A woman who is traveling the plains alone, and has a mysterious case. Every time she opens it people disappear. Honestly the premise of this had me interested. the actual book felt slow and long. I wasn't ensnared like I was hoping to be. the twist wasn't the big hook I think it was supposed to be. In the end it was interesting, but it felt really long for a shorter book. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I was genuinely hoping I was going to. There were a lot of interesting dynamics in this book. I felt like there were a lot of plot lines and non of them got the attention they deserved. It felt scattered for me, and it made the story drag. Unfortunately, for me, this wasn't a win.

Lone Women
By Victor LaSalle
This is a western horror story. This is a standalone novel mainly set in Montana. The author has managed to combine horror, mystery, suspense, historical fiction, and the supernatural in a western set in the early 1900's. Featuring thirty-one-year-old Adelaide Henry, the novel also sheds light on the little-known historical fact that single, widowed, divorced, or deserted women who where at least 21 could become homesteaders and through “proving” their claim, own their own land.

Adelaide flees her home town of Redondo, California with only one bag and a very heavy and locked steamer trunk. Arriving in Montana, she starts making improvements on her land and keeping her terrible secret.
Adelaide is full of grief, worry, and uncertainty.

The first paragraph will grab you and pull you into the story. This novel touches upon racism and vigilantism, diverse characters, secrets, death, loneliness, difficult socioeconomic conditions, theft, curiosity, vengeance, rage, freedom, the supernatural, and retribution.

Random House Publishing Group provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley.

I found myself enjoying this more than I had the previous LaValle book I read, The Changeling, because he seems to have found his stride as a writer since completing that work. I enjoyed the mystery, I look forward to discussing with others. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with the title.

I love a book that offers a fresh perspective on a setting that comes with as much established mythos and iconography as the old American West, and this genre-transcending novel from Victor LaValle didn't disappoint. The characters here are really well written, and I found the plot to be engrossing throughout.

The book drops you into the story right away. I was hooked immediately and wanted to know what was happening. The reveal was interesting but also strange. I am still not sure how to process the deeper themes and meanings…but there is a huge focus on women’s independence and ability to work together for survival.

I know a lot of people liked the twist/ reveal of what was happening in this story, but I’m not sure I did.

The writing is so so good and ultimately I do recommend checking this horror story out! It’s definitely a wild ride that will keep you hooked.

This wasn't for me. I really didn't like it. The story just didn't line up and it had a lot of plot holes. I guess I just really wanted to know more about the "monster". It was very confusing.

I enjoyed this book. It really was gripping in the beginning. Then I like how it wasn't just "shock value" the whole way. We got to live with the characters and understand them.
I was constantly left wondering what was the "curse". And I loved how the story of the curse ended up.
I also loved how this book was jot so long. It was shorter and a perfect length. I think anything longer would have dragged the story along.

I highlighted this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/vNGio5zsFAI

An absurd tale of a 31 year old black farm woman who emigrates to Montana for a free land parcel toting a monster in a steamer trunk! The publisher should have laughed and not bothered to waste the paper. As to be expected, murder and mayhem ensued. I put the book down and deleted it from my library. I am adding this last sentence only to meet the 100 word minimum.

I put Lone Women on my immediate TBR as soon as I heard what it’s about. I really like the idea of westerns, specifically the setting, but it’s hard to find anything that’d hit the spot. Reading books based on the concept alone can be pretty hit or miss, but this time, it worked out perfectly. I could not put it down.

With both her parents dead and not much to her name except a mysterious steamer trunk, Adelaide Henry moves to the middle of nowhere in Montana in search of a fresh start. She establishes her homestead, even starts making friends, but her deadly secret can’t stay hidden for long. And the small town, of course, has a few secrets of its own.

I really liked the atmospheric, somewhat slice of life nature of most of the book. Sure Adelaide has a little problem she’s hiding, and there’s a strange family terrorising the local populace, but mostly it’s about trying to survive in a harsh landscape, which can’t be done without the help of your neighbours. This communal (later even found family) aspect of the book, was also great. And I liked that it centers non-white and often queer characters.

Overall, even with all the horror and gore, plus the usual racism and sexism of the era, Lone Women is a strangely compassionate book, especially towards the end. There are strong themes of guilt and shame, redemption, who are the real monsters, what is the meaning of family. Adelaide’s burden is as metaphorical as it is literal. It might be predictable in places, the ending maybe a bit too positive to be tonally consistent, but the mystery of the trunk was compelling and damn if I wasn’t a complete sucker for every little bit of the plot.

Most highly recommended, even if you don’t normally like horror. I want to read other books LaValle has written now.

Adelaide Henry is heading to Montana, a state where a woman can be a 'lone' woman and own her own parcel of land. She leaves California behind by burning more than bridges and she'll carry her family curse with her ... both of these, literally.
She leaves California by saying goodbye to her parents - by dousing their corpses and the entire house in gasoline and then lighting a match as the wagon she's hired, now carrying her entire life (and a family curse) in a large, locked trunk, rolls away.

But can you really escape any horror when you're a lone, Black woman in the middle of nowhere just after the turn of the 20th century?

