A widow. A slave. A freeman. A boy. Four different perspectives of one devastating night. Four harrowing days where life and freedom hang in the balance.

What’s to love?

I sometimes hear people say they couldn’t get into a book. I don’t think many readers will have that issue with The House Is On Fire by Rachel Beanland. Following introductory chapters for each of the four main characters, the book is…well…on fire!!! And Beanland’s masterful storytelling made me feel like I was right there amidst the flames with these characters. Talk about a page turner!

Amidst the fast-paced action, the characters are forced to make split-second decisions, choices between self-preservation and self-sacrifice, choices that will no doubt change the courses of their lives. And, of course, every choice leads to another…and another. Over the pages that follow the next three days, the reader discovers the true mettle of the characters including those who were actual historical figures. Only a few will emerge as heroes or heroines.

What’s to leave?

Rather than a plot line that slowly builds toward a climax near the end of the book, this story arc feels reversed. Beanland starts The House Is On Fire with a bang, almost literally, followed by the slow descent of embers into ash. And yet I guess that’s how it often happens with traumatic events as they play out in real life?

Perhaps this was brilliant poetic license on Beanland’s part? But, for me, the ending felt like a bit of a let down. I definitely did not want the stories of Sally, Cecily, Gilbert, and Jack to end.

What’s to learn?

Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of the Richmond Theater Fire of 1811, and Beanland provides a wealth of fascinating historic information about the theater, the players, the rescue attempts, and the aftermath. She also proposes an interesting and entirely plausible reason for why so many more women perished in the fire than men.

In a letter from the Placide Green Company to the people of Richmond, one character writes: “Our own loss can not be estimated but by ourselves.”

It’s a good reminder with so many tragedies in the news these days that no one experiences the same event in exactly the same way. To have an accurate picture we must examine all the perspectives. We can learn something from everyone, and we can value people’s experiences by realizing that no two are ever the same.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a DRC (digital review copy) of this title in return for my honest review.

Warning: This book contains description of a graphic nature, including death and sexual assault, and may not be appropriate for all readers.

I wanna say thank you to the publishers through Netgalley for access to the arc copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

5/5 <3

I genuinely loved this book! The story was well researched with the characters used, the level of medical knowledge, what it took for enslaved peoples to gain their freedom, and so many other things in between.

The way the story of the fire was told from different perspectives had me on the edge of my seat to see what would become of each person. I greatly enjoyed that she jumped right into the fire after initial introductions to several key characters you would see throughout the story. So much happens within the three day span of the book. You experience two women come to terms with a new view on the men in their lives, one who seizes the opportunity handed to her, a boy who must decide what kind of man he wants to try to be, and a man who is grappling with fighting for his family's freedom while a chunk of the town has labeled him a hero.

While not everyone got an on page hea, you weren't left feeling like there were loose ends that didn't get tied off. You're left with a sense of reality almost, a reminder that in a catastrophic event, or even daily life, not everyone gets their hea. Or if they do, it's not on the time frame we would hope it happens. The author does give information about each actual historical person characters were based on. Including what happens to them after the fire.

There's so much about this book I loved that I couldn't really pick a favorite part if I tried. I will definitely be recommending this book to people as well as picking up a physical copy to have and love.

🔥 The House Is on Fire - Rachel Beanland

5 ⭐️- Rachel, hi, it’s me, your new bestest fan. Has anyone see the show “Drunk History”? If not, highly recommend, but, it’s a show where drunk people tell lesser known historical stories. Beanland does the same, without being drunk, in a more organized, informative, gripping way. This is a historical fiction book that reads like a thriller. I hope she never stops writing about lesser known true historical events. My history loving heart will always read them.

