Sarah Gailey's latest adventure novella does not disappoint. In a future American Southwest, librarians are morally upright women who travel the countryside delivering approved reading materials to isolated towns. Esther is a stowaway who is hoping the librarians will take her in and allow her to work with them. When one of their "deliveries" turns out to be more than they bargained for, and Esther finds herself in the midst of a shootout, fleeing for the state line. Like Gailey's River of Teeth, this is a rollicking adventure story that feels like an old fashioned western modernized for today's reader.

Novellas by their nature leave you wanting more. With Gailey's River of Teeth, I was left wanting more space - there was so much crammed into the pages that the story and people felt disjointed and sketched out. But with Upright Women Wanted, I was left wanting more of the characters - I want more stories and more time in this universe.

This isn't a perfect story - there are <spoiler> issues with how quickly the protagonists' murdered lover is tossed aside for her new love interest and the setting seems a little too black and white - I'm interested in getting more details on the universe and a little more nuance in future stories.</spoiler>.

On the whole a fun, progressive story of how someone discovers, while in the middle of a post-apocalyptic desert, that they aren't alone and they have a place to belong.

The old trope of running away with the circus never really made sense to me. Sure there’s glamor and adventure, but it always sounded like a lot of messy, smelly work to me. Running away to join librarians, however, is just my cup of tea. Even without the added “motivation” that prompts protagonist Esther runs away to join a group of traveling librarians in a devastated future America in Upright Women Wanted, I would totally understand why she would rather tramp around the desert with librarians than stay in her locked-down home, pushed into marriage and motherhood. This book absolutely delivered on its promise.

Esther is different from all the other girls in her town…well, different from all except one other girl. Things go wrong with their love and when the other girl is murdered, Esther hides away in the wagon of a trio of traveling librarians. She promises to work hard and suppress her otherness, only to be surprised when the women who run the outfit hold each others’ hands and tell her that there are safe places in the world for girls like her. The tricky part is getting to one of those safe places.

Upright Women Wanted rockets along as Esther tries to adjust to life on the road, with danger from the environment and the violent people who try to scratch out a living there. There’s also danger from within, when the librarians pick up a parcel that turns out to be three women trying to escape to one of those safe places. So much happens in this book that I’m astonished it’s so short and so adept at developing its characters. This book is a wonderful treat of a novella. I loved every page.

ARC provided by Tor.com via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

<i>Upright Women Wanted</i> was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020 and it did not disappoint. Gailey's prose is open and engaging, the characters possess a warmth and depth that makes you immediately root for them, even when they are flawed or acting in a less than likeable way. The novella is set in a weird west which we later learn is a post-collapse totalitarian patriarchy. The boys go off to war. The girls go to be good wives and have children. That's the way the world works. There's no room for those who are different or who deviate from the norm. There's no place for those who prefer their own gender or express their gender differently. The one gleam of hope for girls is the chance to join the saddlepack librarians - good, honest, upright women who have eschewed the 'joys' of marriage and children in order to serve a different calling; taking and distributing Approved Materials for education and entertainment between towns and villages.

Esther, a young girl from on such town, stows away in the back of the librarian's wagon, desperate to escape her old life and the fate which befell her girlfriend. But joining the librarians holds plenty of dangers. Aside from the desert itself, there are bandits, insurrectionists, gunfights, the cute enby assistant librarian and the upheaval of coming to terms with the fact that almost everything she was ever taught was wrong.

I loved this story so much. Esther is a likeable character though very naive, but her grit and intelligence, and her ability to summon her own courage soon see her pitched into adventure. The other characters are equally well drawn but I have a special place in my heart for the tempestuous Amity. This was everything I wanted it to be except longer! I would happily read a series of books set in this world. Honestly, queer, kick ass librarian spies? You had me at hello. Highly recommend

A neo-western in a dystopic near future Southwest with gunslinging librarians! Esther runs away from home and an arranged marriage after her best friend (who she loved) is executed for possession of resistance propaganda and stows away in the caravan of the Librarians. But the Librarians aren’t quite what she thought. Bandits, spies, and agents of antifascist resistance star in this pulp style novella.

In an alternate future Southwest, Esther stows away with the traveling Librarians in an attempt to escape her controlling father and his regime. But the Librarians aren't the loyal, rule-following bunch she expects. Instead, they're rebels working to help other women like Esther escape and fight back against the controlling government. If Esther can't accept who she is, she may find herself once again in danger from the people who could finally help her.

Fascist-fighting queer librarians? Check. Horseback gunfights against corrupt sheriffs? Check. A whole lot of action and adventure? Check and check. I'm a big fan of Sarah Gailey's writing, and I really enjoyed this novella. That said, my one complaint is that Esther's feelings / reactions to having recently lost her best friend / lover were a bit flat and rushed. I wish that could've been expanded upon so her journey to falling for one of her fellow Librarians and to becoming a true rebel would've felt more realistic and complete. But otherwise, it was another great novella from Sarah Gailey! No hippo-riding cowboys, but the fascist-fighting Librarians made up for it.

I really wanted to love the book (queer! subversive! librarians!) but it just didn't click for me. I think it's mainly that I, a humble ace, could not understand how the protagonist could go from mourning her best friend/lover (who was JUST executed) to eyeballing the hot enby trainee librarian in the space of a single day. Perhaps this seems perfectly normal to allosexuals and wouldn't bother other readers at all, but to me it was gross as hell, and I couldn't get back into the protagonist's POV. Your girlfriend JUST DIED, what do you care if a stranger is cute! That aside, the worldbuilding is fun, and probably even more so to people who like Wild West stories. I think the story left off in the right place for a novella -- it leaves the protagonist's future journey wide open.

I really enjoyed this! I think this more of a novella than a full novel and honestly, my only real quibble is that I wish it had been longer. I would have loved to spend more time in this world, learning more about these characters and how they function and thrive within this society. Give me all the stories about BAMF librarian spies, please!