Have you ever heard about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921? I hadn’t either. The incident serves as the impetus for the story that takes place in Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham.
The story takes place in Tulsa and alternates between the two narratives of mixed-race, upper-middle class teen Rowan Chase in present day and half-white half- Native American teen William Tillman in that fateful year of 1921. In the present day Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property. She has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present, and herself. One hundred years earlier in a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.
This piece of historical fiction is touching and informative in addition to being a mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end.
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