Richmond, Virginia 1811. At the city’s only theater, the Placide & Green company put on two plays a night to meet the popular demands of the city. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than 600 people. When the theater goes up in flames, Cecily, Sally, Gilbert, and Jack must all make snap decisions that will change the course of their, and others, lives from here on out. In the days after the fire, news spreads across the US as we learn how these four main characters lives are intertwined.

y’all, I loved this. I love anything US History. Anyone who knows me will tell you it’s my favorite subject. This book has alternating POVs (the 4 main characters), short chapters, bravery, love, loss, struggle, opportunity, women empowerment, and so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I was hooked from the beginning. It’s historical fiction, but it read like a thriller. I couldn’t wait to see how these lives collided and how each character’s story ended. Highly recommend. I’m also a big fan of Beanland’s first novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever - highly recommend that too.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader ebook. Check this one out hitting stores TODAY!!

This historical fiction novel is about the theater fire in Richmond, Virginia in 1811 that claimed the lives of 72 individuals, mostly women. It was considered the worst urban disaster of our country at the time. The production, performed by Charleston-based Placide & Green Company, had an over-capacity crowd. The book is told in the viewpoints of four different characters who were affected by the fire: Jack - the stagehand who raised the lit chandelier which caused the fire, Sally - who attended the performance with her brother-in-law and sister-in-law and ended up tending to the wounded after she jumped from the third story window to survive the fire, Cecily - a slave who attended the show with her mistress but had to sit in the colored gallery so they were not together when the fire broke out. When pandemonium insued, she realized no one would know if she survived or not, and this would be her one chance to break free from the physical abuse she had been suffering from for years. Then there is Gilbert, also a slave, who ran to the fire when he heard that it had broken out, and he helped to rescue countless women. When his owner finds out he is getting praise for his heroic deeds, Gilbert gets beaten as punishment.
I was completely unfamiliar with this part of American history, and after I read the book, I did a deep dive on the internet reading everything I could find on the subject. This book was fascinating and horrifying at the same time. I did not want to put it down. The author did an excellent job making you feel like you were actually there, watching it all unfold. I could almost hear the screams and the crackling of the fire. She did an excellent job with the characters as well, I really felt like I knew them, they felt so real to me. If you are a fan of historical fiction, then you have to check this out. I think you will love it as much as I did.

I was given an advanced reader copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Loved the writing style of this book and applaud the author for such a well thought out narrative. Highly recommend!

The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

It’s 1811. A theater fire. Slavery. Heroism. A lie. An escape? All these themes are woven into this disquieting tale by Rachel Beanland. It starts on a normal evening with a town all decked out for a theater performance. A fire erupts at the venue and Richmond will never be the same. Many are dead and the truth of the fire is elusive.

The story concentrates on four narrators, their very different lives in Richmond, and the roles in the aftermath of the fire damage. The depiction of slavery is not easy to read. There is a struggle for an actor to tell the truth about the fire. Heroism in the face of danger comes unexpectedly, and an opportunity for escape presents itself.

I thank #Simon&Schuster and #NetGalley for this solid four star book which will appeal to historical fiction aficionados.

On December 26, 1811 a fire at the Richmond (Virginia) Theatre became the worst disaster in American history at the time. Rachel Beanland's second novel, The House is on Fire, spotlights that tragedy through the eyes four different characters - Jack Gibson , a young stagehand; Sally Henry Campbell, daughter of Patrick Henry and newly widowed; Cecily Patterson, a young black slave who was acting as a chaperone for her young white mistress but was required to sit on a different floor, and Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith who ends up helping rescue 12 white women from the theater.

The story maintains a brisk pace as it alternates these four POVs and their respective roles before, during and after the fire. The characters are beautifully rendered and I was especially drawn to the two women and their stories as the book powerfully highlights the places of women and Blacks in southern society at the time.

As always with historical fiction, I loved reading Beanland's author's notes at the end where she talked about this historic impact of the fire and discussed the characters and how they were developed along the way.

