I love a story that focuses on women persevering against all the odds, and that is certainly what I got with <i>Lone Women<\i>. I mean, it doesn’t get more difficult than having to start a new life from scratch in Montana with winter around the corner as a single African American woman at the turn of the 20th century all while (quite literally) harboring a very deadly secret. Good God, it could not get any worse. I was super excited to dig into this mix of horror and historical fiction, particularly with the heavy dash of girl power peppered within. However, it wasn’t until about the halfway mark that I felt the story picked up, which was super disappointing. The first half focused a lot on Adelaide, the main character, fighting to survive in an unkind environment, and after a while it got kind of monotonous. Yet for all the book harped on about the difficulties of surviving in this harsh place, we don’t really get to see how she gets to stand on her own feet, making her homestead livable and permanent. Instead, we just get pages of how freezing it is and how lucky she’s about to run out of the potatoes her neighbor brought her. Another issue I had was that the depiction of the characters in the time and place the book was set in did not feel accurate — regional dialects, unique phrases, and period-accurate mannerisms and behaviors seemed to be missing, and as a result the historical fiction aspect of the book fell flat for me. In terms of the horror aspect of the book, it took a while for the backstory behind the main character’s “burden” to be explained and the suspense leading up to the reveal was a bit anticlimactic, in my opinion. I also felt pretty confused about the origin of the “curse” and what the two random people in the cabin who slipped the main character something had to do with anything. Really, where this book shined is the friendships Adelaide developed and her own character growth over the course of the book. Everything else was kind of meh.

Another great book from Victor LaValle that seamlessly blends horror and social commentary. Really the only reason this didn't get five stars from me is because I started to get bogged down in all the different POVs by the end of it but I am notoriously bad at following more than like 2 or 3 different POVs in any given novel so that's definitely something that's more on me. Would definitely recommend if you've read any of his stuff in the past or if you're just looking for a new horror book with an original plot!

“Lone Women is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—and a portrait of early twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen.” [excerpt from Penguin Random House]

What a strange, interesting read which continues to only get weirder as you go deeper into the story. An atmospheric tale full of dark twists and turns, this is historical fantasy fiction at its best. With a varied cast of characters, and jarring, tense storyline, it’s a gothic horror ride from the first page. What a stunning intro to LaValle’s writing.

Lone Women is set to be published 21 March 2023.

I have loved everything that Victor has written. This is probably one of my favorites. He has such a brilliant voice at storytelling.

I received an invite to read this and I am so glad. I can't recall another book that had the suspense that caused my heart to race. I think Revival was the last book that affected me like this. It wasn't the horror in a supernatural sense, it was the depravity of people and how humans really are the true monsters. With compelling and diverse cast of characters, a layered story and some interesting turns, Lone Women should be on. your radar.
This one is going to stick with me.

I read this one on an invite otherwise I probably would not have picked up, but BOY OH BOY am I glad I did! I wasn’t half way through before I added some other lavalle books to my TBR pile. Great pacing, great characters. My college days of analyzing an authors work trying to figure out the hidden meaning are long past, but the whole time I was reading I felt like I was reading something that had deeper meaning and a lesson behind it. The only reason it got 4 stars was because it did leave me a little lost in the beginning but it was worth it to find my way.

I have loved this author's work for a while, but was totally blown away by this newest work! I loved this book. It grabbed me from the first with what has got to be one of the most incredible beginnings I have ever read. The writing is just masterful, as the author unrolls the suspense and and the creepiness in a spectacular display of history and horror. I really felt that I was there and was fascinated by all these characters. The ending was note perfect and unexpected. This is simply a fantastic novel and I was so pleased to read it. I will enjoy recommending it to all my library patrons.

There were really high hopes for this book after reading the synopsis, but that ending...

I have to say one thing about this author before I jump into the story itself. LaValle has a wonderful smooth way of putting words on paper and I found the flow of this read really easy to follow.

My grip with this book is the story itself. I loved the mystery in the beginning. Adelaide's parents are dead. Did she do it? Or does she know who did? And what's with the heavy trunk she's hauling around like its full of gold?

As the story progresses, the mystery behind the trunk is finally revealed. A murderous creature kept hidden from the world by its keeper, Adelaide. Then the whole thing fell apart...

The mystery was gone, the story stalled and a bombshell of a climax that made absolutely no sense dropped. It was like the author did a 180 and completely scrapped their storyline to start over.

If it wasn't for the excellent writing, I don't think I would have finished this book.

Interesting story telling the tale of a woman trying to run from her past. Taking place in Montana in 1915 this is a mash-up of horror and the wild American west. Wonderful writing with a slue of unforgettable
characters. a very entertaining read.

