The premise of this novel is intriguing: young women start itching, lose their memory, and feel an inexplicable pull to go West. They are often never heard from again.

The execution fell flat.

We follow three women. Aimee is going out in search of her best friend. Eve is trying to follow the infected to write the story of a lifetime. And Teenie is infected, deteriorating before our eyes. All of their stories come together via interactions with a mysterious man, The Piper, who is picking up infected women and driving them Westward.

The pacing is slow, to the point where after about 1/3 of the book it became arduous and hard to continue. The writing is eloquent and pretty, but the plot is lacking momentum. The entire time Aimee is reminding us that women have around 14 days to survive once taken ill, but this doesn't pan out in the rest of the novel and the urgency in her finding her best friend lacks. Some of the actions she takes are incongruent with her being in some huge hurry to find her friend.

The twist at the end is ridiculous. The way all of the plot lines wrap up into perfect little bows and the coincidences are just too much to be believable.

While this novel clearly has things to say about feminism and patriarchy and the political climate, particularly with it being set in the 70s, for me it failed to deliver.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley.

This book reminded me, just a bit, of "When Women Were Dragons." That same sort of inexplicable transformation of women as they come into power and do the thing that is right for them. I enjoyed the twists in the story and, honestly, didn't see a couple of them coming. Definitely worth checking out.

A sweeping, feminist reimagining of the American frontier, rich with emotion and camaraderie. Martin paints a vivid portrait of women forging their own destinies.

ARC releasing 3/10/26. (TBH wouldn’t have read this if I paid attention to the pub date as it’s not until next year. ) A mysterious infection only impacts younger women who start to lose their memories and only have the need to ‘go west’. This was unsatisfying. The main plot seemed to be about a small time serial killer and I was more concerned that 700k women disappeared and no one knew where they went?? Why wasn’t this a focus??

Westward Women by Alice Martin is an interesting read! Set in the 70s at the height of parents' concerns that their children would be kidnapped or lured away by nefarious characters, Westward Women captures that feel, but with young and middle-aged women. Journey with these women to scratch your itch to travel and find your true self!

Westward Women tells the stories of 4 different, but ultimately intertwined lives during the 1970s. A genre-bending book that has elements of horror, light sci-fi, coming of age narratives, and cult-adjacent vibes. I think this will be popular.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Young women are afflicted with a illness and a desire to travel west. Their stories are different, but they all suffer from the itch that must be scratched and a way out of their circumstances.

Received an e-ARC from NetGalley.

Premise sounded very interesting so I requested an ARC. Unfortunately, the book did not hold my interest. I skimmed the rest.

I love the West and I love books about women, but the writing fell flat for me.

For example: “Since the coastline spread through Olympic National Park, she had to stop driving after a while and get out to walk. When she finally crested a hill and saw the ocean, she thought she would be awed by the enormity of it, might feel the weighted loneliness of standing in front of the wide world of all that water alone. But instead, as she looked out over its hard, crashing waves, all she could think about was how she couldn't remember the last time she showered. She needed to feel that water rushing over her skin, running through her hair, pushing between her toes, the way she needed to breathe. There was no future beyond the ocean. There was no thinking through her decision to go into it. Her body wanted nothing more than to be submerged. As she made her way to the ocean and took off her jeans, she found herself speaking to Ginny in her head. You were right, she'd tell her if she were there. I'm sick after all. She knew the ocean would be cold, but when it smacked her calves, it still shocked her.”

Very bland writing, in my opinion.

Westward Women was a marvelous read. I really found the concept of the infection rather interesting, and the characters were very compelling. I found myself itching towards a sensible conclusion, wondering what could possibly be on the horizon of the Pacific Ocean in which most of the Westward Women find themselves called to. I will say, The only complaint I have about this novel is the level of suspension surrounding the infection. I suppose I wanted a few more firmer answers as to what it actually is--or perhaps what it is a metaphor for...or if it is even a metaphor for anything at all!

