LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Published by One World on March 28 2023
Genres: Adult, historical, Horror
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Historical fiction, horror and well developed characters come together in Victor LaValle’s latest, a thoroughly entertaining story that celebrates strong, resourceful women.

“Now they had seen it, but still hadn’t faced it. It could remain a trick of the light, a spot across their eyes, a mass delusion. But the moment they rode toward it was the moment they crossed the threshold. Now they would know the world held more mystery than their minds previously understood.”

Victor LaValle has outdone himself with Lone Women. Wow, I absolutely loved this book! This is the story of a Black woman who, in 1915, leaves her parent’s orchard in California and sets off to become a homesteader in Montana. I was surprised how much I loved the historical aspects of the story, and I was fascinated by Adelaide’s grit and determination to survive in such a harsh climate. Now this is also a horror story, but the horror elements almost take a backseat, so readers who just aren’t into horror will probably love this too.

The opening scene is a grisly one. When we first meet Adelaide Henry, she’s preparing to leave her childhood home for good. She’s just lit her house on fire after carefully arranging her parents’ dead bodies in their bed. Adelaide’s plan is to make her way to Montana, where homesteading plots of 320 acres each can be purchased for a song. Adelaide has a big secret, and it’s locked in the old, beat up trunk she’s carrying with her. Why did Adelaide burn down her house? How did her parents die? And what’s in the trunk?

All these questions will be answered as we join her on the long journey from California to Montana. Once Adelaide arrives, she’s dismayed at the state of her new home, a ramshackle cabin outside of the town of Big Sandy. There’s no firewood and very little food, and a harsh winter is on the way. Luckily, she befriends a couple of neighbors, Grace and her son Sam, who help her out with much needed supplies. Little by little, Adelaide meets others who live in Big Sandy, including Mr. and Mrs. Reed, the wealthiest couple in town, and a young cowboy named Matthew Kirby and his uncle Finn.

But Adelaide’s big secret is weighing on her. No matter what, she must make sure the trunk stays locked, and whatever is inside it, stays there. When a family of thieves tries to steal everything she owns, her secret gets out, and Adelaide’s new life suddenly becomes very complicated.

Obviously I can’t tell you what’s in the trunk, that would spoil things. Let’s just say that I absolutely loved the reveal, and later there’s a big twist surrounding the thing in the trunk that made it even better. What I will tell you is that Adelaide calls it her “burden,” a family curse passed down to her now that her parents are dead. It was tough watching her struggle with her emotions—obviously whatever it is has some kind of emotional tie to the Henry family. She’s torn between her desire to be free of her burden and wanting to protect others from it, and it’s a struggle that carries through the entire story until the surprising resolution at the end.

Adelaide is tough, but also vulnerable, and I think that’s why I liked her so much. She has this amazing opportunity to own land as a single Black woman, and she’s determined not to fail. Of course, she runs into all kinds of obstacles, not only the unforgiving Montana winter, but once her secret gets out, prosecution from the other townsfolk. 

One of the more suspenseful story lines revolves around the Mudge family, a woman and her four young sons. After a violent event, one of the sons vows revenge on Adelaide, and I loved how LaValle keeps the tension going for the rest of the story. And speaking of violence, keep in mind the lawlessness of the time. Everyone carries a gun, and vigilante groups of men ban together and call themselves the Stranglers and deliver justice wherever they see fit. Some of the scenes in Lone Women are chilling, and the worst acts of violence don’t even involve the thing in Adelaide’s trunk. There are a few ghostly scenes as well. Adelaide’s dead mother appears by her side now and then to remind her that “A woman is a mule,” a phrase she repeated over and over to Adelaide growing up.

And speaking of women, in particular the lone women in the title, this is such an empowering story. In a time when women barely had any rights, Adelaide and her friends are able to survive in a harsh, male dominated world. I was fascinated by the Homesteading Act that allowed anyone over the age of twenty-one to own land, a piece of American history I’m sorry to say I wasn’t aware of. All Adelaide needs to do to keep her land free and clear is to “prove up” within three years. In other words, she has to produce crops on her land, but once the three years is up, the land is hers for life. Adelaide isn’t the only single woman doing this either. There’s Grace and Sam, as well as a Black woman named Bertie Brown who proved up several years before and now runs a distillery on her property. Bertie’s partner is a Chinese woman named Fiona who has her own interesting backstory. All these successful women who clearly don’t need men to survive are a threat to those men, who unfortunately want to put them in their place.

There are quite a few characters and side plots, which make Lone Women feel a bit busy at times. But LaValle is such a skilled writer that he’s able to make sense of all these story threads and bring them together in the end. He also adds lots of little background details about the characters. For example, Adelaide has an old copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë that her father used to read from every night when she was a child, and despite her complicated feelings about her parents and the family secret, she always thinks back on those times with fondness.

LaValle eventually tells us the story behind the trunk and what really happened the day Adelaide was born, and this sets the stage for an exciting, emotional climax. The ending was almost my favorite part, I absolutely loved how the author wrapped everything up.

Lone Women will most likely be on my Best of 2023 list at the end of the year, it was that good. If you are looking for a unique take on a slice of American history, with a side of horror thrown in for good measure, then this is a must read.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.