Life was cruel back then, and for some people the history could hurt, so when reading this fiction remember it is partly based on a true story. We follow a young lady of sixteen, living in her parents’ fine home on the Heaven’s Hill plantation. The South Carolina land grows many strains of rice brought from the Gambia River in Africa, and in 1807 Alexandra de Gambia enjoys the wealth of her African-American planter family. But a severe blow is about to be dealt.

ONCE IN A BLOOD MOON opens with Alexandra and her equally spoilt cousin Callie learning the violin in preparation for a concert. Strange men start riding around, surveying the land, making enemies, snarling at the servants. The political mood has changed and not for the first time in her family’s history, Alexandra finds that her home is coveted by men of violence. Using laws relating to slavery and who can own land, the usurpers feel empowered to kill, sell or terrorise everyone at Heaven’s Hill. With her little brother, Jimi, Alexandra is a marked person, and she has little choice but to pass herself off as a slave – which all too soon means she is sold as a slave – in order to survive.

One of the best characters for me was a young lad who has entered a seven year term of indentured servitude. He is white but his poverty and status mean he is destined to be sold at auction with Alexandra. His name is John Fowler, and at the end the author Dorothea Hubble Bonneau tells us this character is based upon her own relative of that name. This is a reminder that people of all kinds suffered and had their futures stolen. We also see a string of determined helpers who recognise the wrongs being perpetrated and do their best to give covert aid.

Due to the uncompromising harshness of some parts of the tale, I recommend the book for adults or mature teen readers. The story is educational and exciting, told from an unusual perspective and written in the present tense, which makes it more immediate.  We even get a romance, though it takes a while to arrive. ONCE IN A BLOOD MOON mixes folklore and farming, tragedy and hope.  

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