Reviews with content warning for Violence - Lone Women

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

jourdanicus's review

dark hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I'd heard of this book before, and once it was recommended to me by a friend I decided to give it a go.

I really enjoyed the themes of this story, the "casual" diversity (not bending over backwards to fit diverse characters in and not sacrificing their humanity for their identity aka tokenizing them), the character depth, and more. I loved the setting, both time and place. I think the 1910s need more attention in a world of historical fiction that focuses so heavily on the WWII era.

The plot was a little scattered I think, maybe it was more difficult for me to keep track of everything because I was listening on audio. It seemed like the depth of some elements of the plot was sacrificed for the sake of breadth, and the author's attempt at trying to give every character a backstory left me with some questions about the more main characters' motivations. The author did pretty well weaving together all the loose ends, but it took a little while to get there.

If you like a bit of horror, don't mind gore, and need your characters (even the monsters) to be deeply humanized, this is a book for you.

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vexatiousbird's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Not so much a horror story, though the elements of horror are there - more a story about monstrosity and otherness and women who are unashamed of themselves and doing what they need to survive, with the horror elements giving those themes a hard push.

I liked Adelaide, who is brave and decisive though pragmatic to the point of sometimes seeming emotionally detached. Side characters were also compelling, though we spent more time with some than I would have liked while others were left more unexplored than they probably deserved. Good writing and overall enjoyable, though at times a little bleak.

Mostly what stops me from giving this a higher score is that I felt not enough time is really given to explore the relationship between Adelaide and her mysterious burden, once the truth is fully revealed, and the lead up to the climax felt rushed and flat (partly as a result of that) when it could have been revelatory and profound.

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axel_p's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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jbosio's review

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adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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sierraburrell's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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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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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