Lone Women

Published in 2023, Lone Women is the fifth full-length novel by critically acclaimed author Victor LaValle. The novel was a national bestseller and was lauded as a book of the year by publications such as the New York Times Book Review, NPR, and the Washington Post. LaValle has previously written four other novels, a short-story collection, two novellas, and five graphic novels. Most of his works exist at the intersection of suspense or horror fiction and historical fiction. In the case of Lone Women, the novel blends the conventions of both the Western and the horror genres to create the story of a Black female homesteader in early 20th-century Montana who carries a terrifying family secret.

This study guide refers to the hardcover version of the novel published by Penguin Random House LLC in 2023.

Content Warning: This novel contains descriptions of racism, anti-gay bias, anti-trans bias, graphic violence, and murder, along with racist and xenophobic language. Offensive language is obscured unless direct quotations of the source text are absolutely necessary to convey context.

Plot Summary

Adelaide Henry is a 31-year-old Black woman living and working on her family’s farm in the Lucerne Valley of California in 1915. When the novel opens, her parents have been violently killed, and she is burning their house and their bodies to conceal the events that have transpired. She then flees, taking a steamer ship from Los Angeles to Seattle, and then a train to Montana. Adelaide plans to live on several acres of land as a homesteader and disappear into anonymity. The only things she brings with her are her travel pack and her heavy steamer trunk, the contents of which initially remain a mystery to everyone but her. She is very protective of the trunk during her journey and often seems to whisper to whatever is inside.

Upon arriving in the small town of Big Sandy, Montana, Adelaide is greeted by Mrs. Jerrine Reed, one of the most powerful and important figures in town. Mrs. Reed points Adelaide in the direction of a wagon-driver named Mr. Olsen, who agrees to take her out to her homestead. She shares the back of the wagon with a single mother, Mrs. Mudge, and the woman’s four sons, who are apparently blind. While traveling, their wagon becomes stuck in a small ravine or “coulee” due to the weight of the luggage. Adelaide suspects that her steamer trunk is the true culprit. They must spend the night in an abandoned hotel on the empty Montana prairie. When Adelaide awakens the next morning, she learns that someone has unlocked her steamer trunk and that the Mudges have disappeared during the night.

When Adelaide reaches the cabin that stands on her plot of land, she is dismayed to see that it is much more run-down than she had been led to believe. She is eventually visited by neighbors: Mrs. Grace Price and Sam, her young son. Grace is outwardly critical of Adelaide’s cabin, but Adelaide realizes that this is merely part of Grace’s demeanor. She decides to accept Grace’s offer of friendship and help. Adelaide is also visited by various men who work out on the prairie, and she becomes particularly close to a young man named Matthew Kirby. One day, Matthew and his uncle, Finn, invite Adelaide and Grace to a dance at a local ranch. At the event, Grace introduces Adelaide to other neighbors and fellow “lone women.” Adelaide is shocked to encounter Mrs. Mudge, who is now pretending to be Mrs. Rose Morrison. Adelaide attempts to confront her, but Mrs. Mudge pretends to have never met Adelaide, and Grace is embarrassed by Adelaide’s behavior. The next day, Grace, Adelaide, Matthew, and Finn return to their respective cabins. Adelaide invites Matthew to spend the night, and the two make love. During the night, Adelaide awakens to find that Matthew has been attacked by the contents of her steamer trunk, which are revealed to be a monstrous creature. Adelaide is able to subdue the creature and put it back in the trunk. She realizes that Matthew unlocked the trunk while she was asleep. Her trust in him is broken, but she keeps him at her cabin for several days to help him recover from his wounds. He eventually departs and does not return to visit Adelaide again.

After struggling to stay warm and maintain her supplies, Adelaide decides to visit Grace’s homestead to ask for help. When she arrives, she sees that Grace has been attacked. She is fearful that the creature got to Grace and Sam, but Grace explains that she was attacked and shot by Mrs. Mudge and her sons. She acknowledges that she should have believed Adelaide’s warning about Mrs. Mudge’s true identity. The group is joined by another neighbor, Bertie Brown, the only other Black woman living on the Montana prairie. Bertie agrees to take Grace into town to receive treatment for the gunshot wound. Adelaide returns to her cabin and discovers that the creature has escaped from the trunk in her absence and is now hiding beneath her overturned bed. Later, Mrs. Mudge and her sons arrive at Adelaide’s cabin with the intention to rob and kill her. The creature attacks and kills Mrs. Mudge, and her two oldest sons flee. The creature flies after them and kills them as well. It does not return. The two youngest sons ride away, leaving their mother’s body behind.

