Like the other Sarah Gailey books I’ve read, the premise of Upright Women Wanted might be a little hard to explain, but go in on trust and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

It took me a little while — probably longer than it should, I can be obtuse — to realise that the story is set in a near-future dystopian society rather than the historical ‘wild west’.

The sense of place is that well written. For most of the story we’re on the road, travelling in an unforgiving landscape with a few brief stops along the way. Even though the characters are never still, you really get a sense of the world their travelling though, both in terms of physical setting and the political/ sociological atmosphere. It has a tangible sense of place, that feels aged — like you could reach out and touch it, or like it’s always been there.

Likewise, the characters feel ‘lived in’. Apart from Esther, the characters get no real direct backstory, and even hers in dealt with in a few short paragraphs. That doesn’t matter though, because somehow I felt that I knew them all — had known them all for a long time — within just a few pages.

Upright Women Wanted is less than 180 pages, so it’s a quick read, but one that really packs a punch. The story was incredibly memorable and touching, and the cast of characters caught my heart. It’s a standalone story — and functions absolutely perfectly as one — but I’m greedy, and I’d happily read a series of novella about these people.

Last summer I met Sarah Gailey at ALA. While they signed a copy of Magic For Liars for me, I told them how psyched I was to read it. They said, "Hell Yeah!"

Well, I say, "Hell yeah!" about Upright Women Wanted. This amazing novella is about queer librarian spies fighting fascism. It was exactly the book I needed to read today. The characters are diverse, tough, and believable. I'm so over the patriarchy that I simply cannot watch another Quentin Tarantino-type movie ever again, but I think that some lady producers and directors should totally make this into a dope Spaghetti Western film.

In a post-collapse eternally-at-war America, most States are rigidly controlled, with traveling women Librarians bringing only Approved Materials to small communities. Conventionally rigid “virtue,” subservience to male authority, and suppression of free thought are the rule in Esther’s world. Just before the start of the story, she has fallen in love with another teen girl, their affair has been discovered, and her lover has been hanged. Only the power and political standing of her father has saved Esther’s life. So she does the only reasonable thing: she runs away to join the Librarians. Who are not at all the conventional, convention-enforcing women she expected: a lesbian couple and a third, who presents as female in public but wears trousers and insists on “they” in private. To say this blows up Esther’s preconceptions and challenges her guilt for having the “wrong” attractions is putting it mildly.

The core of the story emerges as Esther gains in confidence, rising to face one increasingly dangerous challenge after another. The world is nothing like what she expected, and the only way to gain her own freedom to be fully herself is to fight for the rights of others to do the same.

A satisfying ending concludes this thoughtful page-turner.

I wish this were a full novel! I love the idea and characters. I think a lot of folks will have fun with this one. I just wish it were longer.

Gailey's weird, wild, and worrisome Alternate West kicks off the first of what I hope will be quite a lot more fiction. Esther, on the run from her oppressive community after the execution of her best friend and lover, tries to join the moralistic Librarians who distribute "Approved Literature." She hopes to keep her queerness from hurting others--but instead discovers that the Librarians are the Resistance, and that the world is both more frightening and full of possibility than she could ever have imagined.

It's not that I wanted to love this, it's more like I just took it for granted that I'd be blown away by it.

While I wasn't, and while I had a few issues with the book, it was still a good story that simply oozed Gailey's style, and I loved the representation among the characters.

If you like weird west, women, lots and lots of queer people, and a literally endless stream of euphemisms for the word 'gun,' then this book is for you.

The entire premise of this novella is just amazing: queer librarian spies on horseback? Yes, please! Sarah Gailey really delivered with this one too, it’s a quick and enjoyable read. It was a great setting, with diverse characters but it was a teeny bit slow for my tastes. Overall a great little read though.

