Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 400 pages
Audiobook Length: 8 hours and 18 minutes
First Published: 2017
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Rachael’s Review
When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a body buried in her backyard, it sends her on a journey of self-discovery based on a 100-year-old murder. In 1921, Will Tillman lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a town segregated by Jim Crow laws and pervaded by racial violence. A misunderstanding prompts a single violent outburst, propelling Will into the midst of the Tulsa Race Riots. I found Dreamland Burning to be a solid young adult novel that will resonate with modern teens, helping them understand how history connects with the present day.
Publisher’s Description
Some bodies won’t stay buried.
Some stories need to be told.
When seventeen-year-old 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 present and the past.
Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. 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.
Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham’s lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations–both yesterday and today.
Quotes from Dreamland Burning
I understand now that history only moves forward in a straight line when we learn from it. Otherwise it loops past the same mistakes over and over again.
The dead always have stories to tell. They just need the living to listen.
The crime’s different but the problem’s the same. It’s about power and prejudice and shit rooted so deep that people don’t see it anymore.
About Jennifer Latham
Jennifer Latham is the author of Scarlett Undercover and Dreamland Burning. She currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Visit the author’s website →
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