Reading as a Writer: Lone Women

I received a copy of Victor LaValle's Lone Women from the World Fantasy Convention's book bag. It looked really interesting, so I brought it home and picked it up as a palate cleanser between a few other chunky epic fantasies I've been slowly picking through. I was halfway finished when this year's Goodreads Choice Award finalists were announced.

That's how I learned that this is a horror novel.

I really think I need to recalibrate my understanding of horror, as I seem to be reading more and more of it lately. There wasn't anything in this book that scared me. LaValle used some elements of thriller structure to make this a page-turner, but I was never truly afraid for the characters the way I have been in some of the aforementioned fantasy epics.

The ending of this book was sweet and satisfying, and I spent a lot of the book pondering the title. While we have one main character, the title, Lone Women, implies that more than one woman are important to the theme of the story. Just through the title, this book made me think twice about each of the other female characters, and the way that they instilled fear and used their power in the world of this book. I can't think of another book where the title did so much heavy lifting.

So...maybe I like horror.

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