Overall the plot is pretty straightforward especially since this is a novella so nothing is too terribly complex. The setting seems to be a future American Southwest but one where we have gone backwards with certain technology as it’s very much a “western”. There aren’t cars anymore but we have horses and guns! There is a bit of world building but it really isn’t expanded on a whole lot so I was left confused as to certain aspects of the world. I understood that some sort of regime came into place where only “approved materials” were distributed to the public, hence the Librarians of the story, and certain technologies weren’t available to everyone: latex gloves, generators, diesel fuel, etc. I just wish there had been a tiny bit more explaining behind this.

As well as executing people for possessing “unapproved materials” (books, writings, film, etc) they also punish people for being LGTBQ+. People trying to hide their romantic interests as well as genders are a very central plot point in this book. The Librarians help these people escape the State and smuggle various items as well. Essentially the Librarians are rebel badasses and they’re smart about it. I cannot express how amazing this concept was, I loved it.

There are a few surprising twists along the way but I found the pacing to be a bit slow. I had to trudge along at certain points because there’s a lot of tedious traveling at times. However, the ending was so feel good and I really, really loved it! I mean I’m always for a happy ending and this very much was one, I feel!

This is a more character driven novella featuring a LGTBQ+ cast. We have Esther, the protagonist, who was in love with her friend Beatriz and is now on the run. She honestly develops so, so well throughout the story and I was so proud of her by the end of it! She’s a bit more shy and has skill, though she is slow to admit that she’s good at anything. Esther is also a lesbian and develops the cutest most satisfying relationship by the end of the book, again, so proud of her.

Then we have Bet, the Head Librarian, and Leda the Assistant Librarian. They’re both in a relationship together as well and are both lesbians. Both women were such badasses too, I adored them. Then we have Cye who is an apprentice Librarian, they are non-binary and are also a badass. Though Cye comes off a little rough they’re actually really sweet. ALSO this is own voices non-binary rep!

What I Loved:

Diverse Characters
Non-binary own voices rep
Interesting setting
Character development
Cute romances
Queer Librarians on horseback!

What I Didn’t Love:

Pacing was a bit slow
World building was not developed a lot

Honestly, I know I don’t have a lot of “negatives” about the book but it didn’t quite grasp me as much as I thought it would so I’m going with the 3.5 rating. It’s definitely an enjoyable novella with amazing rep and I highly recommend checking it out!

Trigger Warnings: Mention of Parental Abuse, Misogyny & Homophobia (Challenged Throughout The Book)

**** Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review ****

We’re a wee bit late but on GOD. UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED by Sarah Gailey is worth the wait, no matter how late. We’re always down for Sarah’s work, and this novella did NOT disappoint. You want some queer rebel cowpokes? Because we’ve got some queer rebel cowpokes.

But let’s talk about UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED.

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“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.”

Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her–a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.

The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

–

Esther is the quintessential protagonist. I love her more than I love myself, honestly, and I adored watching her journey to self-acceptance in this story. We’ve got such a diverse cast of characters who model this self-assurance, which helps Esther on her journey immensely. But they also model this behavior for readers, which gives this novella the face-punching impact that it has.

Self-acceptance is hard. I’m not talking self-love (trust me, I’m not the person you’d want for that) but just the first step of accepting yourself. Of looking at your behaviors and experiences and the other building blocks that make you a person and going, “I accept you, flaws and all,” instead of cycling into a self-hating spiral of death. And this novella shows us that it’s a process, and that we can usually make it out okay with the right people around us.

The setting was perfectly dark without the narrative spinning itself in circles trying to describe it; we got the info that we needed, no more and no less. (I mean, I would’ve loved more, but then it would’ve bogged down the narrative and that’s no fun.) It’s a taste of sweet summer heat in the dead of winter, and I couldn’t have been more joyous for it.

I obviously love this story, in case you couldn’t tell.

If you want a short, sweet story about a girl coming into her own, this is the novella for you.

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Don’t forget to check out our podcast review, out now on your favorite podcatcher!

A book about queer librarians? Sign me up! I was super excited to see this come up in my search. This takes place in a sort of Dystopian setting, where the Government approves what media the public can consume, and the librarians deliver it via horse and wagon. There is lots of danger, and smuggling and other things going on, making for a very exciting plot! I loved the different characters, although I do think the story was a bit quick for me. I didn’t get to really fall in love with any of them, because there just wasn’t time. I liked the addition of a non binary character that uses the pronoun “they.” It made for an interesting read.