It took me about roughly two weeks to complete, and upon starting this novel, I was very unsettled with the idea. The descriptions of news reports of what had happened to these women was so alarming, yet true to life that at times I felt I needed to put it down. True to life, might be a better way of phrasing it, but it got too real at points where I began wondering if the mosquito bites along my arms and ankles had somehow become a mystery infection in need of being scratched red.

Alice Martin does a fantastic job in her debut novel, and despite me giving it only three stars, it does have a certain air about it that makes it feel like a fundamental work of literature--one I would gladly store next to other feminist literary authors with so much to say, in such poetic and normative ways. Thank you to all those involved in the making of this book! I was so thrilled to be able to read the ARC!

I really went into this book blind, knowing very little about the story and not being the biggest fan of the genre, but Alice Martin is a ridiculously skilled author and once I really got into this story I was hooked. We go into this story as lost as our characters, and are masterfully placed 5 decades back during the spread of an epidemic inflicting woman and ultimately forcing them to leave everything behind for the need to go West. I cannot stress enough how hard this book is to put down, and what a journey it is. Given the current state of the world, and my personal crybaby feels about my place as a college aged woman, I was crying for a large part of this book, it just tied so expertly into the cultural issues and fears many of us face today. Highly recommend!!

Thank you so much to Alice Martin and Netgalley for sharing this E-ARC with me!

I genuinely loved this book from the bottom of my heart. It was impactful, exploring restlesness and an "itch" that all the doctors claim is just another illness that only impacts women, driving them westward-ho in seek of something beyond, but leaving them dead more often than not. The aspects of travelling west contrasted a lot with some themes of history, especially Manifest Destiny, which I thought was really symbolic in that tese women were people who just wanted a little more in life. In terms of the story itself, I really loved getting all the different perspectives in order to build out everything to its fullest potential, especially when it all merged together at the climax, which I still cannot stop thinking about days after.

Sad to say, I hated it. I wanted to love this book, but everything about it felt so boring. The premise was so good and interesting, but the coincidences were too absurd to be true.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book; it has a unique concept that feels fresh, especially in the currently saturated market. I did find the beginning 20% to be slow/did not have high enough stakes -- the itch is mysterious, but without knowing what it really does, it makes the need to find Ginny less dire. I also noticed that in the first chapter it is said Ginny was the wild one and Aimee would always stay home, but Aimee is away at school while Ginny still lives at home with her mother, causing a dissonance between what is told and what is "shown." Otherwise, a really great read!

First and foremost, as a fellow North Carolinian I have to support this author! I wondered why so many towns were getting name dropped, then reading that she's from NC in the About the Author section made it all click. This is Martin's debut novel, and I really enjoyed it! It's set in an alternate 1970s USA, one where women contract a fungal infection that makes them need to migrate west. If they don't obey this urge, they deteriorate rapidly. They tear their skin up scratching it, their eyes swell, they become lethargic and lose their memories. We follow three main characters as they head out to Seattle and see how their stories will wind up. There's a strange figure only called The Piper, who says he'll take women out west out of goodwill. I enjoyed the thread of Teenie and the sister she lost when she was a child.
However, I felt that the pace was a little too slow, and I wasn't very compelled by Aimee's POV (even though she made a stop in Milwaukee, and since I live here it was endearing), or Eve's. I found myself really only looking forward to seeing what happened to Teenie next.

Westward Women is a propulsive, ambitious debut full of heart. The relationships between the women really needed to be believable in order to pull off this book, and I think it was successful at that. Genre/vibe-wise, it sat somewhere between road trip adventure and creepy suspenseful drama.

I wish the author had gone just a bit further with most aspects of the novel. There were parts that reminded me of reading Station Eleven, though the writing here is less elegant than Emily St. John Mandel's. There could've so easily been more poignant commentary on society and feminism here, but the novel fell just short of that. The Piper, arguably the central figure of the book, doesn't get much of a backstory, either. The book is truly propelled by the atmosphere and the plot, which made for a good read that could've otherwise been great.

Ugh I just didn’t like this. The pace was miserable to me. The story itself was promising but I felt like this could’ve just been a shorter book and I would’ve liked it a lot better. As always, thank you St. Martin’s Press for the earc.

