Over all, I might read a sequel if there was more substance to it. While I applaud this group of queer rebel librarians in this dystopian wild west, I wanted more about their bigger mission and less about who was making eyes at who. And that continues on and on and on for the rest of the story.
A new person has caught her eye but she’s uncertain about how to express her blossoming affections.
Can they trust Esther?Īnd then there’s some insta-lust on Esther’s part. After all, much of what they do is forbidden by law. There’s a mixed bag of reactions to her sudden appearance among their group. She acted by sneaking into the traveling librarians’s wagon (Bet and Leda) and that’s how she comes to be part of a queer group of hard workers and spies. She’s struggling with her first solid romantic inclinations and also the trauma of losing her best friend Beatrice. Then the story spends a lot of time with Esther, who is on the cusp of womanhood. We get a few quick brushstrokes that modern society as we know it has fallen and a new, very controlling regime has risen from the ashes to make everyone miserable. It’s a quick little read and I hope the author does more with filling out the world. I do love a wild weird western but this was more of a little romance, and romance just isn’t my cup of tea. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.
Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.
Her best friend who she was in love with. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her – a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend.