A Quick Review of Upright Women Wanted

You thought it would be part 2 of that Star Wars Rewrite, but it was me, A Quick Review!

But seriously, I feel bad for how I pretty much abandoned this series. I had a lot of free time for reading when I started this series, but I got a job as a frontline healthcare worker, so I lost all my downtime real quick. As a result, this will probably be the last A Quick Review for a minute. (At least until I get an Audible account or something.)

For now, let’s send this series off with a book that’s gay and it slaps.

Sorry, I’ve been on TikTok for too much.

Never before have I read a book like Upright Women Wanted. It’s a post-apocalyptic, western, and espionage novel with a lesbian love story subplot, and I loved every word of it.

This story doesn’t slow down for you, and you don’t need it to either. Despite all the different genres and story elements they throw at you, Gailey’s writing is oddly straightforward and easy to follow.

We follow runaway Ester Augustus. Her father is the big guy in charge of the Lower Southwest Territory. Before the story started, Ester’s best friend and crush, Beatriz, was executed because she had Unapproved Materials. Ester was to marry Beatriz’s fiance, but because Ester is super gay, she runs away to join the Librarians. Partially she couldn’t stand to be there without Beatriz but also in hopes that she could do enough good in the world to make up for her perceived transgressions from being gay.

The Librarians are publically known for being nuns who travel around delivering Approved Materials, but they’re secretly a group of LGBTQ+ individuals rebelling against the totalitarian government. With the Librarians, Ester learns self-acceptance, finds a new love, and reevaluates her place in the world.

Gailey’s worldbuilding is like nothing I’ve read before. They describe their setting with such simplicity and treat settings like actual places the reader would know. This is kind of genius. The average person doesn’t give you a detailed history and geography lesson to tell you something that happened to them at work, so why would Ester do this to explain her home life?

It’s a subtle way to signal that the characters and what they stand for are more important than their world. Ester’s experiences matter 10x more than building up the world. I appreciate this method of storytelling. For me, most writer’s attempts at worldbuilding have me disengage and fail to connect with the characters.

Even though Ester is the main character, she isn’t that important to the plot. The Librarians already have plans, and finding Ester stowed away in their wagon didn’t change that. Later, a character showup, who exudes main-character-energy. From this character’s perspective, it’s clear that the story is a lot more like the standard dystopian rebellion narrative we expect. However, Ester is pretty dense and doesn’t even realize that the Librarians aren’t lawful till the final act. (I don’t consider this a spoiler because the book is telegraphing it to the reader as early as chapter 1).

Ester’s whole story is pretty much what if the sidekicks in a Disney movie was the main character. So pretty much Lion King 1 1/2 but gayer.

For this next part, I will keep things vague because I want people to read the book for themselves.

For most dystopian novels, the ending has the heroes dismantling the oppressive system, either as a cautionary tale or as a metaphor for some past oppression. Upright Women Wanted ends with Ester taking her first steps towards rebellion. This ending reflects the continual struggle of real-world LGBTQ+ individuals. The Librarians are their world’s versions of LGBTQ+ rights advocates, and there is still work to be done.

For making me fall in love with Gailey’s writing, I rate Upright Women Wanted 5 out of 5 Librarians.