Reviews

I was super stoked for an LGBT & feminist Western, but I was really disappointed in how one-dimensional the characters ended up being. The writing was lazy & often showed rather than told. It was also pretty hard to look past a white cis woman using racial slurs for character building purposes. Big ol' yikes.

vanxjs's review against another edition

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4.0

Fun, action-packed story with well developed, complex characters - loved the super strong women and the flipping of the typical Western tropes! This is not a genre that usually appeals to me, but the feminist approach was well done. The only gripes I had were the use of "multiple sources" in the book to "corroborate" the story, which was set up as an academic research exercise, and the overly frequent use of foreshadowing, like having a character do something and then saying "only later did [she] realize she'd left her gun behind," or whatever, so there weren't that many true surprises. But overall, I enjoyed it and think this book fills a niche I didn't know existed. (Unless I'm missing the other feminist westerns out there?)

jujuwhales's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Classic example of why you should show, not tell.

sugarknits_'s review against another edition

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Weird white feminist politics, inconsistent characters, weird horny bits about horses? Goes to show that just because it’s LGBT/Black/transgender, doesn’t mean the author is handling those things well. Especially when that author is a white cis woman. It felt confusing and like the first draft of a debut novel. Book club voted not to finish.

movieworm18's review against another edition

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Book club voted it out, very boring

teacher2library's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It's easy to see why this won an Audie Award in 2022! What a multi-cast performance!

aj94's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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