Where Coyotes Howl Sandra Dallas. 2023. [April] 320 pages. [Source: Review copy] [Historical fiction; adult fiction]
First sentence: A ragged curtain snapped against the broken glass of the window in the old shack, which had begun to list. Its boards, the paint scraped off by the wind and sand, were a splintery gray. The door sagged open, its white china knob cracked and yellowed.
Premise/plot: Are you looking for a book completely devoid of hope and joy? Are you looking for a book where women [and children] are oppressed on every single page? Did you find Romeo and Juliet too cheerful? If you want the 'one ring to rule them all' of bleakness, then Where Coyotes Howl might be a good fit for you.
The premise is simple enough, Ellen Webster, goes to Wyoming as a school teacher in 1916. She meets and falls head over heels in love with a cowboy, Charlie Bacon. They marry. Life goes downhill after the 'I do's.' Not because they stop loving each other madly. No, because of situations and circumstances. Ellen experiences many tough situations, no doubt, but she witnesses a thousand times worse in the community.
My thoughts: Is this one realistic? Perhaps. Surely you can find difficult, hard, tragic [how in the world do you experience all that and still keep on breathing] rough stories when doing genealogy. Pioneer stories can be ROUGH. It isn't that I went into this one expecting it to be cheery-happy-lovely-cozy-warm-fuzzy. But personally, I think a chain of hope OR a strong resilience [or both] could make a difference in perspective.
The overwhelming message seems to be that without agency, a woman cannot hope to have even a 1% chance at happiness. Men will abuse, misuse, manipulate. Even if you find the one in a million husband that will be tender and loving and supportive, you still can't be happy because you inevitably will suffer. Without birth control, you are doomed to SUFFER. This one seems very, very, very heavy-handedly pro-choice. The message seems to be that women need full and total control over their own bodies and their lives. A secondary message seems to be that it would be better to be a prostitute than a wife. [Some characters, though not Ellen, have been both. Husbands make life HELL on earth 99.2% of the time.]
Mental health. Every single character needs help or intervention. Of course, there's no help to be had. Again, embracing the abandon all hope philosophy.
This one needs LOTS of trigger warnings.
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Spousal abuse--verbal, physical, mental, sexual. Child abuse. Miscarriages. Murder. Suicide. Death. Death. Death. Death. Death. Death.
© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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