🌟 4.75/5

Publication Date: March 28, 2023

I want to thank Random House, One World and Net Galley for allowing me to get an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The opening chapter does a great job getting you hooked into wanting to find out what happened to Adelaide Henry and her parents. Set in a backdrop of 1915 Southern California we follow our FMC as she readies herself to leave the family farm. For good.

Once the contents of the steamer trunk were revealed, I was surprised by the turn that this book took but I couldn’t keep myself from reading on. This story has odd pacing but because the chapters are short the book was very easy to breeze through. I couldn’t put this book down and finished it within 24 hours. The diverse cast of characters were a joy from Sam the overly honest little boy to Fiona Wong on a mission of her own throughout Montana. I really loved getting to learn more about this particular era of American history with a darker twist added in to mix it up.

I really enjoyed this book! I don’t know what I was expecting going into this book but I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

Would recommend for those who are fans of
- Settling of the Western US Setting
- Mystery/thriller with horror elements
- Mostly-linear timeline
- LGBTQ+ rep
- Family secrets
- Yellowstone meets the ladies of supernatural

I was so excited when NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/One World approved me for an ARC of this book. Wow! I remember reading <i>The Changeling<i> back in 2017 and loved every bit of that book. It left me wanting more books by Victor LaValle. <i>Lone Women<i> was an amazing read. This horror/mystery/suspense/historical fiction novel reeled me in from the very beginning. I loved reading the novel through the POVs of the main female characters, who were struggling and facing their demons. They were all relatable characters and I was rooting for them to be there when I finished the book.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable read that kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. I highly recommend it!

Loved this book, but then again Victor LaValle can do no wrong. A unique book about the power of love, friendship, and family.

Lone Women was so much more than I expected from a horror novel! Adelaide Henry is running from something horrible, and hiding something in her large, padlocked trunk. She is running to Montana in the early 1900s to claim a parcel of land and make it hers. 31 year old Adelaide is used to hard work – her mother always told her “a woman is a mule.” But surviving in Montana will take more than hard work, and she will eventually have to deal with the locked trunk.

Lone Women has a bit of everything - horror, historical fiction, suspense and supernatural. I was hooked from the start - from the truly horrifying, violent opening, I loved Adelaide and the other strong, diverse women - this is definitely a feminist story. This is so much more than horror or historical fiction - touching on gender, prejudice, grief, family and more. Loved it!

A true Western that showcases the struggles and hopes of those who fled to the frontier, Lone Women follows Adelaide Henry, a Black woman who leaves her majority Black rural hometown to settle in Montana, bringing with her only a mysterious trunk. Adelaide was lured to Montana by newspaper articles that promised a good life for any willing to work hard, but glossed over the strong winds, freezing temperatures, and exploitative systems in place. Adelaide struggles in loneliness, isolated by distance and whatever dwells in the locked trunk, a horror that forced her to leave her home and parents behind. Dark yet stirring, another masterwork by a horror expert.

Another amazing work by Victor LaValle. He has a way of taking predictable tropes in the horror genre and by pacing things out in a unique way keep you on your toes. There was maybe a slight pacing lull for me in the middle of this work but I had a blast the entire time from an enjoyment perspective. I am also a sucker for most homesteader/survivor stories, which is what we also have here. Add on to that amazing representation for a historical work with amazing nuance in theming and I am all in on this new horror/thriller/speculative work. Also this title is brilliant and a perfect match for the story you will find within the pages. Basically everything about this was done so intentionally and paid off for me. Even when I predicted things I still felt pay off because the story was not relying on twists for emotional impact, you still had to deal with the ramifications of a twist whether you predicted it or not. That's probably all I can say without spoiling this amazing 2023 release. If you need a weekend read I highly recommend it!

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle is a story of early Montana, of women making in on their own, and of a “demon.” Much of it is historically accurate and interesting. The hard-to-swallow part is the demon that one of the women, Adelaide Henry, has brought in a trunk from California, where it had killed her parents. The demon is a constant worry. It gets out now and then and hurts people. She doesn’t know what to do. She has enough trouble surviving. There are a great many subplots and interesting characters in this story and the overarching plot is very intriguing. Addie makes friends and, of course, enemies. The friends are all women and there are some very interesting characters amongst them: another Negro woman, a Chinese woman, a woman alone with her young son. All women trying to survive the a rough climate.

