First book by this author but definitely not the last. Just loved his storytelling style. Was hooked right away and read in one day as I couldn’t wait to see what craziness awaited for me. Such a wide variety of unique characters some you will love and some you will love to hate! Yes had some horror elements but not too graphic or gory.

I read this book courtesy of NetGalley - I specifically requested it because I have read and loved other Victor Lavalle books in the past.
Man. What a book. It's been a while since I read a book that I just did not want to put down.... If sleep were not an obstacle, I would have finished it in one sitting. Because I had read Lavalle's work before, I knew what I was in for - there was definitely going to be something otherwordly in here somewhere. Like The Changeling, it seems like we are in our normal everyday world, but as usual, it turns out there is something sinister at work. One of the things Lavalle does best here is thread several different mysteries together - so many characters are hiding something. From the beginning, we know that these characters each harbor secrets, and the unravelling of those secrets is the fun of this book.
In the afterword, Lavalle mentions that he didn't know about these lone women homesteaders before his visit to Montana, and he reckons most others don't either. I loved learning about this history and learning to love these women in this book. The women in this book are truly wonderful characters - each and every one. The ending left me completely satisfied and I am glad Lavalle took his wife's advice (per the afterword) as to how to end this story.

Lone Women is a fascinating mix of historical fiction and womens fiction with horror blended in. Adelaide is leaving her home in Lucerne Valley, CA with nothing but a heavy steam trunk and dark family secret. Heading to Montana in hopes to start a new life as a lone black woman in 1915, she must learn to lean on others for survival while also strongly protecting the evil she hides in her trunk.
I was absolutely captivated by this story and found myself rooting for Adelaide and her found family. Lone Women is definitely a unique type of horror that may not appeal to everyone as it leans more toward historical/womens fiction.

So many thoughts about this book. I will definitely be reading more from Victor LaValle as he eloquently told a story with so many genres—horror, historical fiction, thriller, fantasy… As well as real world issues—racism, women rights, and more (to not spoil)….and somehow, it all came together and worked. It also seems fitting to finish this on International Women’s Day, as this book does a fantastic job at portraying strong, independent women trying to survive. I will definitely reread this book again during spooky season.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an advanced reading copy.

Captivating from the very first page. LaValle instantly set the tone for menace and intrigue. I loved learning more about this period of history, as well as interrogating my assumptions about settlers and settlements. There were times when the narration jarred me out of the moment but, overall, I enjoyed the ride.

Thank you Random House Ballantine for inviting me to read and review Lone Women. This is a wonderfully intense, engaging, and relevant book as it asks the reader to go on a journey to consider an array of complex, but very real and very lived, experiences with race, family relationships, bigotry, aggression, and somehow always a little shimmering glimmer of hope and forward movement towards a better or a different future.

This book has such powerful pacing, strong crafting of tension and a propulsive sense of something about to unfold, and excellent drops of magical realism (which I loved). The fast pace and blending of magical realism/fantasy worked for me.
The blending of horror with very real experiences with racism and related themes is well done, it invited me into a deeper engagement with the feelings that still persist when we face the horrors of historical and ongoing racism and bias in our culture.

Release March 28

Every work from Victor Lavalle resounds, and is life-changing and unforgettable. Opening one of his books is to enter a Portal, and upon completion, you find yourself in a place both new and different. Not only the characters undergo evolution: so do the readers.

LONE WOMEN undertakes to explore segments of the American past that are little known, if at all. It also takes you on a journey, along with the characters, and when you turn the final page, you will not be the same as you were before you started the first page.

Welcome to an early 20th century American West, filled with Adventure, Drama, Racism, Bigotry, Familial Bonds and Obligations, Family Found and Family Rejected, Violence, Murder, Narcissism, Aggression, Hard Work...and Hope.




#magicalrealism #VictorLavalle
#Western #WeirdWestern #BIPOC #LGBTQ #Women

Lone Women, by Victor LaValle, is so darn much fun! Part historical fiction (wild west) and part horror story, a battle of good vs. evil, family ties and secrets, and best of all, several wonderful, strong, gutsy women you can really root for.

A lone woman, Adelaide Henry, burns down the family farmhouse, with her parents in their beds, and leaves California for a homestead claim to start a new life on the desolate, windswept, and frigid Montana plain. She takes along with her a very heavy, padlocked steamer trunk and a terrible secret. What a beginning. From there, the story twists and turns, and just gets better and better. This quirky tale is fresh, and interesting. I haven’t read anything quite like it. The mystery of the trunk (a sort of Pandora’s box), the colorful characters (even the baddies), and the narrative style keep the pages flying by.

