Upright Women Wanted - Review

Author: Sarah Gailey

Genre: Novella / Alt. History / Western

Format: Hardback

Pages: 175

This is one of those books where I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, a little bit, but actually had no idea. Between the synopsis and reviews, I thought I had a pretty good idea what Upright Women Wanted was about. Now let me say, sometimes it's good to be wrong. This book was so much more than I thought, and I still have no idea how Sarah Gailey packs so much into their books as they as do. 

I loved this book, and I would love to have another novella in this universe. It would be so cool to see what exactly caused the world to become the way it currently is, I would love to see Bet's backstory and Cye's, or even a sequel set a few years later. But, I don't need it because I adored how this book ended with Esther finally accepting herself. I loved the representation Sarah Gailey brought to the story, and I feel like this was a story a lot of people needed to hear for many different reasons. I love how they give you just enough information to form an idea of what this future world holds and how character driver this story was.

Esther wasn't my favorite character in the novella, but as the main character, I loved watching her grow throughout this journey. She goes through a lot very quickly and through it, she finds herself and a way to accept herself. And toward the end of the book, I found myself rooting for her to make the right choice.

The size of this story is also perfect in my opinion. Sarah Gailey somehow manages to create a world, badass characters, drama, and shove it into so few pages, and it blows my mind every time. There are slow-building scenes as Esther meets the Librarians and starts on her path as their stowaway. After that, it's literally one moment after another until the Librarians finally reach Utah. Any longer than novella length and I feel like the story would have dragged. Personally, I love learning about the world through the story. I don't want a ton of chapters just telling about the past. I'd much rather do like Gailey did here and teach as they tell a story. Give us key facts and let us build the world around it. Because Upright Women Wanted is so short there is no good place to put down this book. Too much is going on.

And honestly, I go invested in the romance. This is something I don't always do, but here I couldn't help it. I was rooting for them the maybe three, or four, chapters, and I love how it ended. Yeah, it's an open ending where we don't know, but it's so hopeful at the same time. Like maybe that was the year Leda was talking about, and not a year on the road.

Upright Women Wanted has given me such a book hangover. Because this book hits on a cellular level. Some days I feel like maybe the world isn't so far away from the world Sarah Gailey created here on some level, but to also have ended on such a hopeful note. This book packs a punch for a hundred and seventy-five pages. I'm having a hard time letting go of this book, and I'm definitely going to go back and read it again because I feel like maybe there were things I missed the first time around. Sarah Gailey is one of my favorite authors, and this book is exactly why.

HAPPY READING!!