Read This Book: The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Set in a Western-inspired fantasy world, this book follows Violet, Aster, Tansy, Mallow, and Clementine, five young women who were sold to a Welcome House to be Good Luck Girls when they were just children. Aster has already been working a year when her younger sister Clementine has her first night on the job…and she inadvertently kills the man who bought her for the evening. Knowing that Clementine could hang for this, Aster is determined to break free and save her. But Violet, Tansy, and Mallow end up coming with, and now the five have to learn how to trust one another and use all of their skills in order to escape to freedom.

The world building, as I hinted above, is really excellent in this book. Davis portrays not a watered-down fantasy version of a western, but the harsh realities and injustices told from the perspective of five girls who have the least amount of power in this world. Aside from rough desert terrain, lawmen, and bandits, the girls must also contend with the spirits of the dead that roam the land and can kill them if they’re not careful, with the added complication of being marked by “favors”—magical tattoos that brand them as Good Luck Girls, and burn when covered. It’s enough to make most girls want to quit, but even when the odds are stacked against them, these five keep going. The book is action-packed and full of twists and turns as all five struggle to figure out how they’re going to get out of the Scab, aka the desert they call home, and keep away from the lawmen who are hot on their tails. Davis does an excellent job at coming up with high stakes situations and then upping the tension even more, leading to a nail-biting ending that, while complete for the moment, will have you clamoring for book two.

I also liked that this book is very diverse when it comes to race, sexuality, and class, and Davis does a great job of drawing out these nuances without making the book feel too heavy-handed or overtly an “issue” book. There is no sex or sexual assault on the page, but Aster in particular is dealing with the emotional fallout of having escaped forced sex work and while she doesn’t dwell on details, it can be difficult for her to process her emotions, which feels very realistic to her experiences. Davis is sensitive to all of this, and manages to balance these bigger emotional moments with enough fantasy adventure tropes so that the book doesn’t feel too heavy, but still genuine. I’d definitely recommend it to older teens and adults alike!