3.5 out of 5 stars
It's hard to describe Upright Women Wanted without making it sound far more frothy and absurdist than it is. It's a dystopian pulp Western. Featuring queer librarians. Who traverse the Wild West on horseback. Facing down bandits and smuggling persecuted people to safe zones within a fascist America. Each layer invites another nod and "oh, this should be fun!" But then you start reading it and, well, when a book opens with a hanging, you get the sense that it's not fooling around. Which isn't to say that it isn't also a fun read, but it's more than guns-blazing action. There's a quieter story of courage and identity and trust and truth at it's core.

I've never read Sarah Gailey before, but apparently they have a whole backlist of weirdly wonderful work that I may want to check out. Including Magic for Liars, which looks to be right up my alley.

Note: If you have a hard time with singular "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, this quick read will be great practice for you.