Besides the absorbing main story, there are several underlying themes to keep you thinking. Racial prejudice, women’s social roles, familial ties and obligations, female friendship, and the realities of homesteading on the plains. I almost never read horror (aside from Shirley Jackson) and I loved it. I’ll definitely seek out more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House - One World for an advance reader copy. The book will be released on March 28th, 2023.

I received an early copy from NetGalley.
I feel like it's weird to say, but I really enjoyed the pacing in this book. The story opens with a mystery and leaks information a tiny bit at a time, so you don't fully grasp the situation until the end. Very satisfying.
Pretty much everything in this book is at least mildly unsettling. Our protagonist is a woman of color, woefully unprepared and alone in rural Montana. Her closest neighbors are miles away and mostly white. And she's keeping a secret that desperately wants to be revealed. Everything she does is a bit of a risk, so things get tense and make the pages fly by.

Lone Women was a historical fiction blended with horror and followed Adelaide on her journey from her home in California to the windy and vast lands of Montana to homestead. She took with her a large steamer trunk and her parents were dead. We didn’t know why or what happened, but we knew she had a secret.

I thought the beginning and the end were very good, but the story fizzled in the middle and I found it hard to connect with the main character or any of the folks around her.

I liked the twists and the reveal and I don’t want to spoil it, but I wished the pace was a tad faster or Adelaide had a little more personality so I could have better connected with her.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and would recommend to fans of horror and historical fiction.

This is a great blend of historical fiction and horror featuring suspense and strong women characters. The author cleverly lets the reader believe certain things, only to reveal the real truth as the novel goes on. Truly a story of good vs. evil and the strong ties that can bind women to each other and to their families. The only part that I wish the author had written more true to the circumstances was having Adelaide more prepared to work her land and then actually spending some of her time actually doing it!

Thanks to NetGalley and One World for the ARC to read and review.

A dark and twisted journey of family, bigotry, isolation,secrets, and horrors. A woman with physical and emotional heavy baggage leaves her home in California for the emptiness of Montana. With her is a locked trunk and a heart full of secrets. As each layer is revealed it gets more and more insane. Go in completely blind like I did and you will surely be shocked and blown away. Lavalle is an incredible writer that knows how to get under your skin and keep you reading. This is a horror story unlike any I have read populated with characters and setting that consume you and pull you into their world. Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing group for providing me a copy of Lone Women. I went in blind not hearing of this author or reading reviews about the book, or what the story was about. This book is classified as historical fiction /horror at its best. I did find it a little hard to get into it but, once I did the story flowed. This book has any interesting concept and uses a physical object to impact the story.

I had to take some time to digest this book before diving into a review. There is a lot to unpack in this historical fiction/horror novel. In many ways, it reminded me of Alma Katsu's writing: taking a true historical event and writing it with a horror and supernatural flair. I was immediately drawn into the story and wanted to know "what was in the damn trunk?!' It was enough to keep me going, but there were plot holes that keep me from giving this book a five-star review. I enjoyed the historical aspect, the LGBTQ+ representation, the single mother kicking a$$ storyline, but found the storyline with the rich family and their theatre show a bit confusing. I think there was potential here, but it fell flat for me.

I’m still pondering on this book I read yesterday. Odd in its premise, the storyline is a reflection on the characters: odd. While this is labeled as an historical fiction with horror elements, there is also an element fantasy with the presence of demons and specters and ghosts. Adelaide, a 31-year-old Black woman, has grown up on a farm in Southern California with her parents. However, the family is thought of as odd, never mingling with others. Adelaide Henry’s mother does not encourage her daughter to leave the farm but does stress to her that like herself, Adelaide will be a mule all her life living the life of drudgery and yet bear responsibility to never tell the family’s secret. This is something that Adelaide does not want. Following the gruesome death of her parents, Adelaide leaves to homestead in Montana striving to live a life of shame in isolation as she drags a very large and well locked steamer trunk with her. It seems as if Adelaide can never rid herself of the family secret. Yet in Montana, she is befriended by other lone women who have secrets of their own. This is historical fiction in the fact that we learn about homesteading in the West in the early 1900’s where it spotlights the prejudice against Native Americans, Chinese, Black people, and non-traditional women. Amid some violence and vigilante justice, creepy things occur that are not of this world. I felt this element interfered with the historical fiction aspect and made me wonder the direction of the author was taking. I had some confusion as well when some characters popped up randomly in the story and could not figure out where they came from (such as the people in the mountain at the base of the cave.) However, I continued to read, just as interested as the characters in the book as to what was locked in the trunk that was closely guarded by Adelaide. Because when that trunk got opened, bad things happened. I don’t want to give anything away, as I want you, the reader, to be just as surprised as I was. But all in all, I found the historical elements interesting and the rest befuddling. I rate this a 3.5/5.

