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How long does it take to read The Downstairs Girl?

Stacey Lee

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee takes about 7 hours 2 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 7 hours 2 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2019. 384 pages, about 105,600 words. Written for children.

15 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 11 hours 44 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 7 hours 2 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 4 hours 24 minutes

The page count is the median across 8 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta’s most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South.

Subjects: Children's fiction, Household employees, fiction, Authorship, fiction, Chinese americans, fiction, Georgia, fiction, Young adult fiction, girls & women

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