When Stars Rain Down
Opal is seventeen and innocent in so many ways, but she’s about to learn some terrible lessons about what it means to be Black in small-town 1936 Georgia. Deserted by her mother as an infant, Opal has grown up with her Granny, a fiercely religious woman with whom she works as a servant in the home of a white family she has known all her life, including Jimmy Earl, her childhood playmate, who’s returning home from college as the book begins. The son of her mistress’s developmentally disabled daughter and an alcoholic, Jimmy Earl is a good man with a blind spot: his nasty cousin, Skeeter, a member of the Ku Klux Klan who has threatened Opal but who has defended Jimmy Earl against slurs about his father, earning Jimmy Earl’s loyalty.
Wise beyond her years, Opal forgives Jimmy Earl because she can see the complexities of human nature and behaviors, but even her prescience can’t save her.
She also begins a relationship with one of the most sought-after boys in Colored Town, Cedric, who’s handsome and intelligent and athletic – a very talented baseball player with a dream of making it to the Negro League. But white supremacy’s raison d’être is tearing down the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of people of color, which Opal discovers in devastating ways.
When Stars Rain Down is a book with religious themes, but if that’s not your preference, don’t let that stop you. The writing is beautiful, the story compelling, the characters vividly drawn, and religion is a backdrop, not the main story. Opal’s voice is pitch-perfect, and the plot has enough surprises to keep you turning pages late into the night. I give this book a whole-hearted thumbs up.
