A review by nerfherder86
The Robber Girl by Franny Billingsley

4.0

This story is rather unique--it's an "alternate history" historical fiction with some magical realism (sort of) and basically an unreliable narrator. It deals with trauma and memory loss, found family and family ties. It's set in the Old West but not really the "real" Old West. It took me awhile to get into it, probably because I was having to read it only in short sessions. Once I had time to sit and just immerse myself in it and get used to the odd way the narrator tells her story (the dialogue with the dagger gets annoying), I was hooked. It is about an orphan raised by outlaws, who is taken in by a Judge and his wife and learns more "civilized" ways of living while she is trying to get back to her outlaw father-figure and help him get rich. On the surface, it's the Wild West. But then you have things like a religion centered around the "Blue Rose" and the Seven Stars, plus a talking dagger and talking dollhouse dolls, which take this in a different, more philosophical, direction. I really liked the writing once I got used to Robber Girl's odd mannerisms, and found myself rooting for her. There is clearly some horrible tragedy in her past that has caused her not to be able to remember her life before the outlaws, and it has affected her whole personality. Not sure what teens I would recommend this to, unless I knew them very well.