Willa McCoy is a 13-year-old intelligent, ambitious girl living in a small town located in Virginia. She describes herself as “the backup” to her older, prettier, and more popular older sister, Barb. She absolutely idolizes her father, the Assistant Principal at the local high school and a prominent member of the community. But the year is 1964, and Congress is on the verge of passing the Civil Rights Act. Oh, and her father is a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan. Even so, Willa doesn’t question her father’s beliefs. She spends every moment trying to earn his love and validation, seeing how he dotes on her two brothers so fervently. When her mother volunteers her to assist the local Reverend’s wife, Ruth, with household duties, she meets an intelligent young black boy, Langston Jones, who also works for them. Thus begins the expansion of her world-view. She gains a more thorough understanding of how public opinion can spiral down a dark and violent path caused by insecurity and fear of the other. Down the Steep by A. D. Nauman is a powerful coming-of-age story about an adolescent who begins to question everything she’s been taught in the Deep South. And how her attempts to do the right thing spark a devastating chain of events for her family and those she tries to help. 

Upon first meeting Langston, Willa becomes suspicious and uncomfortable in his presence. And he isn’t very friendly towards her either. But Ruth is from St. Paul, where relations between white and black people aren’t as tumultuous as they are in Virginia. So they reluctantly yet genuinely become friends. But Willa’s personality causes her to constantly seek validation and worth through her family connections. Her attitude drives Langston to reveal things about her father that begin to alter her opinion of him. Everyone knows who Dick McCoy is. And apparently everyone sees where he goes and what he does. But Willa does not. So when she discovers that her father is having an affair with his secretary, her entire worldview changes. And she becomes determined to destroy her father’s reputation by any means possible. 

So Willa diverts her energy towards a different goal in Down the Steep. After all, she’s a smart girl, and has been achieving straight A’s to gain her father’s acceptance and praise. But now she uses her brain to destroy him. She thinks of how she can humiliate her KKK father. She begins spreading rumors that she’s falling in love with a black boy. She spies on his phone calls to get the upper hand. And she sneaks around to catch him in the act of his affair. She willingly risks friendships and the well-being of her family to accomplish this goal.

Because Willa is 14 with limited freedom, she finds herself depending on the help of Ruth and Langston. But of course, they’re in 1960s Virginia. And she has yet to fully understand what it means for a black boy to be seen with a white girl. So while Willa tries to right wrongs every step of the way, she’s still a KKK member’s daughter. And she realizes much too late how much her actions affect other people, in ways that she never saw coming. 

Down the Steep hooked me early on. Nauman remarkably channels the mind of an impressionable adolescent during this crucial time period in the United States. Through Willa’s internal critical thinking and how she questions the adults in her life, she simultaneously challenges and affirms readers’ existing familiarity and beliefs about what the Deep South was like just a decade after Emmett Till became a nationally recognized name. How would the daughter of a Klan member respond to forced interaction with a black boy? Let alone one who had hopes and dreams of his own, and could recognize how to play his role and code-switch so intuitively? And since the author presents the story as Willa herself recounting her experiences, readers still anticipate the confirmation that everything went horribly wrong, despite Willa’s change of heart and diligence to do right.

Even though we are 60-years-post-Civil-Rights-Act commentary, readers will still recognize some of the language that 14-year-old Ruth overhears that eventually propels her actions. And while the results of her actions are heartbreaking for everyone else, readers will still find satisfying closure in Willa’s complete character development. All in all, I can’t recommend this book enough. I will be thinking about Down the Steep for a long time.

Down the Steep is available on October 10.