Review of Advance Reader’s Copy eBook

She’s packed a single travel bag . . . and a mysterious, locked steamer trunk. Everything else stays behind on the family farm.

Thirty-one-year-old Adelaide Henry is on her way from California’s Lucerne Valley to Montana where the government offers free land for anyone who can cultivate it. It’s a long and arduous trip, but she now calls a twelve-foot by twelve-foot cabin near Big Sandy home. Here she makes her home. Here she struggles to survive.

Will it be far enough away to hide her secret? Or will the truth win out at last?

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History meets an imaginative horror as a group of lone women set out to become homesteaders, finding strength in surprising places. Set on the American frontier early in the twentieth century, the struggle to survive is omnipresent in the telling of this tale. The world here is harsh, the bleak landscape of Montana made even more so by some who see only what they want for themselves.

Adelaide has an inner strength [perhaps from her years of keeping the family secret] that serves her well as she moves relentlessly forward. Populated with well-drawn characters, especially Grace, Sam, Bertie, and Fiona, the unfolding saga takes some unexpected twists and offers readers a few surprises along the way to a particularly satisfying denouement.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Random House Publishing Group – Random House, One World and NetGalley
#LoneWomen #NetGalley

I’ve read two Western horror books this month and I must say I am hooked. There’s something about the old west that makes horror seem natural, like something that of course would be part of the landscape. “Lone Women” follows Adelaide Henry as she flees her childhood home, which she’s set on fire with her dead parents inside. She drags a massive steamer trunk and a travel bag as she sets out to homestead in Montana, which allows women to claim land.

Victor LaValle weaves in a number of interesting historic details into the story, such as the Black farm settlements in Southern California’s Lucerne Valley, and Montana’s role as a leader in women’s suffrage. Since the book is set in 1914, Adelaide is referred to as Negro and for her it is hard for her not to see herself reflected in every face she sees. She needs to adapt to being different. The people of Big Sandy don’t seem to care if she’s Black (there’s another Black woman in town who has a lot of power because she runs the town still:) They’re just happy to have someone new in town.

But things get complicated quickly. The contents of Adelaide’s trunk begins to create trouble, doubled by her acquaintance with a creepy family. I do not want to give anything away because “Lone Women” is filled with surprises.

Adelaide is a marvelous character, as are the other women she meets. The men are pretty fleshed out until, bang! They go bad fast and turn into vigilantes. It would have been nice to see more nuance there.

“Lone Women” is a terrific reading experience. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for digital access to this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I adore LaValle's The Changeling. It's easily one of the best dark fantasy novels I've ever read. I can't wait for the adaptation.

So, when I had the chance to read Victor's new one, I went in blind.

That was my mistake.

Lone Women is a weird western. It's a decent one, but weird westerns have shown time and again that they're just not for me.

I just found myself mildly uninterested throughout. Forget everything you've read here and find The Changeling

This was an interesting book, and I overall felt that the story was good but there were some things that lacked. Some of the dialogue was a bit off and a few of the characters really made me roll my eyes several times.

Thanks to Random House, One World and NetGalley for the chance to read and review Victor LaValle's 'Lone Women.'

There's no hanging around with Victor LaVelle - we're thrown right into the heart of the story, the mystery, and the action of 'Lone Women' and that momentum doesn't flag. I read this in two sittings over the course of 24 hours - you're absolutely dragged along at his speed whether you like it or not and although the pace is fast, the mysteries are revealed and questions answered deliciously slowly.

It's a fabulous combination of horror, western, historical social and racial commentary, and absolute and a very major and satisfyingly unresolved mystery.

It's a story - as is obvious from the book's title - of women in the early 20th century frontier and their struggles to survive and features both the good and evil side of those struggles - not every woman in the book is a noble struggler, in fact they all have flaws but some are definitely more flawed than others. As well as the racism (anti-Black and anti-indigenous) the main character, Adelaide, experiences throughout, there's good old-fashioned misogyny, there's an early taste of transphobia and homophobia, as well as your garden variety of classism which thrived.

It reminded me of so many things, written and filmed including the TV version of Colson Whitehead's 'Underground Railroad' (more than the novel) for it's otherworldliness anchored in the very real and harsh world and though not as brutal, Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridien' for it's depiction of the harshness of the frontier and its people,

Great horror and history.

LONE WOMEN by Victor Lavalle, is an incisive examination of family, the boundaries of self-reliance, the American frontier ethos, justice, and guilt. It's inescapably dark, with elusive elements of horror that run the gamut from ghosts and hauntings to cryptids and demons made flesh, and yet, as is always the case, perhaps it is the people who are the most terrifying all along.

