Lone Women is an interesting take on the horror genre, following a very little known aspect of homesteading history. Victor LaValle's author's notes at the end of this explain how he stumbled across the concept of lone women homesteading in Montana, and I found that fascinating. I love when authors find little tidbits of history that are not well known, and create stories inspired by that. 

We begin this story with a great hook: Adelaide is leaving her farm where here parents are left dead, and she's dragging a heavy trunk with her all the way from California to northern Montana. What's in the trunk? Why did her parents die? What is she running from? These questions all drove the plot forward for me, and I was having a great time. 

As Adelaide settles on her plot of land in Montana and begins to meet other lone women and people from the small town nearby, the pace and forward momentum of the story shifted and slowed down for me. I did like that we got more perspectives and the story widened to a greater view of how Adelaide's arrival kicks off a series of events (as things do in horror novels) that lead to a big ending. Each lone woman had an interesting story behind her, and LaValle manages to work in a TON of commentary with all the residents of the small town. Truly, he has a lot to say and pack into this story and he deftly weaves it all together into a storyline that by the last 40% is barreling forward at a pace that didn't let up. 

I think the pacing was the main issue for me here, and eventually the spread of character POVs as the story barrels toward its climax. I wish things could have been a little tighter and focused on a few less people so that we got more of Adelaide. The way Adelaide's story wraps up kind of baffled me because so much was happening and it felt like her story - she starts this book and is ostensibly the main character - was background to everything else. 

Overall, this really was a decent horror novel and had some good chills - both inhuman and human. The setting is fantastic, and the way LaValle weaves in various themes into his story feels seamless. I'd say this is also a good read for people who are a little too scared of most horror; this does have some creepy elements and a bit of gore, but ends up being pretty tame in terms of hardcore gore or scares. Definitely worth checking out if anything about the story or setting interests you!