As I began reading this, I told a friend I was reading a book about a Black woman homesteading, alone, in Montana in 1915, and that I was delighted with the theme. I was only part-way into the book, and already thinking it was a great story, a unique look at an unknown segment of history. As I kept reading, I gave short updates on the progress of my reading and of the story, and little-by-little, my updates got weirder and weirder. This is a wild ride of a book. I would have been happy with the homesteading story, would have welcomed a whole book about just that - women. alone, surviving the harsh elements of prairie life - but what comes along with that story is just as satisfying, is told with such skill, and is doled out with perfect pacing. There is much to unpack in this story, and it is one that stays with you well after the last page is turned.

A little bit historical fiction, a little bit fantasy/fiction - came together into a great tale!

In 1915, Adelaide’s parents are dead and she flees to escape her home with nothing but a travel bag and a heavy steamer trunk. She makes her way to Montana where she’s made a claim on land - if she can make her land productive in 3 years, she will own it outright (pretty wild concept! It would have been interesting to live in those times.)

But, Adelaide’s curse has come with her to Montana. Just when she starts to settle in and make friends - will it all be ruined?

Thank you to @netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I opened the novel with no expectations beyond what the synopsis offered. I'd read Victor LaValle’s earlier works and for the most part I have enjoyed them; however, I REALLY got into this one and can confidently rank this one as my personal favorite of his offerings. It’s difficult to describe why - this is part historical fiction, part family drama (biological and blended/adopted), with a smattering of “horror” which I would categorize more as suspenseful magical realism because there isn’t anything overtly terrifying depicted in the novel. In essence, it worked for me – it has the right elements in the right doses written with expert storytelling and pacing! It kept me turning pages to see how things were going to play out.

Adelaide Henry at aged 31 is recently orphaned under tragic circumstances; she hurriedly flees California to Montana to begin anew as a homesteader with a few dollars, a padlocked steamer trunk, dreams of a new life. Her mother repeatedly told her “a woman is a mule,” and growing up laboring alongside them for decades, she’s no stranger to hard work; nonetheless Montana proves difficult as winter sets in. Upon arrival, the homestead is not as described in the contract. Fear sets in as her finances are dwindling, food and heating supplies are scarce, and additional otherworldly challenges prove even more daunting when the contents of the steamer trunk are revealed. However, hope saves and a friendship is born the day when her widowed neighbor and son, Sam, visit with much needed supplies.

This is the Wild, Wild West in early twentieth century America – the mining boom is over, abandoned ghost towns litter the landscape; these are desperate times for desperate people. Adelaide is both befriended and betrayed at various points by both likable and despicable characters – she meets all sorts, each with a story that mirrors America’s formation. The strength of the book is the friendship that she finds with other lone women – single, independent women who are born disadvantaged and often ostracized through no fault of their own (i.e. based on their sex, physical build, sexual orientation, race, socio-economic status, refusal to marry, etc.). Women who are determined to survive in an unforgiving landscape and in an even harsher world. Women who have to minimize their talents, swallow their pride, tamp down rage and suppress their anger – willingly subjugate themselves to the laws of the land and social mores that were born from racism, discrimination, sexism, etc. This book explores themes of redemption, forgiveness, and fortitude. I really enjoyed my time with it!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

The opportunity to escape your troubles and past in the wilderness of the American West has an alluring appeal, though life on a homestead may prove equally challenging in Lone Women by Victor LaValle.

Thirty-one-year-old Adelaide Henry leaves the family farm she’s called home her entire life with a heavy, and locked, steamer trunk in tow after her parents’ deaths and heads toward the prospect of becoming a homesteader in Montana on her own. Lugging the trunk along with her, Adelaide carries the burden of her family curse and being known as “queer folk” while embarking on her desired fresh start, but as she begins her new life in the harsh Montana environment, she recognizes that she’ll need to form connections with others to survive, which is something that she’s not accustomed to. Befriending her closest neighbors, Grace and her child Sam, Adelaide is gradually introduced to the other hardy people of Big Sandy, the closest town; but when what’s been hidden away in her trunk escapes and wreaks havoc, alongside other nefarious scavenging operations endangering people, Adelaide realizes that the secret she’s hidden away for so long might just be the thing that will save her, and the other lone women like her, if she can finally accept and embrace it fully.

An interesting mix of historical fiction depicting the hard life and experiences in the American West in the early 1900s, magical realism through the depiction and exploration of what’s referred to as a demon, and the experiences of women who are viewed as “other” by their communities for a variety of reasons, which provides a diverse character representations, a broader story filled with secrets, struggles, and survival of these strong women braving these challenges quickly unfolds. There’s a murky quality to the description of the creature that lends it an air of nebulous mystery that allows for shifting to match with the perspectives and imaginations of those who encounter it, yet it does feel a bit frustrating at times to not have an overly clear picture of what it is exactly that’s eliciting such a sense of fear. The narrative is primarily focused on Adelaide and the building tension that her secret provides, but there are chapters, with increasing frequency particularly in the latter half of the novel, that focus more closely on others who intersect with her life, which when first introduced feel a bit disconnected but truly help develop and round out the story once the connection is made clear.

