This was a wonderful and heavy and important story that also had my favorite element that a story can have: ghosts but don’t make them super scary. This is for fans of historical fiction AND magical/paranormal realism. It’s for anyone who has questioned the validity of a friendship or been blind to toxic behavior by someone you thought you could trust. And it’s for anyone who wants to (and that should be everyone but I digress) uplift black voices and stories.

To the author, I’m so glad and grateful to have had the opportunity to read this before “it was cool” because I have a feel it’s about to be everywhere.

I am leaving this honest review voluntarily and without coercion.

I do not know where to begin with this book; I am at a loss for words. It was jarring, magical, heavy, atmospheric, and a pure work of art!

Erin Crosby Eckstine took her family history and created a story of loss, love, betrayal, perseverance, and personal growth. Junie was super headstrong and had personal demons haunting her both in her waking hours and in her sleep that she had to deal with that colored how she dealt with the world she lived in. She lived in a world that didn't fit with how things were around her because she was sheltered in a way, but once her eyes were opened to the way things were...whew! I don't want to continue to talk because I don't want to spoil it...10/10 recommend it!

The budding romance between her and Caleb was a sweet romance pivot, but the romance did not take over. This book was 100% about Junie becoming; everything else played second to her main story, which was refreshing.

I usually struggle with stories set during slavery, but this one was very easy to read.

THE PILLOW STUFFING HAS ME SHOOK!!!!!!!!

Thank you, Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books, and Erin Crosby Eckstine, for the ARC of this book.

Junie is a 16-year-old slave living on Bellereine Plantation, working for the McQueen family. Junie serves primarily as housemaid to the McQueens' daughter, Violet, whom Junie sees as a sister, as they share secrets, including the fact that Violet has taught her how to read.
When Mr. McQueen invites a handsome young man and his sister to stay at the estate, everything seems to change for Junie and Violet. Junie begins to realize that her friendship with Violet is changing, as they grow into their expected roles.
Junie wonders if there is more for her in this life, if only she can escape the Plantation. Haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased sister, Junie is challenged to three tasks to set her sister's soul--and herself--free, if only she can make the difficult sacrifices a life of freedom costs.

This one is going to stick with me for awhile. I was hooked from the start, needing to know what happened next. It is so beautifully written, and I am immensely grateful to be among the first to read this heartbreaking yet hopeful story.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was well-written with a wonderful plot based on a true story and complex characters, but it was a slow-burn read. Halfway through the book I wanted to quit reading. However, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to know how the story ended. This book had an otherworldly feel to it with Minnie's ghost constantly appearing in the woods to guide Junie's path towards freedom. I didn't care for the swearing, teenage sex, and the lesbian interlude. It ruined the story for me. I'm not sure I would want my teenager to read it. The ending was a bit sad, but hopeful for the future. I will not be recommending this book to my audience because of content.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was a 4Star ⭐⭐⭐⭐ read for me.

A haunting historical fiction that masterfully weaves supernatural elements into an antebellum tale of courage and resistance. Set against the backdrop of 1860 Alabama, this story follows Junie, an enslaved girl who awakens her sister's ghost while navigating complex relationships, hidden secrets, and her own path to liberation. While the supernatural elements might not appeal to all historical fiction fans, the rich character development and atmospheric writing make this a compelling read. It's clear why Good Morning America selected this as their February book pick.

Tropes:
🌟 Found Family
💕 Forbidden Romance
👻 Ghost Story
🏃‍♀️ Coming of Age
🌙 Midnight Adventures
🤐 Dark Family Secrets
📝 Poetry/Writing as Escape
💪 Female Empowerment

What a heartbreakingly beautiful book. The story of Junie and the plantation owner's daughter, Violet. Junie believes she has a friend in Violet but she soon realizes that isn't quite correct. For the time period, this was probably common.
Junie is described as carefree and she is along with brave and smart. She also has conversations with her dead sister who she blames herself for the death and wants her help. I originally wanted to read this book for the supernatural elements, however, I would have enjoyed it without them just as much.
This is a love story, a historical story and a ghost story all wrapped up in one. It's a great read.

When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

This question ends the story description of Junie and it is one I could not imagine facing at 16 years old! I was intrigued. Then cover art for this book is gorgeous. This would definitely be a cover buy for me. I would myself stopping the read just to take moment to look at the cover art. It's colorful, soothing and beautiful. At this rate, I'm never going to get to share my thoughts on the book.

The author has crafted a decent story around Junie. A teenage slave girl living on a plantation. That's all for now. Mayhem indeed ensues Junie and her friend that insisted in helping her. I felt like this was more YA than an adult story. It reminded me of the film Eve's Bayou which I loved. It was a slow burn for me. The story is going, cover that though. It was a sold effort that keeps your attention.

Sixteen year old Junie has been enslaved from birth. On Bellereine Plantation in Alabama ahe has been cooking and cleaning alongside her family and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. She dreams of poetry and faraway worlds while spending nights secretly roaming through the forest. She is also grieving the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet Junie commits a desperate act, one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship turns romantic. Dark secrets are soon revealed and Junie will uncover painful truth.

