Reviews with content warning for Racism - Lone Women

I wasn’t sure why I’d read immediately after I finished this book. I was drawn in by the premise of the book, but it turned out a bit different than I’d imagined. I did enjoy it, and learned about a piece of history I didn’t know anything about. The interesting part was that the dialogue felt modern. I mean I don’t know how people spoke or how their thoughts came across a page, but it felt like Adelaide was in 2023 at times. I liked some of the characters, but understood who the villains were early on. They still exist, and will ask for progress only for themselves because they’d rather be closer to the most powerful than make things universally better for marginalized groups. This review is longer than I intended it to be, but I liked the book. I’ll probably read more from this author but prefer to dive in without reading the synopsis.

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billyjepma's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A very good book with very, very good writing. It doesn’t all come together—the ending is a little glossy for my taste, and the genre elements don’t quite mesh with the historical fiction as cohesively as I hoped—but LaValle’s writing and characterizations are so sharply nuanced and textured that I was always invested in the story, even if I never felt compelled to rush back to it—which is why it took me a month to finish it. If anything, I wish it had been longer. With some more space to explore the setting, enrich the character dynamics, and delve into the themes, I could see the story becoming something really immersive. But as it is, LaValle accomplishes a lot in under 300 pages and delivers another tonal masterpiece that strikes a nearly perfect balance between the various genre, thematic, historical, and even political edges it’s engaged with.

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hmatt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really like this concept. The characters are diverse and feel very well-developed, and the storyline is interesting.

What holds it back for me is the pacing, which felt a bit up and down. This might partially have been how I read it, but it's one of those that start slow and then all of a sudden wrap up. With the very in-depth characterizations, I think it would have benefitted sticking to the slower pace and being longer.

I also did not like the narrator for this audiobook - it felt too obviously like they were reading off a page.

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meganpbell's review

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“History is simple, but the past is complicated.” This well-researched supernatural Western expands the picture of the Wild West we’re used to—redrawing the boundaries to include the Black, queer, and mixed-race settlers that lived and labored on the frontier while exploring assimilation and inclusion, complicity and community-building. To be honest, I appreciated this book more than enjoyed it. Recommended for fans of Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland.

Highly recommend reading this excellent article on the historical background of Lone Women:
https://www.tor.com/2023/04/03/book-reviews-lone-women-by-victor-lavalle/

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storyorc's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A woman facing down the Wild West with nothing but a trunk full of monster is a premise like no other. The pacing lags at times and LaValle cuts away from the violence too soon to have proper satisfaction, at least to this sick soul. However, there is many a wonderful turn of phrase to be found (short buildings that 'hardly trouble the horizon' and wind that 'sculpts' the town residents) and the overall length remains very reasonable. It calls out the many historical wrongs of the era but does not get mired down by them. The women themselves make up for any other faults by managing to be intensely admirable not or lack of flaws but for their manner of facing them.

Also the central woman is (mostly) unapologetically a big, tall, strong woman. Love it.

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