Several weeks pass with no sign of Adelaide’s creature. Adelaide visits Grace in town, and the two of them and Sam attend an event hosted by Mrs. Reed at the Big Sandy opera house. During the event, Finn and Matthew Kirby spot Adelaide. Finn attempts to confront her, but Adelaide ducks away, taking Sam with her to get some food. During the event, Mrs. Reed’s husband, Mr. Jack Reed, is drinking and playing cards with Bertie Brown and her companion, Fiona Wong at Bertie’s tavern, the Blind Pig. He decides to take them for a ride in his new Maxwell automobile, and he has hired one of surviving Mudge boys, Joab, to be his driver. Joab drives the group in the direction of the horse barn, where his brother, Delmus, works as a stable hand. While they are on the way, Delmus encounters the creature at the barn; the monster is hunting for horses to eat. Delmus falls from the hay loft, breaking his collarbone, and begs to be spared. The creature leaves, sending the horses fleeing into the night along with it. Joab, Mr. Reed, Bertie, and Fiona arrive to find an injured Delmus and empty horse stalls. Joab and Mr. Reed resolve to find the horses and the thieves responsible.

While they are eating, Sam reveals to Adelaide that his mother murdered his father. When Grace joins them a few minutes later, Adelaide decides to repay Sam’s trust and share her own story with the two of them, although the narrative does not reveal these full details to the reader. Only Sam fully believes her story. Meanwhile, the creature has been flying throughout the surrounding countryside in search of food, as well as a place to hide. It finally flies to the nearby foothills and finds a cave in which to make its home.

Joab and Mr. Reed team up with the owners of Big Sandy’s general store, Marlow and McNamara, to go in search of the thieves or “wolfers” whom they believe to have stolen Mr. Reed’s horses. Joab points them in the direction of a nearby wolfer settlement where his family once lived, even though he knows that the people there are not really the ones responsible. The group arrives and confronts the three wolfers they find. Joab shoots one of them before the man can reveal Joab’s true identity, and the other two are hanged. Mr. Reed welcomes Joab to their group of vigilante enforcers, which is known as “The Stranglers.”

Adelaide ventures into town with Bertie and Fiona and joins a crowd that has gathered around Mrs. Reed, who is announcing the opening of the new woman-owned power laundry. Mrs. Reed makes thinly veiled disparaging and racist remarks about Fiona, who is the only other person in town who offers laundry services. Fiona is crushed and angry, knowing that the town will soon reject her. Back at the Blind Pig, Bertie comforts Fiona by making love to her, a scene that confirms that the two are in a romantic relationship. Later, Adelaide joins Fiona on one of her trips to a nearby ghost town to locate the grave of Fiona’s father. The two have a frightening encounter with ghosts and grow closer as a result. Adelaide decides to share her whole story with Bertie, Fiona, and Grace.

Adelaide reveals that the creature is actually her twin sister and that her birth name is Elizabeth Henry. The group of women decides to find Elizabeth and bring her home. Meanwhile, various mysterious deaths have been plaguing Big Sandy and the surrounding community. Mrs. Reed calls another meeting at the opera house and invites Matthew Kirby to the stage to share what he knows about the creature that has been causing these deaths. Later, at the Reed household, Delmus is invited to meet with Mr. Reed and offer his loyalty to make up for the loss of the horses. Delmus refuses, smashing Mr. Reed over the head with a bottle. Joab jumps to the defense of Mr. Reed and kills his brother.

Having learned about the creature and its connection to Adelaide, members of the town go out in search of Adelaide and her companions. Mr. Reed and her woman’s group, the Busy Bees, confront Grace and Sam at their cabin. Mrs. Reed takes Sam into her custody. At her home, she tells Sam that she knows he was born as “Samantha.” Mrs. Reed insists that Sam wear a dress that she made for him. She then brings Joab into the room and tells him to keep Sam company while she is next door at the opera house. Sam offers understanding and friendship to Joab, both of which he desperately needs and gladly receives.

Adelaide, Bertie, and Fiona ride in the direction of the mountains where they believe Elizabeth to be hiding. Suddenly, Elizabeth descends from the sky and grabs Adelaide, flying off into the night. Bertie and Fiona are then captured by Mr. Reed and his posse. Adelaide falls from her sister’s grasp but is then able to find Elizabeth in the cave where she has been hiding, thanks to the help of a Mexican couple who have been providing care and offerings to Elizabeth. Adelaide confesses to Elizabeth that she should have been a better sister, and Elizabeth absolves Adelaide of her guilt.

Back at the Big Sandy opera house, Mrs. Reed has gathered the town to witness the hanging of Grace, Bertie, and Fiona, since they will not reveal the location of Adelaide and the creature. Just as the execution is about to happen, Adelaide enters the opera house with Elizabeth, who butchers the Reeds, the Busy Bees, the Kirbys, and the other townsfolk who sought to punish them. Grace rescues Sam from the Reed household, and the group brings Joab to meet Adelaide and Elizabeth. Adelaide tells Elizabeth to spare Joab because Sam believes he deserved a second chance.

The “lone women,” now including Elizabeth, leave Big Sandy behind and set up a home for themselves in a nearby ghost town. They hope to fade into obscurity, but they are found by other women who are considered social misfits like themselves and have been seeking a safe place to settle. Their town grows, and they eventually decide to name it Two Sisters, after Adelaide and Elizabeth.