I read Rachel Beanland’s debut novel, “Florence Adler Swims Forever” back in 2021. It was so good, it has stayed with me.
I was excited to read her latest, but apprehensive, would it be as good? I can solidly answer, yes.
This book is about the Richmond theater fire of 1811. It tells the tragedy from the viewpoints of different people that were there.
When you look up more information on this subject, you will see two of these people were people that were there. Ms. Beanland has a gift for writing, and I admit I stayed up too late finishing this book!
I was lucky to get this book as an ARC from @netgalley, but it is available to purchase this month. Enjoy.

This historical fiction novel about the Richmond Theater fire is told from multiple perspectives and is so well done. Each narrative voice is strong and empathetic, and each character finds a resolution of sorts, which is important to me in my reading. I thought this was fast paced and wove history with story so, so well. I also appreciated that the novel opens with the fire and thus the reader is immediately thrown into the action, and closes with the mass funeral for the dead. The timeline is short, and yet so filled with action and heart.

In a time and place in history from which the voices of powerful white men are almost all that have been preserved, Beanland chooses to center these characters, who live outside power and influence, to explore the dichotomy between the experiences of Black and white residents as well as the experiences of women and men. One striking disconnect is the lack of heroism displayed by men trying to escape the fire—at the cost of the lives of the women their cultural norms require them to protect—and the fawning praise heaped upon them in the media... (complete review posted at https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr294592 )

Could. Not. Put. This. Book. Down. This is how you write a multi viewpoint historical fiction novel 👏🏻 👏🏻 I was so engrossed in this book and could not wait to find out what would happen. It had me guessing and turning pages so quickly from beginning to end. Told from the perspective of 4 different people involving a fire at a theatre in Richmond, Virginia Rachel Beanland wrote this book flawlessly. She captured the views of these characters and the underlying themes of feminism and racism so so well - I can’t wait for more from this author ♥️

Another excellent historical fiction novel from Rachel Beanland. On December 26, 1811, Virginia lost its governor and almost one hundred citizens in a devastating fire that tore through a packed Richmond playhouse. This meticulously researched novel explores the lives of four people involved with the fire, including a widowed socialite, a young stagehand, and two slaves. The socialite and one of the slaves were real-life characters.

Absolutely marvelous story of a fire that actually took place in Richmond VA in 1811. The characters are complex and layered and absolutely amazing.

One of the best books of the year., Marvelous read.

Reader beware: graphic descriptions of rape and other physical abuse of a Black enslaved girl by a white man; forced and violent incest; exploration of the physical and mental torture of enslavement; racism, both ‘casual’/quotidian, and the rabid, seething kind; ditto for antisemitism and misogyny.

The narrative is divided in four sections, one for each day from December 26 through 29, 1811; within each section, we follow, one by one, the four people listed in the blurb, as they react to the fire itself, and then grapple with its aftermath. It is not that they survived, it’s how the world around them changed–and how it did not.

Two of the point-of-view people in the novel are documented historical figures: Sally Henry Campbell, a white widow, and Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved Black man. Family tradition places Sally, the daughter of Patrick Henry, in the theater on the night of the fire, though there’s no documented evidence of it. There is, on the other hand, contemporaneous historical record of Gilbert Hunt’s actions the night of the fire.

Ms Beanland’s writing grabbed me by the throat, almost from the first paragraph (despite my issues with present tense narrative), and didn’t let go until the end. I was absolutely immersed in the world on the page, witnessing what the people of Richmond suffered during those terrible days.

It is very clear that the author cares deeply about the subjects in the story, and I likewise appreciate the detailed author’s note at the end, which gives sources and contextualizes some of the narrative choices.

I appreciate, again, deeply, using Sally’s perspective to highlight the deep misogyny of the patriarchal society of the “young U.S.” (pedant’s note: America is a continent), and what role it played on who survived and who perished during the fight to escape a burning building. The fact that more than twice as many white women and girls died on the fire than white men can’t simply be explained away with, “their dresses” or “there were more women present than men”. (Per the author’s note: of the 72 people who died on the night of the fire, only six weren’t white.)