This is a well written and atmospheric story. Junie is a strong character. There are other memorable characters as well.

The ghost element is interesting but not what I expected. There is a bit of a slow pace at times as there is a lot of detail. It feels like a lot happens in just a few pages. It's a memorable story though and one many readers will appreciate.

3.75 - This honestly was an impressive debut and a really powerful story! For a historical fiction focused in the Civil War, following a young enslaved girl, this was such a powerful and emotional story. I was really impressed with this author's writing and her take on this era in time. I could tell the author's connection to Junie's character and how she poured her heart into this story.

Junie is about a young enslaved girl, maid to the daughter of the McQueen family, who owns the plantation. Junie throughout the story is grieving the loss of her sister and she believes that her sister's death was her fault. She is dealing with not only the power dynamics and racism of slavery, but also the grief and tragedy of losing her sister.

The writing was really beautiful and had so many powerful themes throughout the story. Junie was a really strong female main character and I enjoyed learning her story from a Black author's perspective. Overall, I thought this was a really great historical fiction/romance with some paranormal and magical realism aspects to it!!

Thank you to Ballentine for the free book!!

I cannot wait to shout from the rooftops about this book. Thank you to Netgalley for give me this amazing, lyrical, lush and engrossing prose of a book.

Based loosely on stories passed down from generation to generation through the author's family, Junie is an intimate look into the everyday life of a slave in Alabama before the Civil War.
Although personalized and at times hopeful, the tragedy of a slave’s life, bound without rights and freedoms, is reflected as well. The cultures the slaves tried to keep alive along with their sense of self is written into the fabric of Junie’s story and helps bring to life a well rounded view. With themes of friendship, realizing one’s worth, the search for truth and freedom, as well as a bit of the supernatural, Junie’s story will suck you in and hold you until the end.

Junie is a very moving story of a young woman enslaved to a family on a cotton plantation in Alabama in the 1860’s. Junie has lost family members and most recently her sister. This loss has affected her deeply and the grief is something she is trying to cope with. While she is trying to process living without her sister, she is visited by the spirit of her sister, Minnie. Everything she thought she knew about her life soon is turned upside down and has her searching for more. She wants a life where she is free to read, write, and love. This was such an amazing novel and I couldn’t read it fast enough. The writing was so descriptive, it was easy to visualize the events of the story as I was reading. A must read!

#NetGalley

JUNIE by Erin Crosby Eckstine is a sweeping coming of age story set on an Alabama plantation just prior to the Civil War. It is about Junie, a sixteen-year-old enslaved teen, that has lived her entire life on Bellereine Plantation, where her whole family tends to every need of their white master’s family. Junie has a special bond with the master’s daughter Violet, but is consumed with guilt and grief over the death of her older sister, Minnie. The story takes a grim turn when Violet’s father invites a young man and his sister to the plantation, with the plan to forge a marriage between Violet and the stranger. If Violet is forced to marry, Junie will be torn away from her family and the only life she’s ever known. One day, Junie sees her sister’s ghost, who gives her a dangerous mission that could change everything. Junie enlists the help of the visitors’ coachmen and soon their relationship becomes more than that of just friends. This is a compelling story that kept me engrossed from beginning to end. It was interesting that some of the historical aspects and characters were based on an actual ancestor of the author. The story has a bit of magical realism, but it is mainly historical fiction about slavery, including a touching love story. I enjoyed this well-written and inspirational story and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

Junie is historical fiction about an enslaved girl reeling from her sister’s death as strangers come to visit the plantation.
The writing in this book is amazing. Junie’s voice feels so real, and the descriptions of everything are evocative without being excessive. The characters all felt fleshed-out, from Junie and her family, to the McQueens, the family who owns her, to the Taylors, the family who visits.
However, while the characters were wonderful on their own, flaws and all, the relationships between them were painfully finicky. Junie’s romance with Caleb, a slave who comes with the Taylors, was sweet at times, but there were times when I wished they had stayed platonic because I was tired of the “will they won’t they.” The same goes for Junie’s relationship with her sister.
Altogether, the story was good and very emotional—especially the ending.

CW: death & grief; slavery; violence; domestic abuse (physical); suicide; attempted sexual assault

From the author’s note: “Most depictions of enslaved people throughout history either have leaned on paternalistic, angelic tropes or have exclusively shown a character suffering the most horrific trauma possible. While the latter would be significantly more accurate than the former, I spent a lot of time with this story, thinking about the reality that people had lived their entire lives as slaves, meaning that they experienced a full spectrum of human emotion and conditions under these horrific circumstances. I wanted to explore what it would look and feel like to see such a character with dreams, ambitions, love, grief, and flaws in the same way every human has; not as a means of diminishing the horror, but instead shining a light on the individual humanity of a group of people many have grown to perceive monolithically.”

I would say the author definitely succeeded at this goal. She really showed what it was like to live as a slave and how various men and women responded to the oppression.

