ugly era of History, one of which we are rightfully ashamed, yet an era which simultaneously produced the glorious inspiration that was young Helen Keller, and the heroine (in every sense) of this novel, the mute15-year-old girl, Willow. An extraordinary story indeed.

Blood makes you Kin, Loyalty makes you family

An awesome story, filled with the experience of the Appalachian way of life, the shadow of the Ku Klux Klan, and the sorrowful story of the baby farms that cropped up during the depression.

This book follows an Appalachian family in Georgia. The main characters in the story are Willow and Briar Stewart. Mrs. Ardith also is a prominent character in the story. The setting time period is the 1930's during the depression era.

The story is written in different chapters following the three characters of Willow, Briar, and Mrs. Ardith. The first half of the book follows the adventures of Willow and Briar after leaving Stewart Mountain. The second half still follow the Stewart siblings, but now Mrs. Ardith comes into the picture and the storyline of Baby farms and the Ku Klux Klan come into play as well as the great train wreck in Missouri.

I like the book because the characters speak the language of the mountain people. The stories and superstitions, the herbs and natural medicines. Most of all the contentment and love of family, kin, and neighbors. The customs they follow and how they live.

It is interesting on how the families involved with the Ku Klux Klan were all for the Klan, but one mistake, one thing that any of them did to anger or embarrass the Klan and they were banned, not only banned but destroyed. How they had to spy on their town, and their neighbors and find people that were doing things not okay by the Klan and they were beaten and sometimes murdered.

I was surprised to learn that young men like Briar could be arrested for having less than a dollar and sentence to two years on the chain gang. The information on the chain gang was new to me as I knew little of this practice.

It was an interesting time in history. It was revealing and page turning. The ending was perfect. I would like to see a second book following the characters, the Stewart family, Ardith's husband and Oliver, and the Russian boy that Briar rescued from the chain gang. I would recommend this book.

Thanks to Karla M. Jay, IBPA Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of the book for an honest review.

This historical novel, set in Georgia in 1921, has three first-person narrators.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Stewart is mute and so communicates by writing. She leaves her Appalachian homestead tasked with finding a preacher to bury her baby brother but she also wants to find her oldest brother Briar to convince him to come home. Thus begins a journey that takes her much further than planned with more than one misadventure. The second narrator is twenty-year-old Briar Stewart. Serving a sentence in penal servitude, he wants to do nothing to jeopardize his freedom in four months. When he encounters an immigrant boy in dire straits, he risks that freedom by trying to help. Ardith Dobbs, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is the third narrator. Though she hides secrets about her past, she is proud of and open about her involvement with an organization, the Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK). Eventually events bring together these three characters.

There is considerable suspense, especially concerning Willow. She encounters unscrupulous people and people who claim to have her best interests in mind but disregard her wishes. More than once she is in considerable danger. Briar also finds himself in danger several times because Taggert, the work gang supervisor, is a cruel and unpredictable person who rules the workers with an iron fist.

What I found most interesting is the information about the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. I had not known about this group which held many of the same political and social ideas of the KKK. The women of the WKKK in the novel support the KKK by reporting behaviour that is at odds with their extreme racist and intolerant views. Ardith repeats the vow she took to become a member: “I pay attention. I report. . . . We are against northerners, blacks, Jews, schoolteachers, Catholics, Mormons, labor radicals, immigrants, bootleggers, theatre owners, dance hall operators, and feminists.”

Some of Ardith’s beliefs will make the reader more than a bit uncomfortable, and that’s the point. She believes that “the excessive mortality rates in the American Negro were not due to their daily conditions of life but was an inherent racial trait” and “Colored gals can tolerate pain better than white women. I mean, everyone knows that.” She celebrates the unjust laws which punish a white woman for miscegenation: “Thanks to the civilized laws of our land, her mother is confined to an insane asylum in Virginia for having relations with a blackie.” Though a black woman is raped by a white man, Ardith blames the woman, asserting that she is sexually promiscuous.

Willow is the most engaging character. Because she is mute, people tend to underestimate her intelligence. She is a kind person whose love of family motivates her. Briar, despite his missteps in life and his “protective shell,” is much like his sister. Other characters, however, are not realistic; they tend to be totally good or totally evil. Taggart and Ardith, for example, seem to have no redeeming qualities, whereas Ilya has nary a flaw.

There are several examples of plot contrivance. There are coincidences where characters come together at convenient times; several characters manage to make unlikely escapes; and there is a deus ex machina rescue. The ending also stretches credulity. Are we to take Taggert’s fate seriously? And was the suggestion of romance really needed?

In terms of style, it is the many country comparisons or “corny sayings” that stand out: “as heartless as a chicken gizzard” and “Prettier than a mess of fried catfish” and “She was the freshness in the air after a fast-moving rainstorm. The sugar in the rhubarb pie” and “crazier than an outhouse fly” and “useless as the H in ghost.”

In the Author’s Note, there are explanatory notes and non-fiction reading suggestions for subjects which appear in the novel: the WKKK, baby farms, chain gangs, and hobos. It is obvious that the author did considerable research and her intention to give voice to those “silenced through fear, injustice, or discrimination” is admirable, but plot contrivance and unrealistic characterization weaken the quality of the book.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"Mute since birth, fifteen-year-old Willow Stewart has one task to complete—to leave her Appalachian homestead and find a traveling preacher and her brother, Briar." And so much more happened!! This is a must read for fans of Southern Lit.

Really good book. I love the way the writing flows, the story is knit together tightly and the characters are interesting. This is the first I've read of this author but it is certainly not going to be the last.

4.25☆

A wonderful book. Shameful histories are exposed, cultural norms are challenged and an unlikely hero comes to the fore. The prose is almost poetic with intricate descriptions and an approach to dialogue which highlights the challenges of communicating when you literally have no voice.