Fireflies in December: Jessilyn Lassiter Series, Book 1 [Kindle版]

"The summer I turned thirteen, I thought I'd killed a man."

In these first eleven words of Fireflies in December we realize Jessilyn Lassiter's world is pregnant with change. Not only is she walking that tenuous line between childhood and womanhood, but during the summer of 1932 Jessilyn finds herself in the crosshairs of man's hatred for his fellow man.

When her best friend Gemma's parents are tragically killed in a fire, Jessilyn's father takes the girl in. No matter that she's as dark as coffee and sticks out in their white family like a sheep in a cow field. Harley Lassiter sees people for their hearts, not their skin color. If only the rest of Calloway County felt the same way. Soon Jessilyn is ostracized by whites and blacks alike. This racial mingling "just ain't done", and it isn't long before the Lassiter family becomes a target for something much more sinister, and deadly. The Klu Klux Klan.

In Fireflies in December Valent has skillfully dropped us into the middle of southern Virginia during a turbulent time in our country's history. Less than seventy years had passed since the Civil War, and unfortunately not everyone embraced its outcome. The Great Depression's talons still clung to many families. "Things were poor, especially in our parts, and for having a working farm and a good truck, we were fortunate. We even had some conveniences that other people envied, like a fancy icebox and a telephone..."

Fear has a way of bringing out the worst in folks, and perhaps that's why racism was still so prevalent in the south of 1932. As I read this novel, I found myself amazed that such hatred existed. Certainly racism still shows up in today's America, but during the year we've elected our first African-American President it's striking how far we've come.

Valent knows how to involve us in the setting. We feel the oppressive humidity of summer and hear the cicadas buzzing. We lie on our backs in bed all day with Jessilyn and Gemma because moving feels like wading through a furnace. And without bogging us down in pages of narrative we understand the anguish Jessilyn suffers when she thinks she killed a man. In fact, Valent could've used more exposition and it wouldn't have detracted. Perhaps it would've added even more depth to this coming-of-age story.

Fireflies In December brings to mind the themes and characters of To Kill A Mockingbird. Jessilyn is older than Scout, but just as stubborn. Their fathers stand by what they believe is right, even when everyone else is against them. Jessilyn and Scout both find their lives in danger. However, Valent has a voice and nack for description all her own. Her scenes move quickly, and even if you're not a historical fiction fan you'll find yourself drawn in. People are people, whether it be 1932 or 2003. We all feel pain; we're all searching for meaning. And this becomes clearer as you turn the pages.

The spirituality is never heavy-handed, being shown rather than told, for the most part. The Lassiters are practicing Christians, and they talk about that aspect of their lives like they would anything else. But even when Jessilyn's parents do share a spiritual insight with her or talk about Jesus it doesn't feel like a sermon. We're listening, too, and we glean their nuggets of wisdom.

Fireflies in December is a tight, finely crafted novel that challenges us to root out any hint of prejudice in our own hearts, whether we're black or white, male or female, rich or poor. That's a message that'll stand the test of time.

--Reviewed by C.J. Darlington for TitleTrakk

I just finished one of the most delightful novels I have read in a long time. Jessilyn Lassister is a captivating 13 year old girl in the South in the early 1930's. Although this book is suited for all age groups I found as a woman in my sixties I had the joy of reliving that summer I turned 13 along with Jessie. Jennifer Valent invited the reader into the pages of the novel and as each page turned one could feel what Jessie felt, the heat, the emotions, etc. As other reviewers have mentioned it will cause you to search your own heart to check your prejudice level. It raised the question would you respond to Jessie's family decision the same way as the town or would you be more like Miss Cleta? I will be keeping my eye out for new books from Jennifer who has a real story telling gift.

I almost quit reading this novel after the first few pages, but stuck it through in the interest of giving it a fair chance. It did not get any better. The characters were one-dimensional and cliched, the plot was predictable, and there was no literary depth whatsoever. The moral lesson was overly simple with no intriguing subtleties at all. It's been done before, and done far better.

It's not that the author is a bad writer entirely. She has a talent for putting together good sentences. She does a better job with dialect than many writers do. Unfortunately, to my ear, the dialect was overdone to the point that I was hearing "The Beverly Hillbillies" whenever a character spoke after just so long. It became caricatured. Sometimes, it seemed that a phrase was used just for the sake of the phrase itself, even if it didn't quite fit. For example, "There ain't no call to be hangin' up my bloomers." Huh? The mother was hanging up laundry, like always, except that the daughter was embarrassed to have her underwear seen by the boy she had a crush on. I can see her begging her mother not to put them up just then, but to say, "there ain't no call" to do it just shows a lack of understanding of the precise meaning of the phrase.

In another instance, the mother writes in a note, "Daddy's hankerin' for some ice cream." Okay, even though we're going to leave off every "g" at the end of every word every character speaks in the interest of making it sound precisely like they're saying it, those people are not going to be writing their words without the g on the end--not unless they're extremely uneducated, which does not seem to be the case with these characters. I think the handling of the dialect could have been toned down--a lot--and would have been as effective at providing verisimilitude, without drawing so much attention to itself that it overshadowed the story itself.

On the other hand, maybe the distraction of the heavy-handed dialect keeps the reader from noticing that the story was not particularly original, and the characters had little depth. The focus was mainly on the brave, plucky, rebellious, 13-year-old tomboy-just-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-woman. How many times have we seen that same character in books (mainly for young girls) and in made-for-TV movies? There was nothing to set this particular young girl apart from all the others in all the other stories. And every other character was even less fleshed out than she was. I would have loved to have had a deeper glimpse into Gemma in particular. She seemed more a prop for the story than a real human being. Jessie's parents were cookie-cutter parents. Absolutely the only character that showed any complexity was the "surprise" bad guy, but he wasn't fleshed out well enough to be believable. On the other hand, the author's handling of the mixed feelings of the people who knew him was one of the things that she did handle quite well.

The book is not without merit, which is why I gave it 2 stars. Certainly, there is a nice, uplifting moral there for those who like simple, nicely packaged messages of that sort. I think it will appeal to readers who also like romance novels, Hallmark movies, and "inspirational" chain-letter emails, as well as to girls younger than 12 or 13. In addition, although I feared that the author might go overboard with religion, she actually handled that with a surprisingly smooth and light touch. But quite frankly, anyone reading this most likely already believes that racism is bad and the Ku Klux Klan is/was evil and I'm pretty sure we all know that this sort of thing was not uncommon in the Depression-era South. So I don't think this will actually teach anyone anything; rather, it is a way for people to identify with the "good guys" and feel superior to those less enlightened.