“There are two kinds of people in this world: those that live with shame and those who die from it. On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry would’ve called herself the former, but by Wednesday she wasn’t sure.”

Quick Summary: Adelaide Henry, and her enormous steamer trunk, has made her way to Montana from California. Looking for a new start, she is one of the "lone women" who benefit from the government's offer to free land for those who can cultivate it. Adelaide isn't alone. She has brought the trunk with her. A trunk that must always remain locked in order to keep herself and everyone she meets safe.

Genre: Horror & Historical Fiction
Length: 308 pages
My Rating: 4 stars
Read If You Like: Horror/thrillers, strong female protagonists, westerns with a twist

LONE WOMEN is a nice blend of historical fiction, western, and horror. But it wasn’t too scary. The beginning of the novel grips you and the short chapters keep the pace going at a nice clip. The writing is vivid and atmospheric. I was soaking up the early 1900s Montana setting.

I flew threw the first chunk of the book dying to find out what big secret Adelaide was hiding in her steamer trunk. Then I kept reading to follow the fallout of the reveal amongst her new neighbors in Big Sandy, MT. There were likable and unlikable characters. Adelaide isn’t the only one holding secrets. We get glimpses into the perspectives of the other characters. Their storylines blend effortlessly with the overarching mystery of the steamer trunk.

Vigilantism, racism, theft, revenge, friendship, difficult socioeconomic conditions, and the supernatural. This book blends many themes together and does a good job of it. I really enjoyed this novel!

LONE WOMEN is released today (3/28)! Thank you One World Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC!

"But the human animal is a social animal; a lifetime of being treated like an outsider may make a person yearn to finally be let in."

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Adelaide is Black woman on her own traveling across the country for a new start in the early 1900's. She has fled her home in California with a heavy, locked steamer trunk to start over in Montana. She has heard about the free land programs and she thinks she is strong enough to survive the land and make it hers. But can she escape her secrets and integrate with the small town folk in Big Sandy?

Lone Women is the kind of horror I like most, rooted in real life. There are definitely dark, supernatural elements but the threat of other people and their agendas is always much more terrifying to me. I liked the use of both elements to add to the tension and drama. I always love stories about the pioneer spirit, so even the backstory without the horror elements would have kept me drawn to this story. For me it was pitch perfect on every page.

Thanks to Random House for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

This is a frighteningly great book to read. The reader will be unwilling to put the book down and continue turning the pages to see what is coming next. Adelaide, as a narrator, is an excellent story. The plot will leave you heavily engaged in every word. The setting is fertile ground for breeding and growing the reader’s imagination. This is a definitely a story that should be on your must read in order to experience all the drama.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Adelaide Henry leaves her California family farm after tragedy strikes.

Bringing her mysterious steam trunk along to Montana as a homesteader to take advantage of obtaining her own land as a black, single woman in the early 1900s.

This book was so well written that I could have just read about Adelaide starting up her land. Adding the mystery and horror factor just made it that more enticing.

More than anything, I loved the strong female presence throughout.

Quote @ the beginning of the book had me
Ready to dive in “Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” - Toni Morrison, Song of Salem

“There were people who would judge her harshly for her thoughts. Those people, she felt, could f&@k themselves.”

Then the 1st chapter, the MC, Adelaide Henry, nonchalant questions whether she wants to dump gasoline on someone’s head and light the person on fire. What am I getting myself into!?

If that doesn’t intrigue you then how about the last 2 sentences in the 1st chapter…
“On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry had been a farmer. By Wednesday, she became a fugitive.”

This book was so different from anything else I’ve ever read. I can see why people are having a difficult time describing the exact genre.

It was faster paced in the beginning and got a little slower towards the middle and end. I kind of wish the pacing would have stayed a bit faster but overall I enjoyed the book.

I think it might make a cool movie.

I liked the last line in the book…“The past is complicated.”