Many thanks to #netgalley #lonewomen #victorlavalle #randomhouse for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Not quite sure what to do with this one. The premise seemed to be really interesting at first-a young woman flees her disgraced past to settle as a lone woman in Montana in the early 1900s. However, the trunk she is carrying with her is proof that she can’t leave her past behind forever as it harbors the secrets that she is trying to leave behind.
For those expecting traditional horror, this is not it. This book reads more like a historical fantasy if anything. The first half is strong and lured me in, but the last half faltered. The twists lavalle tried to employ in the last half just didn’t work and seemed unnecessary at times. The character development was lacking somewhat. The setting of the early 1900s Montana worked well for me though and the first half definitely showed the promise and potential. Lavalle has always been a mixed bag for me and this continues the streak.

Thanks to the publisher for providing the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Victor LaValle’s “Lone Women”, Adelaide Henry leaves her family’s California farm in disgrace, lugging her violent burden in a steamer trunk. She settles as a “lone woman” homesteader in rural Montana, hoping to shield the world from her secret—but she can’t keep her secret for long.

The premise of this book is fascinating, and I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the plot as well as the rich setting. The narrative was creative and compelling, but the writing style and head-hopping kept me at an emotional distance from the main characters. Additionally, after a semi-slow start, the book began to take left turn after left turn, leaving me reeling at times. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I couldn’t fully connect with it.

LONE WOMEN
Victor Lavelle

LONE WOMEN starts blazing fast and doesn’t ever slow down. It’s a moving train you’ve jumped on without knowing and it’s going fast.

It stars Adelaide a woman born with a burden too heavy to carry. But that’s exactly what she does as she sets off from California to Montana in 1914 to stake her claim and start a new life, amongst other things.

She is just one of many homesteaders coming to Montana to settle and the rugged environment is a sharpening stone for all that decide to do so. Adelaide is Black, has secrets to keep buried, and rides alone. One of those things alone would be tough but all three combine to make Adelaide’s plight harder than most.

It’s hard to explain what happens when you open the pages of a really good book. But it just feels different, doesn’t it?

And it didn’t take me much time at all to notice and appreciate the talent that Victor Lavelle put forth in this novel. The writing is thoughtful, and the themes presented within the text are evolutions ahead of other horror books on the market.

A horrifying tale, captivating and poetic, in well under 300 pages. I loved my time in the new frontier with Lavelle.

LONE WOMEN comes out later this month on March 28, 2023. It is available now as a Book of the Month choice and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House, One World for the advanced copy!

LONE WOMEN…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lone Women was a mixed bag for me. I loved the early 20th-century Montana setting. The cast of characters was unique and brought a refreshing view of homesteading, particularly by single women. But the story's "locked in the trunk" theme fell flat for me. I don't want to give spoilers, but the reveal lacked context or a backstory. Yes, LaValle describes what's in the trunk and how it got there, but there is no compelling why.

This book is hard to classify. It's not horror because I wasn't once concerned or frightened, and I frighten easily. It's more historical fiction with a strong dose of fantasy. I would have enjoyed the book more if it had left out the fantasy element, but I expect this was the author's whole premise. Thus my conundrum reviewing this novel. It's worth reading just for the historical aspects.

Jordan Peele would make this into a great movie.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an electronic ARC in exchange for a review.

***NetGalley Review***

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, surprisingly so.

What did I enjoy?

This book reminds me of the TV show Lost; just when you think you understand what is happening you are thrown completely off by a paragraph, a sentence, a word. The writing lulls you into a soothing rhythm and you're invested in the story of this woman leaving home to homestead in Montana, then with the relationships she makes with other characters, the drama of the small town etc. and then BAM you're spinning thinking "WTF did I just read?!".

I really enjoyed how thoughtful this story comes across, and how real each character feels - and there is almost a sense that there isn't a single main character. While this is categorized as a horror, I would describe it as historical fiction with a hint of suspense, western, and the supernatural.

What did I NOT enjoy?

I don't have many complaints; I didn't have an issue with the unreliable narrator but I was definitely expecting, or at least hoping for a bit more closure. There are some crazy, and I mean CRAZY twists in this book and it kinda ended with me thinking "...ok so we're just gonna go with this? Walk away like a ghost town legend told over campfires. I HAVE QUESTIONS?!"