This is a well-written book: flows easily and is full of nuance. The characters are revealed slowly, in a need-to-know basis, but all multi-facted and worth getting to know. Even the “demon” comes into its own eventually. It held my interest throughout. The plot is respectful of women and shows them in their best light. It takes place in the early 20th Century at about the time of Prohibition, which also affects some of them.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Lone Women by Random House One World, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #RandomHouseOneWorld #VictorLaValle #LoneWomen

Read LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle if you love starting over, familial trauma, big open spaces, steamer trunks, the unsettling feeling that something's not right, intersectional tales about homesteading (seriously), ghost towns, women supporting women, and monsters.

Adelaide Henry has never lived on her own, never done anything she wants to do, and has always been weighed down by her mother's mantra "a woman is a mule."
Now she is free...sort of. Out from under her parents' rules, she makes her way to Montana where she will someday own a plot of land outright if she can cultivate it. This is not an easy path for a woman on her own, and even harder for a lone Black woman in 1914 with a dark secret and a heavy burden she drags along in a steamer trunk.

I was totally entranced with Adelaide from page one. This is a book I would have devoured for the remarkable characters and story alone even if there wasn't any horror aspect woven into this intriguing historical fiction. I was so engaged in this story that it was almost a bonus when the horror crept in. Once I started I could not bear to put it down.

Victor LaValle is a master storyteller. There is a nuance and depth to his writing style that I have rarely encountered. I'm now on a mission to collect everything he has ever written and added him to my very short list of must-read authors. I'm trying hard not to fangirl all over this review but finding it impossible not to gush about it.

Nothing wrong with this, but it wasn't for me. The entire time I was reading it, I felt like I didn't quite "get" it. Adelaide and her adventures with her "secret" was an interesting premise, and I did quite like the reveal of everything (no spoilers), but ultimately, it just left me a little confused.

I also didn't really connect with the pacing here either. The first bit where Adelaide first sets off was interesting enough, and again, I did like the reveal of everything, but the middle half or so just couldn't keep my interest.

This can't be pinned down to any one genre, but I very much enjoyed the creepy elements throughout. Some parts were pretty disturbing, and they were very well written.

Suspense, action fill genre-buster

In the opening line, author Victor LaValle writes that “there are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it.” Ironically, the heroine of his newest novel, “Lone Women,” attempts to escape her shame.

Adelaide Henry flees her family’s California farm in 1915 after setting fire to the house with her parents’ corpses inside. She takes with her an impossibly heavy steamer trunk that she does not like to let out of her sight.
She heads to Montana, one of the few states that allow lone women to homestead. What she finds there is an unforgiving climate, seemingly friendly neighbors—until Adelaide angers them—and only one other Black person for hundreds of miles.

Adelaide is almost completely unprepared to survive the winter and has to rely on some of those neighbors. In addition, a widow and her four sons make an unwelcome visit to her cabin, where Adelaide has just discovered her steamer trunk open and empty. That’s when people start to die.

LaValle’s genre-busting novel is equal parts western, historical, mystery, and horror. There is plenty of action and blood, but there is plenty to think about also. Adelaide contends with loneliness, isolation, allowing herself to trust others, and of course, “her shame.”

Despite some bothersome plot holes and a decidedly weird climax, “Lone Women” will entertain readers with a well-told story, complex and interesting characters, and page-turning suspense.

This book started off interesting enough. About half way through it bogged down and kinda wandered around. The second half was boring to me and I struggled to finish it.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

LONE WOMEN
By Victor LaValle

Release Date: March 28, 2023
General Genre: Western, Horror, Fantasy, Historical

A woman attempting to handle a troubling past, makes her way across the American West, dragging along a mysterious trunk at every stop. The secret she tries to lock away may prove to be the very thing she needs to survive.

