Adelaide Henry has lived her whole life on her parents' farm, but she is ready for a change and a homestead in Montana seems just like the change she needs. While she leaves her former life in smoldering ruins, she hopes the anonymity of the Wild West will provide what she is looking for, and it is just far enough from civilization that no one will question the contents of her steamer trunk, a family secret she feels bound to guard.
However, life in Big Sandy, Montana is different than she imagined. Sure, her new homestead is barely more than a shack on her land, but it's hers and hers alone, assuming she can stick it out for a few years. A strange twist of fate during the journey to Big Sandy finds her in possession of the belongings left behind by the Mudge family, a mother and four blind teenaged boys who vanished along the way. These items and a little TLC help to make the cabin feel more like a home. And then there's the locals she meets.
Grace Price is a widow with a shy but intelligent child named Sam, and despite the differences between the women, they become friends. She also meets local ranchers Finn Kirby and his nephew, Matthew, who takes a shine to Adelaide. When Adelaide finally starts to feel like her life is taking form, something unimaginable happens. She wakes one morning to find the trunk open and empty, and the thing that she keeps locked away in there is on the loose and very angry.
When this creature kills a few familiar faces from the past who were trying to harm Grace and Sam, Adelaide knows she has got to find a way capture it or the entire town will be at risk, but when it harms someone much closer to home, the posse come knocking on Adelaide's door. Add to that the fact that big changes are coming to Big Sandy, including a grand, new opera house funded by the Reeds, Big Sandy's wealthiest couple, and a new female-owned mechanical clothes washing service, and a few local businesses are feeling the crunch. Especially Bertie Brown, Big Sandy's only other black female aside from Adelaide, who has run a successful bar and laundry service there for quite some time with her partner, Fiona Wong. While the townsfolk have been happy to frequent their business until now, the not-so-secret racists now have a different choice.
Before long, the "lone women" of Big Sandy will have to band together, not only to ensure their own survival, but also that of their fellow townspeople, whether they deserve it or not. After all, there's still a deadly monster on the loose.
Okay, so it sounds like a Western with a monster, but it's just so much more than that. I am being intentionally vague because this crazy story has many twists and turns and they are there for the reader to unveil on their own. What I can say is that this story is a horror through and through, whether it is because of the creature, the local racism, the local sexism, or just the damn locals, themselves. There's also the dangerous nature of untamed Montana in the winter, which seems like it is doing everything possible to kill everyone trying to live there. If you have even the slightest interest in this story, go for it. There are surprises at every turn and LaValle's storytelling is nothing short of brilliant. Highly recommended.