The title character Junie is a dreamer. She reads poetry and sees the beauty in nature. She thinks that her position of personal maid to the master’s daughter gives her equal standing and protection. When she comes across the ghost of her older sister telling her to run, she resists. She has a decent life. Why should she leave. But as circumstances change, she realizes that there is no friendship without equality and no beauty without freedom. The author based Junie on stories of her great-great-great grandmother who ran to freedom at the start of the Civil War. This beautiful tribute to her ancestors humanizes enslaved people and shows the courage of those who ran and those who stayed.

It’s a very slow paced book, but it’s beautifully written. A powerful read.

Thank you to @Netgalley and @randomhouse for my ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Junie is a historical fiction novel that has some ties to the author’s family experience. I think the authors note at the end elevated the story for me just enough to get me out of the 3.5 or 4 star debate.

There are some choices made in Junie, namely the perspective of slavery that we’re given. This is not a novel of caricatures propped up to teach us a lesson—instead this is a complex story where characters behave in a multitude of ways regardless of whether they are slave or slave owner. At first, I was confused by this choice, but as we move along the story of course it makes sense! It’s just presented differently than you’ve seen slave narratives presented before.

I believe that by addressing slavery this way, we get to really take a look at the “good slave owners”—because can you be good and also own another person? The way that this narrative cooks up is just delicious and allows us to confront our own thoughts about “decent” slave owners; it also is interesting to consider this perspective from a slave who believes they are being treated well.

For this reason alone, I think this book just blows this story out of the water, but there are other good things here—magical realism, not every scene is physical or sexual violence, a sweet romance…this feels like we get to live a year with Junie in all of her experiences, good and bad.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, slave narratives, confronting racism. Very well done.

Where can I begin with Junie? The Author's Note quotes Toni Morrison: “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”. I believe the author thoroughly achieved that in Junie. The historical fiction genre is filled with slavery era novels from many perspectives, including those of the enslaved. However, I have never read one with an enslaved character so well-rounded & dynamic, so "real" feeling. You can tell that Junie is inspired by real people & stories who have influenced Eckstine. Apart from Junie herself, the entire cast of characters is diverse in their feelings about their circumstances & ambitions to change them.

I was swept into the story of Junie & her complex relationships with those around her, including the ghost of her late sister. While there were some developments I easily saw coming, I guarantee the story will surprise you. You may wish to savor this novel slowly, but may not be able to resist turning the pages to see how Junie finishes her story.

I can't wait to share this book with others!

Thank you to Ballantine for this advance copy. I had seen this book compared to The Reformatory, which I absolutely loved. Unfortunately, this story didn’t quite work for me in the same way. I loved Junie and the historical fiction aspect, but the ghost element did not work for me here like it did in The Reformatory. I felt that Minnie’s ghost was more a distraction from Junie’s story. I would like to see Junie’s story stand on its own and have deeper character development. This cover is a stunner though! Gorgeous!

Junie is a unique tale of a slave girl dealing with lifes issues through the innocence of blinders. I don't think Junie realizes until she has matured that she is not her own person. We as readers get a front row seat to her despair, romance and awakening to the real world. Heartwrenching debut story by Erin Crosby Eckstine who does her family history justice. I highly recommend this special novel of growing up to love yourself.

Junie is a sixteen year old living on a plantation in Alabama where she’s a maid for her best friend, Violet and her family works in the cookhouse for the entire McQueen family. While her life is mostly dictated by those who own her, in the little free time she has, she explores the nearby forest, climbs trees and eventually befriends a boy named Caleb who makes her realize there’s a bigger world than the plantation and she wants to find it. With her dreams, and the ghost of her sister Minnie guiding her, this story follows Junie’s attempt to color outside the lines and make a life for herself - a real one where she’s in charge of her destiny.

“I don’t want to live my life in the margins of someone else’s.”

This story was heartbreaking in its closeness to reality (I highly recommend reading the authors note when you’ve finished), and yet I couldn’t stop turning pages. The characters, based on the authors ancestors, become part of your heart and I was beyond invested in their futures and where they would end up. While the overall story was dark in it’s focus on slavery, abuse, and those living with little to no freedom, there were lessons along the way that still brought hope to these characters and myself as a reader. I hated some characters and loved others, I wanted to jump into the pages to protect some and attack others as they deserve. Throughout the loss and desperation this story emphasizes, there is a love story woven through that had my heart clenching with it’s sweetness - “‘You’re my middle C.’ ‘Middle C?’ ‘The key between the lows and the highs, the balance of it all, the true center of the music.’”

Junie told the story of a slave’s who lived their entire lives as slaves, “meaning they experienced a full spectrum of emotion and conditions under these horrific circumstances.” In the authors note, Erin explains how she “wanted to explore what it would look and feel like to see such a character with dreams, ambitions, love, grief, and flaws the same way ever human has; not as means of diminishing the horror, but instead shining a light on the individual humanity of a group of people many have grown to perceive monolithically.” This view was one that I found so interesting and different than those you find in other stories about slavery and I loved getting to see this take from someone who’s family experience it first hand - again it was eye opening in a horrific way, but by the end there was hope that was found and overall, I was shocked this was a debut novel. It was beautiful.