“But secrets, once revealed, are no longer secrets, no matter how tightly you try to seal them away.”

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

At its heart this is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.

This is a horror historical fiction novel and I am not sure how I feel about it. The writing is great and I can vividly picture the landscape. The concept is interesting. But the delivery just didn’t do it for me. I seem to be in the major minority here, though, in terms of not connecting with or really enjoying this story. I finished it through sheer grit and determination and I didn’t hate it…but I didn’t really like it either.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House One World, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest 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.

This book is so interesting!

I really enjoyed the history behind this book. History that no one knows about. That’s the kind of history I love. I also loved the horrorish element, though I think it’s more a cautionary tale of inclusion. A tale of thinking for yourself and not following your parents thoughts “just because you were raised that way.” As far as horror goes, it skims the surface for me, though I’ve read few books in the genre. To me, this is more a dark historical fiction. Either way, I really enjoyed the journey. I enjoyed the literary metaphors and elements. I loved the message.

What an amazing read, a horror story that is so much more then that. It’s a story about monsters that are born, monsters that can take human form, loneliness, fear of the unknown and fear of something that looks or acts a little different then “normal.”

Pretty sure this will be one of my top books of 2023. Highly recommend. Lone Women is my first Victor LaValle book but it won’t be my last.

I was intrigued by Adelaide’s speedy departure and ensuing trek to establish herself as a homesteader. She interacted with quite a few memorable “Wild West” characters. And there was always the mystery of what was in her trunk.
However, when the creature made its first appearance, I could not continue. Supernatural horror is just not my thing.
Thank you for sharing your story pre-publication.

Adelaide leaves her home in California following the seemingly mysterious death of her parents and moves to Montana as a homesteader, bringing only a locked steamer trunk with unknown contents. As she begins her life as one of a few “lone women” homesteading in the area and begins to make friends, the secret in her trunk manages to escape terrorizing the locals, both people and animals. Fears of the unknown plus individual secrets turn the townspeople and other homesteaders into vigilantes necessitating the lone women to band together as they become the only ones level headed enough to find a solution to the terror.
This is definitely not a genre that I usually read but this book pulled me into the intrigue immediately with Adelaide disposing of her parents’ bodies and fleeing to Montana. The intrigue continued with the very unusual characters that she encounters and I was hooked and had to find out where the story was going. I enjoyed the way the side stories such as Fiona traveling to ghost towns seemed irrelevant but came together in the end. This book probably won’t appeal to everyone because it’s just so weird and unreal but I think the author did a good job of creating an entertaining story while portraying how differences and fear can turn people into the real monsters.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishers for the Advanced Reader Copy.

I had no idea what I was getting into with Lone Women, as this book was labeled historical fiction and horror. You'll gasp at the end of each parts, and forcibly you'll kept reading to know what is happening. There are unexpected friendships, strong women and a trunk that holds deadly secrets.

Lone Women is a dark, unique story.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Random House, One World for the complimentary copy.

Whoa…what a surprise! Such a mix of genres - historical fiction, mystery, family drama, horror, edge of your seat suspense with twists and turns thrown in along the way - all combined into one engrossing reading experience. As a reader I still have questions about how and why but I did not want to put this read down.
Adelaide, a thirty one year old woman, escapes her childhood home under a huge cloud of suspicion with an extremely heavy trunk she does not want out of her sight. Immediately the reader is pulled in making assumptions about what has happened. As she travels to find a new home far away, her past travels with her and is revealed little by little.
Victor LaValle grabs hold of you and pushes and pulls you along a roller coaster track, slowing down, gathering speed and rocketing along sharing his unbelievable storyline. I was unable to identify with any of the characters but the storyline is so powerful it keeps the car on the track and the reader engrossed in the tale.
I so love when a book is a total surprise to me and this read certainly was. My sincere appreciation to Victor LaValle who captivated me and held me hostage on my couch for hours, One World for publishing it, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this soon to be published twisted tale.

