Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Lone Women by Victor LaValle  

Published March 2023 by Random House Publishing Group 

304 Pages

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.

My Thoughts: 

If you read the final paragraph of the publisher's summary, you'll note the phrase "magical suspense" and the word "horror" there. And, if you've been following my reading for very long at all, you know that neither of those things is in my wheelhouse. In fact, you'll have heard me say, repeatedly, that I will intentionally steer away from anything where magic is mentioned. But in 2017 I was offered the chance to read and review LaValle's The Changeling, which ended up being one of my favorite books of the year, so I jumped at the opportunity to read his latest work. 

Once again, LaValle has convinced me that horror is a genre that I can enjoy, provided it's done well. And LaValle does it well. In The Changeling, LaValle sucked me in with references to fairy tales and literature. Here he lures me in with history, a history he learned about that convinced him to write a book in an entirely new to him setting (his books are, apparently, usually sent in the New York City area). In the first part of the last century, anyone was allowed a land grant in areas of the West that were in need of more settlers. It was not uncommon for single women (including at least one black woman but not Chinese people) to attempt to settle the land, something they had to do for three years before they could claim it as their own. 

When Adelaide flees California, she is bound for Montana, a place she has found where she might be able to own land and live in solitude. But Adelaide is running from the murder of her parents, carrying with her a mysterious trunk, and has absolutely no clue how hard life will be in remote Montana, just as winter begins to settle in. She finds herself forced to rely on others and soon makes friends. But the mystery of that trunk soon revels itself, putting Adelaide at risk among people she is only beginning to realize might be a danger. 

While this book is set in the past, it manages to address problems that we're still grappling with - racism, the eradication of the indigenous way of life, and sexism. He also addresses other big themes, including sexual identity. LaValle gives readers nothing but strong women in this book, women capable to helping themselves, of defending their lives and property. It's clear from early on that what's in the trunk is a very real monster and that the ghosts Adelaide will later confront are real, they are also symbols of bigger things. It took me actually reading Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus to understand the symbolism in that story but it opened my eyes to the ways writers might use horror to explore bigger themes. LaValle seems to me to be a master at this and at making me cheer for the monster. 

I highly recommend this one but my recommendation does come with a warning: like The Changeling, this book is violent, bloody, and gruesome. Weirdly, in LaValle's hands, I'm ok with that as it appears essential to the greater story.