“That’s how it goes, I guess. Sometimes you need to hurt first so you can finally go numb.”
I went into Alice Martin’s Westward Women ( St. Martin’s Press 2026) entirely blind, and I can’t decide if that was a help or a hindrance to my reading experience. It’s a buzzy new release and Martin is from NC – that is all I knew going in. I certainly wasn’t expecting a genre-blending thriller with horror elements. I would say it’s When Women Were Dragons meets Charles Manson. There are some really good things going in the novel such that I was surprised it’s a debut, but it ultimately fell flat for me due to pacing.
The novel is set in the 1970s with a pandemic effecting women ages 18-35. Infected women grow listless, scratching at their skin and seeking to make their way westward. Many die. The CDC doesn’t know how it’s spread or really anything about the disease. Different women have different symptoms, with some exhibiting worse signs than others, and some recovering without issue. There is also speculation that some are carriers. A man called only the Piper drives his van from the east coast to the west coast, offering safe passage for the inflicted women.
The novel follows three women – Aimee a recent college graduate trying to find her infected friend Ginny; Teenie, a young infected girl who has joined the Piper, and who is struggling to keep her memories intact, with the memory of the last day she saw her sister before she vanished all she seems able to hold on to; and Eve, a journalist with a history of running away. There is also a second person POV, with the identity apparent pretty early on but revealed toward the end.
I don’t want to tell you what happens because this is a thriller, and the story should unfold organically for you. I will say it wasn’t for me simply because of pacing – I like a slow burn, even with a thriller, but I found myself not caring what the resolution was. Martin is a talented writer and I’d likely read more things from her, but this didn’t work for me.
A Girl Named Tommi 