I do wish this story had been longer, to give the plot and characters time to develop. It was a lot right away, which gave me a little bit of a struggle sometimes. Overall, it was an awesome book and I am excited to see more from this author!

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own

This book was incredibly fun and exciting. I’ve read almost all of Gailey’s work and each story is an exciting treasure. The setting was captivating, the characters enthralling and interesting, and I hope that they write a sequel soon!

I liked it but it needed more. I wanted more in depth everything. I understand that it was a novella, but this easily could have become a full fledged book.
Also I was a little weirded out that Esther is grieving for her dead girl girlfriend at the beginning of the book but 20 pages in is making googly eyes at Cye. Ugh.

A beautifully queer western novella with nomadic rebellious librarians characters that give the story heart & hope. Put a smile on my face as I rooted for good to triumph over evil. Highly recommend adding this to your TBR.

This book is amazing, and I'm happy to recommend it to anyone looking for interesting science fiction or books with queer characters. I've turned in the interview to Interstellar Flight Magazine, and it should be posting within the next couple of weeks. Will email publicist when that happens!

This book felt very uneven to me. Parts of the world-building were really incredible and handled very deftly, while other elements of it were so ham-fisted as to feel like an after school special. Likewise, some of the characters (well, two) were really well-drawn, while the others were so flat that they were indistinguishable from each other. There is a couple here that I could literally not describe apart from their names, and this despite both characters taking up a vast amount of page time. The action scenes also felt half-cocked, with some parts being really exciting, while others were merely confusing.

However, the setting and wild west elements are excellent - they really make the book - and the story moves along at a fast enough pace to keep you interested. I'm pretty sure I saw a sequel hook at the end there though, and I'm not convinced in this book as the start of a series (I'd need to care about more of the characters for that) but as a standalone it's entertaining enough.

A western where the cowboys are queer librarians? Yes please! Adventure, intrigue, love, DANGER! Upright Women Wanted has it all!

This book was 100% fun from cover to cover and my only complaint is that at 176 pages, it was over too soon! I hope that Gailey writes a sequel or at least some other books set in the same world.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I received an ARC of this book from Tor/Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was expecting this to remind me of the stories of the Pack Horse Library Project, stories like The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and The Giver of Stars. And it certainly feels like Upright Women Wanted was at least partially inspired by that history.

What I wasn’t expecting was the crossing with The Handmaid’s Tale (which I confess I STILL have not read) or a reversal of The Gate to Women’s Country, especially in a setting that reminds me of even more surprisingly American War and Junkyard Cats. A future that is so FUBAR that the means and standards of living have gone backwards, because war is hell and the entire country is being sacrificed to it one bit at a time.

There’s also a heaping helping of George Orwell’s 1984 to add to the mix, but in a really subversive way. In the world of the Upright Women, Big Brother doesn’t actually need to watch everyone all the time. The propaganda of the ubiquitous and extremely carefully curated “Approved Materials” has created a society where “Big Brother” has been more or less successfully uploaded into each individual’s own brain without them being consciously aware of it.

What makes this story so fascinating is the way that its protagonist, Esther, is such a marvelously conflicted example of all of the ways in which those Approved Materials both have and have not taken – and what she does about it.

Esther is queer in a world where the only stories she sees about women like herself are stories where people like her, or people who are in any way different from the accepted world order, are punished or dead or mostly punished and dead.

She’s fled her town after being on the sharply pointed receiving end of one such object lesson. Her best friend and lover has been hung, by Esther’s own father – the local sheriff – for having been caught in possession of Unapproved Materials. Reading anything not approved by the state is a hanging offense.

While Esther is still “safe” for certain select values of safe, she is all too aware of the writing on her wall. She can hide what she is and pretend to be subservient to the man her father has picked out for her – or she can run. Everything she has read has led her to believe that she will come to a bad end no matter what she does, but at least if she runs she might not bring the consequences of her supposed evil to her town.