Overall, I’d give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a fan of Victor LaValle. So much so I’d request his new Netgalley ARC without doing research into it, on name recognition alone. And sure enough, he doesn’t disappoint. In fact, this might be his best one yet. Not perfect (more on that later), but really, really good.
Do I love Westerns? No, not particularly. I’m not even sure this one qualifies, although it is a novel of American West with the place as prominently featured as any character and deadlier than some.
Into this windblown and isolated Montana setting, a woman arrives. She plans to homestead, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the government, and to that end she acquires a small remote property. All she has with her is a large heavy trunk.
A trunk that we as the readers watch her leave her parents’ farm with in the stunning first scene. The farm behind her on fire, the bodies of her parents left behind to burn. It’s positively cinematic.
But Adelaide is a woman with secrets. All will be revealed in good time, just you wait.
In Montana, she finds a patchy community of self-determined resolute wind-beaten womenfolk she proceeds to associate with, however reservedly.
But then the trunk is opened and her secret leaps into the world. Danger sighs flash as Adelaide panics. All the while the world around her with the local politics and local powers that be have their own ideas about the land and the people of it…and that’s a different but all too real sort of danger too.
Negotiating her traumatic past and her complicated present, Adelaide proceeds. With a marvelously variegated cast of friends she acquires. And as a reader you can’t help but cheer for them
That’s how emotionally engaging this book is; how well written it is, how exciting it is.
It really is such a great book; one of the few I read and had it play as vividly as a movie in my mind.
But remember that thing about it not being perfect…well (and this might be purely personal), I don’t care for speculative fiction that overpowers itself with messages. Or more like MESSAGES.
While I appreciate diversity (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) in my reading, LaValle seems to really lay it on heavily here. Yes, the book is very Girl-Powered, with a strong feminist message. Yey. Yes, the book features characters of different races and ethnicities and queerness and all that. Yey.
But does it have to be handed quite so heavily?
I mean, almost literally the book is divided so that all the good and moral characters are people of color and LGBTQ+ umbrella and all the evil ones are white sisgendered individuals.
At least the gender thing isn’t as divisive: there’s a nice pair of female villains to counter all those virtuous ones.
But really? LaValle is too good of an author for such unsubtleness.
Then, there’s the ending – so feel-good and quaint for a story that dark, it’s almost jarring. But then again…by then you care about the characters so much, you kind of want that sort of resolution, no matter how twee or over-sentimental.
In the end and overall, this book was a pleasure to read. And a thrill too. The best of both worlds. Wildly entertaining tale of secrets, redemption, forgiveness. Just call it the Sisterhood of the Traveling Trunks or something. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Lone Women opens like a frontier saga about black women finding a safe place to live. The author builds a strong case for why it is so difficult for any woman alone, much less a black woman and, goodness, other than white nationalities. Little one-liners however drop clues that all is not known yet.
When someone gives women power over great odds that seem insurmountable, it is tempting to say, "but of course". Those little clues become the manner Mr. LaValle uses to provide power to the seemingly powerless and level the playing field: a true monster against everyday monsters.
A great romp with zingers when you least expect them.

A complex fairytale about family curses set in the old West, Lone Women is an odd and wonderful story. A murder mystery turns quickly to a classic Western tale of independence and survival, branching out into friendships and families and a touch of fantasy. All the disparate parts blending together into a very satisfying ending.

This is a great horror novel! It's got everything I want in horror: women characters with a wide range of strengths and abilities, queer and trans representation, bringing down corruption, a happy (-ish) ending for the monster, who isn't really a monster, and super-creepy surroundings, ghosts, and lore. Highly recommended.

I'm a big fan of Victor LaValle and as soon as I got this ARC, I jumped right in. Lone Women is the story of Adelaide Henry, a black woman fleeing a dark past to be a pioneer homesteader in 1910s Montana, carrying with her only a single traveling bag and a mysterious steamer trunk. It's a difficult life, and she soon meets a cast of engaging characters, and other lone women like her. The main thrust of the plot is of course what's in the trunk, and all throughout my read I kept yelling, “What’s in the trunk?” all Seven-style. The reveal is satisfying, and propels the subsequent events that kept escalating. LaValle is so adept at ramping up tension, layering complex characterization and a strong sense of place. And it's scary as hell! All that with the incisive social commentary, sharp attention to historical detail, and gorgeous prose–what more could I ask for?

Wow. I have never read anything from Victor LaValle, and so wasn't sure what to expect. This book was great. I really enjoyed the characters, and enjoyed that I wasn't sure where it might be going as I read along. I will definitely need to read prior novels from Victor LaValle, and any future novels. #LoneWomen #NetGalley

Another incredible journey from the mind of a master.
This titillating mix of historical fiction and horror is a mind bending experience. Go into it blind, you'll be rewarded!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the arc!