Lone Women
A Novel
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Lone Women
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Narrated by:
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Joniece Abbott-Pratt
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By:
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Victor LaValle
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Blue skies, empty land—and enough wide-open space to hide a horrifying secret. A woman with a past, a mysterious trunk, a town on the edge of nowhere, and an “absorbing, powerful” (BuzzFeed) new vision of the American West, from the award-winning author of The Changeling.
“Propulsive . . . LaValle combines chills with deep insights into our country’s divides.”—Los Angeles Times
ONE OF BOOKPAGE'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE AND LOCUS AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Esquire, Vulture, Paste, Tordotcom, Book Riot, Polygon, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal
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.
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Critic reviews
“Enthralling . . . The combination of LaValle’s agile prose, the velocity of the narrative and the pleasure of upended expectations makes this book almost impossible to put down . . . Lone Women deftly weaves history, horror, suspense and the perspectives of those rarely recorded in the West.”—The New York Times
“Propulsive [with] a fast-paced plot—though I found myself gripped just as much by Adelaide’s defiant, glorious stubbornness and guarded wit. Lone Women combines elements of Western fiction, horror and magical realism, while featuring queer, POC characters inventing lives for themselves in the last years of the American frontier. It’s impossible to categorize and impossible to put down.”—NPR, “Books We Love”
“LaValle populates his Western with an array of grotesques, killers, hypocrites, and sinners, but he also makes room for diversity that the genre has too long suppressed. It’s a corrective to the founding myth of America, a book filled with bloodshed and pain, but always holding out for the hope of a happy ending.”—Esquire, “Best Horror Books of 2023”
What listeners say about Lone Women
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Francine
- 23-07-23
Excellent
Historical fiction with horror elements. Read in tandem with the book and the audio narration really pulled you into the setting - highly recommended 😊
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- BW
- 08-10-23
A Historical Horror Tour De Force
A deviously dark and interesting horror western, with unexpected found family and homesteading. I adore historical horror, and this was that executed perfectly. I adored every second of this book, the character work (especially Adelaide) and the pacing were immaculate. I loved the other POVs and the broadness of who they are was fantastic. I loved the mundane life of Montana life, and the creeping dread of what is in the box. So good !
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- H. Payne
- 02-12-23
My new favourite author!
Started reading The Changeling after seeing it on Apple TV and it didn’t disappoint. This book is just as good. Twisting plot lines and a brilliant ending. I love how the natural and supernatural live alongside like it’s just a matter of fact.
Recommend both of these books. Im off to find another one!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 04-07-23
riveting
it's so difficult to review this book because it was such a joy to read and unravel, and part of the wonder does come from the unraveling! there were so many twists I really didn't expect... like the mystery of what was in the trunk was the LEAST surprising thing, let's just put it like that.
the writing was also wonderful and the narrator brought it to life wonderfully. this was definitely a book where the source material, though amazing in itself, was inarguably lifted by the complexity brought in by the narrator.
highly recommended!!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- alex g.
- 04-10-24
Conflicted
I like how Lavalle creates sympathetic characters and the concepts are interesting. But his books really frustrate me? maybe its a me problem, but there's something about how he writes the build-up to events/ conflict that I find frustrating. I love M.R Carey's Book of Koli where the main character is conically an fool who makes bad decisions and we can see what's coming before him. But somehow I've found it uniquely frustrating in Lavalle's work.
I'm all down for the build-up of dread for things about to go terribly wrong, especially regarding the precarious position the protagonist of Lone Woman is in due to her race and gender. But it never feels like I'm having a reaction to the character's position, just the way the writer has gone about lining up the ducks.
I preferred Changeling where I was able to completely throw plot elements to the wind and enjoy the story as a fairytale with fairytale logic and a great emotional core. I feel terrible but I'm returning Lone Woman with 2 hours to go because it's takes me ages to finish I and got to the point where I'm listening to it for five minutes every 3 days to get through it. Maybe if I'd listened for another 20 mins i would have got through the frustrating set up and got back to character-based or action-based bits but I guess I'll never know.
Where I got to I loved the handling and direction of all the characters, the rich white suffragette and how her position affects her 'good causes', criminal characters who are ultimately afraid if they don't point the blame the noose will be turned on them etc.
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