And she might have a chance to atone for her “sins”. So she smuggles herself aboard the Librarians’ wagon, believing that in their service she will find a way to live and serve the state without being put in the way of the temptation she can’t make herself resist.

But the Librarians are nothing like what she thought they were, nothing like what all the Approved Materials that she has read, that the Librarians themselves have brought to her town, have led her to believe.

They say that the truth will set you free. The truth certainly sets Esther free. But first she has to learn to recognize it for herself.

Escape Rating A-: There’s a part of me that found this story to be just a bit of a tease. This is a novella, so it is relatively short. The points of the story are sharp, laser-focused even, but we don’t ever find out how this future version of our world got to be the way it is, or even much in the way of details of exactly how it is – even though it feels like a not-too-far-out-there possibility from where we’re standing. But I always want to know more about how things ended up this way. I’d love to revisit this world to learn more.

But even though I didn’t get to learn the history lessons of this place, the story still has plenty to teach.

The first lesson of this story is never to mess with librarians. And that’s a fantastic lesson to learn – or so says this librarian. I’m also terribly glad that this lesson about librarians is all about the subversive nature of information. And the way that these librarians are using the appearance of conforming to participate in a revolution. Or at least a rebellion.

So yes, this is a story about a plucky resistance versus at least a repressive empire if not a completely evil one. As far as we know, there’s no Palpatine here, just a whole lot of people going along to get along to keep themselves safe. There’s just no place for anyone who can’t move in the proper lockstep and the punishment for not marching in step is death.

The second lesson is about not believing what you read. Instead of “trust, then verify” the lesson is “verify, then trust”. And to always examine everything you see and hear and read to figure out why you’re being told what you’re being told and who benefits from you believing it. Because it usually isn’t you. And no one can say that this particular lesson doesn’t have a hell of a lot of applicability in the here and now.

The most important lesson is the one about self-acceptance. Esther goes from believing that she must be evil because that’s what she’s always been taught, to accepting that she is who she is meant to be, and that who she loves is her right. And that she has every right to fight for who and what she wants and that those horrible lessons that the state tried to install are not the truth of her – not at all.

And while that lesson of self-acceptance is explicitly about queer self-acceptance, there’s a lesson there for all of us, particularly those of us living while female. Because society has boxes for all us, and those boxes don’t fit a lot of us in all sorts of ways. Accepting that not being the kind of woman that society seems determined to force us to be is an important but necessary lesson we all need to hear – a hell of a lot more often than we do.

Upright Women Wanted is one of those books that I both liked and was really angry with it at the same time. Because with some more work, it could have been a GREAT book, but as it is, it is not a great book. What started off with an amazing idea, with fascinating world building premise and interesting characters, ended up feeling incomplete and unsatisfying. I was reading it one night, not paying attention to what percentage I was at on my Kindle, and then it ended, and I was so confused that I had to log into my NetGalley account to make sure that I wasn’t given only an excerpt of the book. But nope. I was given the complete book. Just one so unsatisfying that I finished reading it by accident.

The concept for the setting is excellent–a futureistic western dystopia, set somewhere in the vicinity of former Arizona, in a world of endless war, deprivation of the common citizen, oppressive control, especially of sexuality and free speech, and constant government misinformation. This fascist nation is at war with other nations that were formerly parts of the USA. (Including an area governed by Utah, which is apparently now a bastion of sexual and religious liberty. Say what?) The landscape the characters travel manages to feel sun-bleached bright and yet bleak all at once, like the setting for the movie The Book of Eli. Our protagonist, Esther, is a good girl who has a secret dangerous enough to motivate her to risk death by running away from her powerful father and oppressive town, by hitching a ride with the travelling librarians.

That’s right. In this future world, librarians offer a travelling service, conveyed by horses and wagons, to distribute government-approved reading materials to the settlements flung across their dry, dusty territory. The roads between settlements are long and dangerous, so these women tote guns and take no nonsense. And they are none too pleased to find Esther in their wagon. Because it turns out they’ve got secrets of their own.