✨️It starts off incredibly-- full of intrigue and horror. The story is vivid, almost cinematic. I could really sense the land and the people we encountered.
The historical elements were highly present, but I do need to question some of the cursing and slang, given the time period. "Heavy-ass" in 1915?

Part Two takes a break from the action to flesh out the town and its side characters, who I did not find as interesting as the MC, but in the end realized they were necessary-- the ending makes any lull in the story worth the wait! That ending!

I appreciated hearing the voices of strong women, who at the time would've surely been marginalized-- women of color, queer-- experiencing racial prejudices, predatory men, finding resources to survive, and dealing with a demon unleashed on the prairie.

Overall, I appreciated Lone Women.
The chapters are short, and the book slim, but it successfully packs a lot of ideas between its covers-- racial prejudices, queer identity, family, wealth, history, gender, demons...

It is a unique blend of weird-western with dashes of fantasy and horror, surely to please readers looking for something a little different this spring.✨️

3.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC.

#NetGalley #LoneWomen #VictorLaValle #bookreview #bookstagram #booknerd #historicalhorror #horror #horrorbooks #RandomHouse #readmorebooks #reading #StrongFemaleLeads #westernhorror

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle
Pub date: March 28, 2023

I don’t read enough historical horror and Lone Women has hit that sweet spot that drives home the importance of our history told in a way that should horrify.

Imagine being one of the ‘lone women’ given property in the wild west of Montana and then imagine the journey to settle there in the early 1900’s. It’s almost unfathomable to imagine setting up a homestead now but then? Adelaide is the main focus here and with her, she brings a locked trunk with a terrible secret locked inside, one that is responsible for both life and death.

This story hit me and it isn’t just one thing about this story – it’s in the telling of it, it’s in the characters – some with grit and determination, others with less than honorable intentions, it’s in the secrets and shame, and ultimately, it’s the bond of sisterhood.

This is an incredible balance of horror, history, and suspense with an amazing cast of characters.

My thanks to Random House for this gifted DRC.

"Lone Women" kept me on the edge of my seat with its atmospheric and dark storytelling. It was nothing I expected and I enjoyed every line.

Victor lavatory is a brilliant writer, and never fails to create rich, important, and thought provoking stories.

The events outlined in Lone Women can very much be read as a map leading us out of our complicated, ugly past toward a better, more tolerant future. The novel is, in a word, delightful, and whether or not it is the first Victor LaValle book you pick up, it most certainly won’t be your last.

This book grabs the reader from the very beginning. Adelaide is such a well-written character, and I was instantly hooked. The story masterfully builds up the dread of Adelaide's situation, and the mystery of the circumstances behind her move to the wilderness. As the story progresses and we learn more about Adelaide and the characters she meets along the way, I was struck by how well the world comes together. The harsh wilderness, the struggles for survival both from the elements as well as more nefarious forces come together in this gorgeous story. This is my first Victor Lavalle book but it definitely won't be my last! Marvelous storytelling, rich characters, and genuinely creepy moments make for a fabulous book.

I'm going to start right out by saying that horror/fantasy is NOT my genre. That being said, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I especially enjoyed the diversity of the characters, the multiple strong females and learning about homesteader life in Montana in the early 1900s. I didn't find the "horror" aspect to be too upsetting as there were so many other things happening in the story and believe that the dominant genre is historical fiction. There was a plot line or two that I found unnecessary/implausible even with full acceptance of the fantasy aspect of the novel but overall I found the story to be entertaining.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and #NetGalley for allowing me to read a pre-release of this novel. My review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual Rating - 1.5, rounded up to 2 stars

Man, I really wanted to like this. A survival fiction/horror blend focusing on a solo woman in frontier Montana? That is a concept I'll buy into all day. Unfortunately the execution was just not there for me.

I think LaValle was going for like a "fever dream" sort of vibe,but it mostly felt unfocused. The writing was repetitive and it felt like the POV kept changing between 3rd party limited and omniscient. New POVs were getting added later in the novel and we were still meeting new characters in the last act. Most offensive, I didn't care about the MC at all. Not even to dislike her.

This is the second time I've picked up one of LaValle's pieces and put it down disappointed. He has amazing ideas but his writing style just doesn't work for me.