Aftershocks

This is a thoroughly excellent book with a variety of themes, all blended well into one another:

1. Jessie, the daughter of a doctor, has a very strong interest in becoming a doctor herself, yet the society of the time, and her father, is strongly against any female pursuing such an interest.

2. The San Francisco earthquake itself. The description of the quake and its aftermath is done very well.

3. The anti-Chinese feeling of the time of many people in San Francisco (and elsewhere) is illustrated very well, along with the reactions of people to whites who dared try to treat the Chinese differently and without prejudice.

Jessie's parents have Chinese servants, but, as happened many times in master-servant relationships, the male master takes advantage of the female servant with serious consequences for the woman and virtually none for the man.

There is so much that happens in this book the best advice I can give is simply read it. It's one of the best young adult novels that I have ever read, and it's definitely one of those what you want to keep reading and not put down. The characters are all done well; the historical events are written about well; the consequences of those events and the actions of various people are examined well.

This would be one of the few books that I would classify as a “must-read” type of book.

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