This was a wild book! I thought that is was very fresh and forward thinking, and honestly felt very creepy in a way that was slightly unsettling with today's social climate being what it is. I loved that it took place in the 1970's, focused on women (and the epidemic impacting them specifically), and that it had some surprising twists and turns. I was so thankful to have been able to read an advanced copy from Netgalley! I would highly recommend this one!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Westward Women by Alice Martin is a genre blending novel that combines elements of historical fiction, literary fiction, thriller, and horror to paint the story of strange illness that has struck a nation. Women, seemingly at random, are afflicted with a sickness that causes itching, memory loss, and an unyielding desire to leave their lives behind to journey west. The story follows three women- Eve, Teenie, and Aimee. Each interacts with the Westward Women and the mysterious illness in a different way as they are all drawn together by a mysterious figure called the Piper.

I think it’s evident that that author is a very smart person, able to create very nostalgic and evocative settings. There was a pervasive sense of disorientation in a dream-like way. Throughout the text, there’s a semi-spiritual hunger that the various characters find themselves interacting with. In terms of creating an intangible setting-the time, the sense of confusion and yearning, the author does a beautiful job.

However, I did not find that the other elements of the book held up against the very vague and ephemeral elements of the book. I felt like while the author put a lot of effort into the style of the book, the actual substance left something to be desired. I felt like until the last 1/3 of the book, that the named characters were fairly similar and blended together. While we were given the backstories; the journalist, the one with the missing sister, etc. They actually could have merged together into two named characters instead. We see them make choices, speak, and think in ways that are so similar that without the given backstories, they’re not particularly unique.

In general, my main qualm with the book was that the plot was slow and circuitous. When that was combined with some interspersed dream sequences it just became a very tedious read with a large stretch of doldrums in the middle. I think that the action, while compelling when it is happening, is spread so thin as to make reading this feel like a slow crawl at times.

Lastly, I thought the ending was not particularly subtle. The “cure” for the illness and the final hour twist both felt pretty on the nose in a way the rest of the book avoided.

For me, I did not particularly enjoy reading this while I can concede that the writing is very well done in its style. I’m going to rate this a 2.75/5.

4.5 stars. I received this as an ARC and am leaving this review voluntarily. This book will be published in March 2026. This was a delightful surprise of a debut. I am often hesitant with debuts, but this one blew me away. Martin writes like a seasoned writer, probably because of her PhD in English Lit, and it made this book a joy to read. The only downside to this book is that so much of it took place while driving, but I completely understand that on account of the fact everyone in this book is going, you guessed it, westward. What I gathered from this book is that the itch represents the pressure women feel from the patriarchy. It’s a metaphor come to life under their skin. The itch, in a way, represents female rage and repressed desires. Maybe that’s not what the itch is supposed to represent, but that’s sorta what I got out of it. I can see how some would not like this book, it’s very character driven and is more about the relationships between the POVs than any real plot, but I really enjoyed getting to be with these women throughout their journeys and the length they went to for each other. I feel like each woman stepped away from this knowing themselves and their desires, needs, and wants better, and were better off for having gone on the journey. I enjoyed the twist at 89% and didn’t see it coming. I also work in pandemic preparedness, and the whole time I was reading this book I was thinking about what my organization would have to do to respond to this sort of emergency. I think this is a very interesting take on a pandemic, oppression, and female rage. I even like that it was set in the 70s! Overall, this was an incredibly strong debut, and I think I would read anything this author releases.

ARC provided, thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher.

In an alt-reality 1970s America, Nixon is president but instead of Watergate taking up headlines, America is focused on the Westward Women.

Infected by a mysterious fungus that itches, disturbs, and disassociated, the women are compelled to move west in search of relief.

Four women’s stories intersect to paint a picture as they search for the piece in their life they feel is missing. One thing bringing them together is the Piper, a man driving sick women west.

This novel has a gothic, eerie feel to it. Not quite horror or gothic but with elements of both. The pace of the writing and arc of the story were terrific - really enjoyed this one.