It’s 1914 and Adelaide Henry is packing up stakes and leaving California after losing everything near and dear to her. She’s taking only a small bag and a large padlocked steamer trunk with her. Hearing that Montana has no rules about lone women purchasing property, Adelaide picks a plot and stakes a claim in the rural town of Big Sandy. There is some serious baggage she’s carrying with her and anyone that’s too interested in her trunk comes to a bad ending. What exactly is in there? We don’t have to wait overly long to find out, but once the cats out of the bag, it’s too late to put it back in! This book was a strange mix of historical fiction and horror, something I would have never thought to put together. While well written, this dark and dreary read was not for me! Thank you to One World and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Lone Women is beautifully written, multi-layered historical fiction with a vivid sense of setting and atmosphere. I felt like I was alongside the characters on this cold, vast, isolated land.

The characters are well developed, complex, and real enough to step off the pages. I loved Adelaide, and her predicament broke my heart.

This book is marketed as horror, but if you’re not a fan of the genre, don’t let that deter you. The horror aspect feels like an allegory, a symbol of things I can't talk about because of spoilers. It’s not overdone or full of gore. Instead, it’s a poignant backdrop that brings us to a thought-provoking conclusion.

It's 1914 and Adelaide has a secret- a big horrific secret. This blends historical fiction with an unusual undertone (until it's right out there) of horror. She's moved to Montana, dragging with her a large locked trunk, where she plans to homestead in an area where there are only two other black people. Along the way she meets an odd woman with four blind sons- keep your eye on this group. Things are tough when you move to a shack with nothing, including food, but luckily her closest neighbor arrives on horseback with her son- they've got secrets too. The nearest town is dominated by the Reeds- not good people. Sorry but this truly deserves to be experienced without expectations because it's twisty and frankly surprising. LaValle pulled me in early, when I thought Adelaide was running because of what happened to her parents (which is true) and then it seemed like a fairly conventional yarn about a black woman struggling to make it as a homesteader but then, wow! Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Great tension, intricate plotting, and intriguing characters made this a terrific read.

I'm not usually drawn to the early US homesteading period of historical fiction, but the promised twists were intriguing, and didn't disappoint. Adelaide had a lot of baggage she'd been carrying around all of her life, in the form of an enormous steamer trunk. Although it was less about the trunk than what it held, and that's where the darkness starts. Some of the homesteading details seemed a bit unrealistic, and on the whole the story didn't get as detailed as I would have liked, but rather remained a little superficial, which ended up keeping me just out of the story enough to not be fully engaged. I think there could have been a bigger grab and more intensity which would have bumped it up to a 5 star rating for me, but overall this was a solid story and well worth your time.

My thanks to Random House/One World, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hate to say this book wasn’t for me but I just could not get myself to enjoy it. The story opens with Adelaide setting fire to her home, with her deceased parents inside, and leaving for Montana with nothing but her secretive locked trunk. Solid start but from there I was so bored. I couldn’t connect with Adelaide and just didn’t care what happened to her or even what was in the mysterious trunk. This didn’t read as horror to me, even in the metaphorical sense, and I’m overall disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and One World for an ARC of this title.

What a delight of a book. I'm not a huge historical fantasy person, but this hit the right blend of well-researched and well-written. The setting and details of frontier life in Montana during homesteading feels fully thought out (there's fantastic world building happening), and the various characters that make up the town feel fleshed-out and complex. LaValle knows his hand and plays each of his cards at the right time, revealing a new layer to the supernatural dealings, and though the moment right before the finale felt a smidge rushed and occasionally hard to follow (a lot of characters make a LOT of choices leading into the finale), I loved the ending.

Thanks Random House and Netgalley for providing this ARC. I enjoyed this mix of historical fiction and the supernatural/horror a lot. LaValle did a good job mixing in some current issues without detracting from the plot or feeling like certain topics were inserted to check a box. It all worked quite well.