The narrative makes it very, very clear, that white men value their own skins above all, and that they’ll go to great lengths to protect their self-image and the regard of their peers–up to and including mass murder. (Is that timely or what?).

I appreciate how the book highlights the casual and profound disregard for Black lives in society (then as now), the casual and profound antisemitism (many victims were Jewish–and, again, then as now).

It really is a very well written novel.

And yet, I have been struggling all day to write this review, because there are a few things in the text that bother me a lot.

To begin, I had originally written: “There are no happy endings here.”

I wrote that not just because everyone living in the city at the time had to deal with the trauma of the fire, and survivors had to live in a world changed by their trauma and their losses.

But also because Cecily’s future is fraught with great danger–not for the next few days or weeks, but likely months if not years, never mind the trauma she already carries. As for Gilbert, his immediate future has less hope now than it ever did–and, as the author’s note makes clear, even that flicker of hope was soon to be extinguished. No happy ending for them.

However, as I think more about it, I realize that both Sally’s and Jack’s stories end with some optimism. Sally has met the man she will marry (that part is fact), and Jack has now the means to start fresh in New York.

You’ll note whose stories end with optimism and whose don’t.

Of course, it’s 1811. Both Cecily and Gilbert were enslaved. Or course their lives would be harder than those of most any white people in Richmond at the time, no matter how poor.

And yet, I wonder why Ms Beanland felt necessary to give Cecily such a terrible, traumatic backstory. Why did she feel that only such a level of horror would have justified Cecily’s and her family’s choices? Why wasn’t the ongoing violence and sexual abuse enough motivation for what they all do?

It makes me deeply uncomfortable that the narrative lingers so much on the abuse Cecily suffers at the hands of Elliott. It bothers me that the generational trauma of Black enslavement in the U.S. is somewhat excused for the other Prices by making Elliott a violent narcissist with an obsession.

Finally, I’m not sure how to take Gilbert Hunt thinking that “if these (white) men can stand before him on this sad day and demonstrate their gratitude, like he is an honest-to-God citizen of this city and not just somebody’s property, then maybe there is hope for him after all.” Does the author mean to imply that Gilbert’s hope of gaining his and Sarah’s freedom some day is renewed by white men applauding him ‘in gratitude’, or is this white gaze all the way, the Black slave needing the white folks’ validation of his worth as a human?

Given the author’s own note on how Gilbert’s heroism was used as propaganda in favor of slavery, that bit of internal dialogue is all the more jarring. Would a Black man who wanted his freedom and who worked so hard to literally purchase it, ever think in those terms?

For that matter, was it truly necessary, to counter that propaganda, to make Kemp another sadistic narcissist? Wouldn’t it have worked just as well for Gilbert to not feel love or indeed gratitude for any of his “good masters”, simply because he’s a person craving human dignity, and there’s no such thing under enslavement?

I think these things bother me more because I found the narrative overall nuanced, and the characterizations were generally well rendered, and not just for the four people named in the blurb; they and their communities within the community of Richmond, come alive in the writing.

And so I’m left very conflicted. I inhaled the book. I want people to read it, because I want to talk about it and discuss all these things with someone who has, even though I can’t recommend it without some caveats.

The House is on Fire gets a 9.00 out of 10

Excellent historical fiction account of the Richmond theatre fire. Loved the characters and story behind this tragic event. Definitely a book I will always remember.

I sometimes get nervous when books like The House is On Fire are not own voices, however, Beanland takes good care and wrote a layered story I truly could not put down. I loved her debut, and her sophomore novel was somehow even better. I'll be promoting this EVERYWHERE!

4.5 stars

Inspired by true events, The House is on Fire takes place in 1811, when the Richmond Theatre caught fire during a performance, resulting in the deaths of many. Amidst the chaos, we meet four characters, each of whom make important decisions based on the events of this night.