Sounds amazing, right? Like, outta my way, I gotta read this right now! But the story never really picked up from there for me. So many gaps in world and character building left me frustrated and even bewildered. Esther may have her own spicy sexual secrets, but we’re told she lived a sheltered life, fed only conservative government propaganda, and yet somehow, every time she was introduced to some new concept of gender or sexuality that she would certainly never have encountered before (non-binary people, committed lesbian relationships, triads, etc), she seems to require zero explanation or context. She just nods and immediately understands it and keeps moving. This didn’t make sense to me at all. She is, as described, a clever and curious girl. So why doesn’t she ask questions when someone she perceives to be another girl fiercely tells her to call the person they/ them, for instance? Why doesn’t she ask what a triad is when told that’s what the three female passengers are?

Also, we’re told Esther is grieving the recent, traumatic loss of the person she was closest to in the world. Her forbidden lover and best friend was executed in front of her, and she didn’t dare show any reaction. Her fear and grief were enough to drive her from the only world she knew, in hopes of finding a better place. And yet, mere days after the loss of this friend and lover, she encounters and falls in insta-lust/ insta-love with someone else. She excuses it, in her own mind, by saying that her friend and lover wasn’t possessive and would have wanted her to be happy. But that statement reflects on her friend, not on herself, and it’s difficult to take her supposed grief and trauma seriously when she can move on to someone else so quickly. Or to believe her capable of holding emotions like love at all.

What about representation? This book is definitely chock full of LGBTQ+ representation, with lesbian couples and triads and a non-binary character. One of the women is described as dark skinned and is possible African American. The rest of the characters seem white, white, white, with no apparently explanation for where all the Latinx and Native populations of that area of the world have gone. This is an aspect of the story that should definitely have been addressed in more detail, as otherwise their exclusion feels awkward and uncomfortable. Where were the editors of this book, and why didn’t they address this and many other glaring omissions?

In short, this book is short. That makes for a fast read, with a clever concept, and at least superficially appealing characters. But without additional development, it quickly became confusing and disappointing for me. At less than 200 pages, it is worth trying to read, if you’re still interested. Perhaps you too will get to the end and say, “Wait, that’s it? There’s no more to the story?” Or perhaps you’ll like it. Good luck either way.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Tor/ Forge for letting me read a digital advanced copy of #UprightWomenWanted . This is my honest opinion.

A Western, but set in the future, in the American Southwest during war and oppressive government. The main character flees her home after the execution of her secret lover, Beatrice, for the possession of seditious literature. She runs away by hiding in the wagon of a group of Librarians — people who travel around distributing approved literature.

Naturally, the group turn out to be not-so-law-abiding, and Esther finds herself facing the law and learning all kinds of things she never thought she could. She also finds herself attracted to the trainee librarian of the group, who considers themself to be non-binary and just pretends to be female in towns, where it’s necessary. In some ways, it’s a fairly typical narrative and hits more or less the beats I expected, with Esther slowly growing in confidence and competence as the story rolls along. The ending comes along briskly and leaves the way open for plenty more in this world.

It’s a pleasant read, and I’m still pleased to see a non-binary character casually included in a place of prominence. The relationship between Esther and Cye seems a little fast for me, and I’d honestly have liked to learn more about Bet and Leda — and Amity, come to that — whose stories might perhaps have stood out a bit more. I enjoyed it, but as it’s settled in my mind, I realised that I hoped for more.

To be honest, I began reading "Upright Women Wanted" knowing already that I would enjoy it. Sarah Gailey is a favorite among my colleagues, and their books are some of our best circulating SF books. That said, this one exceeded my expectations. I love a future western, I love a lesbian romance, and I love rebellious librarians. The only complain I have is that "Upright" is more of a novella, and therefore far too short.

After witnessing the execution of her beloved best friend, Esther hides herself in the book wagon of traveling Librarians and grapples which her own sense of identity and justice. Librarians cross the desert between the small settlements remaining decades after the end of the United States. Beautiful writing and complex ideas brighten the page. Unforgettable characters join with an adventure worth spending an afternoon inside.