Adelaide Henry flees her home in California for the homesteading wilds of Montana, lugging a steamer trunk along on the journey. In Montana, she finds the desolation and isolation of the American frontier in the early 20th century, navigates being black in a landscape that is mostly not, and being a single (lone) woman, as well. Along the way, Adelaide discovers it's impossible to outrun your past, and indeed the shame and sins you bury will ultimately demand a reckoning, and meets many and more people who learn that lesson as well.

The experience, especially at the beginning of the book, is relentlessly tense. Lavalle grips you by the throat just tight enough to be uncomfortable, and doesn't let go until the Adelaide starts to feel at ease, when he allows the tension to wane just long enough for things to start going wrong again and the grip to tighten once more. The book is tagged by the publisher as "gothic horror," and that description is apt for the slow and foreboding tone that is set on the first page.

I received a copy from the publisher, unsolicited, "given [my] appreciation of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s MEXICAN GOTHIC." I'm quite honestly not sure how or why that popped into my inbox the other day, but it was a welcome way to spend my weekend. LONE WOMEN is set to release on March 21, 2023, so there's plenty of time for you to line up your preorders.

I am letting others know that I enjoyed this novel but am advising them not to look at spoilers or synopses, as it was rewarding to let the mystery remain for a while at the start,

The opening was so eerie and intriguing that I kept going even though I had not intended to read the book right then, and it ended up being a thoughtful novel that developed in ways that were not what I'd expected. I have enjoyed this author's previous work and look forward to his next. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for this arc of Lone Women.

This was a great read….wildly original, thought provoking , with lots of forward momentum. Definitely interested in reading more of LaValle’s work—I was only familiar with—and a huge fan of his graphic novel Frankenstein update!

How does Victor LaValle do this! I am mad at myself for gulping this book down, but I could not slow myself. At one point I had to say go slower, go slower, you are getting to the end, and I was not able to slow down. I needed a great horror book and LaValle per usual delivers. The characters are so damn good. The writing is lyrical. The flow is top-notch. The setting is perfect (Montana in the 1900s). The ending is too. I got nothing to quibble about. I would warn people though that this is horror novel, so there is some blood and other things that may make you squeamish as a reader. 

"Lone Women" follows 31 year old Adelaide Henry. Adelaide seems to be on the run from something. Leaving behind her family farm and the secrets it holds, she leaves with nothing but a traveling bag and a steamer trunk. She decides to leave California for the state of Montana because she has read clippings before about how a lone woman can end up settling and gaining land in that state. And she hopes it is far away enough to hide her secrets. Of course, things don't go as planned, and Adelaide ends up having to decide to tell the truth of her family to her new friends or keep running.

Adelaide was great. I felt for her. A woman in her thirties who was tied to her parents (unwilling) because of a dark secret. A Black (or Negro woman as she is referred to in the story) has very few options in 1914 in America, but she is determined to still go on, though part of her wonders why she is bothering. Her traveling by ship to Seattle and then by train to Montana shows how tough she is. 

The other characters we meet, Bertie Brown and Fiona and Grace and her child Sam are wonderful. I loved Bertie and Fiona and wanted a short story about them and how they met. Grace and Sam and the secrets they shared were a surprise, but of course you realize this is why they were drawn to Adelaide and she to them. I am still surprised that LaValle is able to bring all of these people to life in just a little over 200 pages. Not a word is wasted. We also get some other characters who you learn to worry about since some learn Adelaide's secret, like the Mudges, and then the Reed's

The writing was fantastic. At times it may seem a bit repetitive, but it's because Adelaide is left haunted by the words her mother did and did not say to her. And at times, her mother's ghost walks besides her. 

The setting of Montana in this time period was bleak. It seems like anything could and would kill you. And you can see how many flocked to the Reed's and the couple's supposed charity. But of course all charity comes with strings. I also thought it was great that LaValle is able to show how Adelaide how to carry herself differently in Montana since she was Black. Even though all of the people she meets at one point are white. I was surprised a bit by her "romance" in the book because I wondered how something like that would have been taken back then. In the end though it ended up not mattering much. 

The ending was great. I loved the idea behind it and smiled. Fantastic read! 5 stars!

Loved it! This book gave me "Midnight Mass" vibes with some great representation included. This was something that I might not have normally picked up, but I am glad that I did.