Sally Henry Campbell: a widow who attends the show with her brother-in-law and his wife.

Cecily Patterson: a young, Black slave, who was attending with her mistress but sat on a different floor. She is being abused by her master’s son, who insists that she must come with him when he gets married in a few weeks.

Jack Gibson: a stagehand who loves the theater. His late father was respected in town, and Jack is disturbed when he realizes some of the people he works with have no values.

Gilbert Hunt: an enslaved Black man who quickly turns into the local hero when he “catches” many of the women who dropped from an open window during the fire.

These characters are easy to fall in love with, and they are each narrated by different actors, which made for a great audio experience (I did a reading/listening combo). I will say that it took me a little to settle into the story, as is sometimes the case with historical fiction. Once I was acquainted with the different players, I was completely immersed in the story. The storylines were interwoven with such skill, and the characters felt so real. I still seethe when I think about Elliott and the horrible man he is. In fact, there are plenty of unlikeable men in this story; however, the men who are heroes are *truly* upstanding men. This is surely one not to miss!

When the Richmond Theater fire took place on December 26, 1811, it was an event that caused the worst loss of life the United States had ever experienced. This historical novel recounts this tragedy through the lives of four very different characters. Sally Henry Campbell is a young widow whose father was Patrick "Give me liberty or give me death!" Henry. She demonstrates bravery during the fire as many of the high society men run for their lives bypassing the women. Teenage Jack Gibson, who is working as a stagehand, becomes unwillingly involved in a coverup by the theater company as to what caused the fire. Gilbert Hunt, a skilled and literate slave who works as a blacksmith, rushes to the scene of the fire and saves a group of women. His niece Cecily Patterson is also a slave and has been horribly abused her whole life. Assumed dead in the fire, could her escape become her ticket to freedom?

Having enjoyed author Rachel Beanland's debut Florence Adler Swims Forever, I was very excited to read The House is on Fire and it did not disappoint. This well-researched book combines real-life people and some fictionalized ones to tell a compelling story that gives a good sense of life in Virginia during this period including the malevolence of slavery and the inferior treatment of women. A sign of good historical fiction is the desire, after reading, to learn more. This book will have you googling and googling.

Rated 4.25 stars.

The House is on Fire is sure to catch a lot of buzz and attention this season! Rachel Beanland first caught my attention when her debut Florence Adler swims forever was published. However, if you are expecting this book to be similar, you will find this novel is very different-showing beanlands range as a writer. The basic plot follows the aftermath of a massive fire at a playhouse in Richmond in the early 1800s-the first major disaster in the young country at the time. News spreads to all the major cities and hubs at the time and everyone tries to piece together what happened at the playhouse, using it as an opportunity to advance the narrative of slaves rebelling against their owners. The novel switches pov between 4 main characters-an escape slave, a slave who becomes a hero, a socialite, and a young stagehand who becomes central to the tragedy. Compelling and meticulous research help propel the plot forward and the sense of time and place feels authentic and I enjoyed learning about this forgotten event in history, I did find some of the points of view and characters more interesting than others. It is hard to orient at first to what character the reader is following and their trajectory but once all the characters become clear the writing and the plot shine. A very impressive follow-up to a very impressive debut!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On Dec. 11,1811, during a packed performance, a fire broke out at Virginia's Richmond Theater. Despite heroic efforts to rescue trapped theatergoers, 74 died, mostly women. Reported in newspapers nationwide, this was the worst US urban disaster of its time. Beanland's account of the fire is hold-your-breath reading.

This historical fiction book follows four people from different walks of life who were involved in this tragedy. Their stories will keep you turning pages.

Be sure to read the author's note at the end of the book. It will enrich your reading experience.

Rachel Beanland's debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, was one of my favorite books of 2020. This book proves that she is not a one-trick pony. I look forward to reading more of her.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book. The opinions expressed are my own.