On paper, by description, this is exactly the kind of book that might appeal to me ... western and horror. But in practice, this had not enough to do with either.

Despite the dark promise at the beginning of the novel with the burning of the homestead, the horror here is teased throughout. I'm not a fan of the in-your-face horror, and subtlety is generally more appreciated, but I've often noted that subtle horror is difficult to maintain for a novel and this, to me, is a case in point. It's a teasing of the same thing, over and over, starting from page one: what's in the trunk?

I generally appreciated the sociological aspects of the book much more - the lone woman making her way in a dangerous territory during a dangerous time (when isn't it a dangerous time for a woman alone?) and the need for the other lone women looking to band together, to look out for one another in this territory. And just when I'd settle in to this being the focus of the book, we'd be teased with the horror again and I'd get frustrated, wondering what this is supposed to be - and I know it could be more than one thing, but rather than seamlessly integrating stories, this felt like one idea would unceremoniously dropped to bring about something else.

Adelaide was an interesting character and we got to know her quite well. The others in the book are generally two dimensional, Her parents, dead before we begin the story, are more interesting than just about anyone else we meet.

I did like the western and sociological aspects of this book but the overall concept did not work for me.

Looking for a good book? Lone Women by Victor LaValle is a western/horror novel with a strong central character and interesting concept that gets lost trying to bring out a dark story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t typically read horror fiction, but this book was truly a revelation. It begins with our Black main character, Adelaide Henry, who is setting her family’s California homestead on fire, and arranging her murdered parents in their bed. Adelaide has read advertisements designed to lure people to homestead in Montana which make the state sound like Disneyland or Oz. So she heads north alone, along with her few possessions and a menacing steamer trunk containing a danger we don’t initially see or understand. Adelaide makes it to Montana, which unsurprisingly turns out to be far more unforgiving and desolate than the place described in her newspaper stories. But carry on she does, meeting good people and bad, with her heavy steamer trunk in tow. I don’t want to post any spoilers, other than to state the obvious. Yes, we find out what is in the trunk and death and destruction follow. But what makes this novel so much more than a scary story is the underlying theme of acceptance of the Other (whether based on such things as race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation), and what happens when the Other is rejected. This is a powerful lesson for those of us living in present time, and not just in the desolate nineteenth century West. 4.8 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary advanced readers’ copy of this book.

QUICK TAKE; read more like a novella to me, but ultimately i loved it. Very cool concept with a well-executed mystery (what's in the box?), set against the backdrop of a historical period and world that I didn't know much about. If I had any complaints, I wish there was MORE to the book as it was a lean and mean read that I flew through in a couple hours.

Courtesy of Random House and Netgalley, I received the ARC of Lone Women by Victor LaValle. I was drawn to this story of strong women homesteaders in the wide open spaces of Montana, and curious about the secrets! No spoilers! Suspenseful, well written, with interesting and compelling characters, this novel completely captured my attention as the story unfolded.

I'm so thankful to have received digital access to Lone Women by Victor LaValle leading up to its publication date of March 28, 2023. I thought this piece of horror and literary fiction was so well done, highlighting the appropriate minority groups, and I can't wait to run to my feed to see what my fellow readers think of this work of art. I am so thankful to NetGalley and Random House additionally for the bookish love.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy of Lone Women by Victor LaValle. I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I picked up this book, but boy was I glad I did. My mind is blown! History, horror, edge-of-your-seat type of book. It is hard to describe. I would HIGHLY recommend!

Special thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Oh wow for me this book lived up to the hype! I don't think this book can be tied to a genre it has so many.

This book was fantastic. Highly recommended. 4 stars! Maybe 4.5

I think I liked this…. but to be honest I'm mostly still trying to process what the hell I've just read.
This started off strong but I just kind of lost interest after the trunk was opened. There are quite a few side characters that the narration focuses on and I didn't feel they were fully developed.
For a fast read, it's worth picking up even if it's not the kind of thing you'd normally care for. It wasn’t my absolute favorite, but I was definitely entertained.
Highly recommended for those who like reading books that cannot be tied down to any single genre.

*Many thanks to NetGalley for providing my review copy.

Victor LaValle has crafted an unforgettable tale of survival, sisterhood, and secrets. It's hard to review Lone Women without spoiling any of the many twists and reveals so I'll leave this at an emphatic read this book. The story unfolds at a pace that leaves readers constantly question what they know and what will come next. I enjoyed the occasional shifts in narrative to give the readers a glimpse of what's going on in the minds of other characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was SO. GOOD. I'm not usually one to gravitate towards historical fiction, but the short chapters, complex cast of characters, and relentless horror elements drew me in quickly (from the first paragraph, in fact!) and kept me hooked throughout. I don't want to say too much, since I went into this blind and enjoyed it that way, but I love that this book tackled concepts of identity and relationships while also teaching me something about American history. It was fascinating to follow Adelaide to Montana and observe the relationships that other characters formed with her and each other, both positive and negative. Many of the people in this story demonstrate deep flaws and complexities that lend themselves to interesting twists in the plot. Highly, highly recommend, and I definitely plan to pick up another Victor LaValle read soon!