Upright Women Wanted

Starred review from November 18, 2019
Gailey (Magic for Liars) pits librarian spies against the oppressive government of a future Southwestern America in this dazzling neo-western adventure. After Esther Augustus’s best friend and crush Beatriz is executed for possessing unapproved reading materials, Esther’s father, the superintendent of the Lower Southwest Territory, arranges for a political marriage between Esther and Beatriz’s fiancé. Esther flees by stowing away in the caravan of the Librarians, state employees who distribute approved literature to isolated towns. Once discovered, Esther is shocked to learn that the Librarians are actually a hotbed of queer subversion: stern Bet and motherly Leda are a long-term lesbian couple, and their cranky apprentice, Cye, is nonbinary. The Librarians agree to take Esther to Utah, an insurrectionist camp, after picking up a “package” of other refugees. Along the way, Esther grows disillusioned with the homophobic government propaganda she’s read all her life and develops feelings for Cye. During a brazen attempt to prove herself useful to the Librarians, Esther stumbles upon frightening information about one of the refugees they’re escorting, plunging them all into danger. Gailey’s gorgeous writing and authentic characters make this slim volume a pure delight. Readers will relish this showcase of Gailey’s striking talents. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary.

January 1, 2020

Esther Augustus has fled town after her lover was hanged for possessing "unlawful materials"--also known as resistance propaganda. Stealing off in the librarians' wagon, Esther believed that becoming one of the "morally upright" and chaste women who brought approved reading to towns across the country would save her from herself. Except that librarians Leda and Bet are a couple and in charge of bringing parcels--women escaping dire situations--across state lines to the resistance areas in Utah. When one of their "parcels" turns out to be even more trouble than first expected, Esther and the librarians load up their pistols, ready for a fight. Esther jumps from the frying pan into the fire, just where she needed to be to discover how to be her own woman. VERDICT Gailey sets this adventurous novella that twists a historical trope into a singular story in an alternate future Southwest populated with bandits, shoot-outs, and fierce queer people. Readers will root for these rowdy librarians.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2020
In a post-apocalyptic American West, Librarians deliver Approved Materials to isolated towns and outposts. They are also unwittingly delivering Esther, who ran away from home to escape an arranged marriage. She imagines the hardscrabble life of the Librarian will help her overcome the feelings she had for her best friend, Beatriz, who was hanged for possessing Unapproved Materials. Alas, the Librarians are not what they seem, and Head Librarian Bet and her companion, Leda, are barely convinced to let Esther stay on, lest she compromise their true mission. As they pick up their real cargo, Esther learns the ropes from surly apprentice Cye, who challenges everything Esther thought she knew about gender roles and feelings. Combining winking humor, cinematic landscapes, heart-stopping action sequences, and romances that will leave readers silently squeeing, Gailey's (Magic for Liars, 2019) slim novel is a feat of writerly sorcery that packs a sweeping political epic into fewer than 200 pages. Even as readers are charmed by the book's sense of righteous rebellion and queer glee, the lesson Esther learns?that everyone has a right to be who they are?will catch them right in the feels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)