A review by kghunter
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

A fun short read, silly. I grew up liking westerns because I always saw my Papa watching them so it was really nice to see queer characters depicted in a western. That being said, most western cowboys/cowgirls are defined by their rugged, undying loyalty to a certain concept, person, place, etc. and the authors ability to tell a believable western could have seriously benefited from them brushing up on even just the basics of such western tropes and themes.

I mostly found this book hard to take seriously and even someone demeaning as a queer person because it starts with the protagonists life-long childhood love being fuckin’ publicly killed in front of her so she runs off to join the “librarians” and literally immediately falls for/spends the rest of the book pining after a queer, NB librarian as if she hadn’t just run away because her closeted lifelong partner was executed in front of her??? like it’s so unserious it’s laughable which is why it was still just a silly quick read, but I do feel that upon reflection it is a bit dehumanizing to make a book about a queer character who is portrayed as being so frivolous and aimlessly driven by desire that something that big is just breezed past as a casual intro to a short story about her lusting after a traveling butch library cowboy lol