Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

18 reviews

meganpbell's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Transphobia, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

sarah984's review against another edition

dark informative reflective 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

5.0

I really liked this book - the history is interesting and the characters are well drawn. I didn't think the horror was that scary and a few parts were a bit silly to me but overall this is a great story about family, revenge, and the meaning of forgiveness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

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

5.0

I knew going in that this was horror and historical. And yet the opening was still startling, and the slowly developing creeping dread was amazingly well done. I greatly appreciate that the majority of shitty things that could happen were alluded to, and not put on the page. 

This was hard going at times, not least because there are so many things that can go wrong for people living alone with limited resources in winters with much snow, and the 'how will the character(s) get through this' was exhausting. 

The story is incredibly complex, nuanced and layered, and I appreciated it all the more as each layer was revealed. The characters are amazing, the worldbuilding jumps off the page, the writing is sparse and yet lush, and the pacing is exquisite. Highly recommended. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Misogyny, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

minimicropup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Suspenseful, grim, sincere. 

We are following our MC on the run after an incident at their family homestead in California. They are planning to start fresh in Montana with nothing but the clothes on their back and a weighed down steamer trunk. We follow their adventures setting up, meeting the surrounding homesteaders, and developing new friendships. 

• Set in 1915 Montana

🎧 Excellent narration. Immersive, expressive, and listenable at various speeds.

Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐺🐕: 

• The beginning half of the story contains more supernatural suspense and the second half evolves with IRL horror elements. It's a smooth transition that unravels mysteries while building them.  
• Near the end (60% +) I was getting some reader fatigue. This was likely because of the increased action adventure, fight-for-your life parts of the story that I generally struggle with in books. 
• In the last third of the book we get less about what is going on with Adelaide and more about what is happening with other characters. It feels like dramatic literary fiction vibes replace the suspenseful mystery vibes for a bit, and I just wanted more of Adelaide.
• Historical fiction is usually not for me, but I didn't have any problems keeping up here. The author gives historical context in a natural, show-not-tell way, so I was never lost (but also didn't feel like I was reading a textbook). I was also able to relate to the characters and their dilemmas. 
• If you're here for the homesteading part of the plot, it may be disappointing. A surprising number of characters emerge once our MC arrives on their plot of land, so we don't read much of how she's prepping the land over the years. 

Cred Rating 👍😈: Supernatural magical realism

Mood Reading Match Up: 

• Starting over from scratch in a new land adventure plots
• IRL horrors with symbolic supernatural elements
• Mysterious historical fiction (early 1900s)
• Action-adventure stories with a creature feature
• Commentary/themes around disability, disfigurement, and rejection

Content Heads-Up: Transphobic, homophobic, ableist, and racist characters (also includes supportive characters and good rep). Home invasion and theft. Parental rejection.

Format: Library Audio via Libby

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

Animal deaths involve horses during attacks and escapes.

johnlock's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

tigger89's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

4.5

If you don't already know the details of what this is about, do yourself a favor and don't read too many reviews. I'm going to do my best to keep it vague here, but some of the others I've seen have been careless. This is definitely one of those books that benefits from the reader not knowing what to anticipate. All you really need to know about the plot is that this book is about family, secrets, and community.

I loved the way the novel approached the themes of family, both born and found. I also loved the atmosphere and historical context of this book. I had no idea that lone women were a real thing that had happened in US history, let alone that the opportunity had been available to Black women! The novel acknowledges, but doesn't spend much time grappling with, the colonization taking place. If there's anywhere it falls short it's in that respect. The ending rings a bit hollow when you remember that it's taking place not just on stolen land but on newly stolen land, with homesteaders who took direct advantage of the theft. I feel like if the author was going to bring it up then it needed to be better resolved, rather than just left hanging with a "well it is what it is."

Horror elements, while present, are fairly light. I was never afraid while reading this. There's some bloody scenes, along the lines of Carrie in terms of content, though written far less viscerally than King's style. Check content warnings or sample chapters if you're concerned.

Does the horse die? There are many horses owned by a variety of characters, including the protagonist.

Several background character horses die over the course of the story. The protagonist's horse is the only horse we get to know that dies.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, and Outing

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

There are multiple scenes involving vigilante justice with parallels drawn to lynch mobs.

dogearedbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Child death, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

sarahkorn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

Changed from 4.5 ⭐ to 5 ⭐ because I can't stop thinking about this book.

This book had everything. Lone women. Creepy old timey cowboys. Montana.

This book is atmospheric to the hilt, and a little bit absurd in parts, like David Lynch meets the Montana Hi-line. The whole book felt surreal and ghostly. I went to college in Montana and the small, disappearing towns across the mountains and prairies are chilly reminders of what was once a booming wild west. There's a lot of room for the imagination to run and ghosts to appear.

There were times where the weaving storylines were hard to follow but it didn't take long to catch back on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail