Lone Women

LaValle brings his trademark mastery of horror and suspense to the American West in this story about the dangers of the past and the perils of being a woman alone. In 1915, Adelaide flees California for Montana, tugging behind her a locked steamer trunk inside which lives a deadly secret.

I started Lone Women needing to know, with every fiber of my being, what's in that steamer trunk?? And I appreciate that Victor LaValle gives us the big reveal by page 80-something. 

Knowing this secret only makes this book more exciting and scarier. That said, don't skip ahead. And don't read the author's acknowledgments until you've finished the book because they contain some spoilers.

As if being a lone Black woman moving onto a Montana claim purchased sight unseen in 1915 isn't terrifying enough, there's also banditry and bone-whistling winds. But I was also deeply moved by the alliance between… show more.

I loved this book so much for its strong—and deeply believable—female characters.

The way they interacted with each other and the land just blew me away; how real it felt. This book made me realize how much I want to see this realism and deep heart/courage in the stories I read.

Speaking of realism, there’s a fantastical element to the story, which totally worked. Yet the fantastical part was deeply rooted in the realism of the story.

I first learned about “proving up” from the eponymous Karen Russell story.

The history of the practice was so fascinating that, when I heard Victor LaValle had written an entire novel about it, I immediately preordered. And wow did it not disappoint.

Part horror and part Western, the story centers a Black woman named Adelaide in the early 1900s who has moved to Montana to prove up as a “lone woman,” carrying with her only a single steamer trunk bearing her “curse.”

LaValle ratchets up the suspense in every chapter while beautifully capturing the desolation of life in the Wild… show more.