Member Review

In 1914, Adelaide Henry rushes from her home nestled in a California valley after lighting it on fire with the bodies of her parents inside. She takes with her an enormous steamer trunk that remains padlocked at all times.
Adelaide drags the trunk across the American West, arriving in Big Sandy, Montana to take advantage of the government's offer of free land to those willing to cultivate it.
Soon she meets other lone women who have braved the elements to homestead. She almost feels she can let her guard down, start a new life ...

until the trunk is opened. 

Victor LaValle is easily one of my favorite writers and Lone Women is easily a favorite book of 2023. The short chapters create so much tension and kept me racing through the pages to discover what was in that trunk! For such a relatively short book, LaValle created an impressive group of fully-realized characters (and I loved that they were all strong females!) and combined historical fiction with chilling horror and fantasy elements!

HUGE thanks to Random House - One World and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Lone Women will be released March 28, 2023.