Go West, Girl! Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free kindle copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Move over, Annie Oakley! There’s a new sharpshooter town. Her name is Jeannie Delaney. I usually don’t read a whole lot of westerns, but when I heard about Go West, Girl! by Kit MacKenzie, whose main character is a bisexual cowgirl, I was intrigued. And overall, it was pretty good, for it had an intriguing framework, a unique voice, and compelling characters.

Go West, Girl! is the first book in the Jeannie Delaney series. Jeannie is devastating and charismatic. She can be tough as nails, and her looks can kill by staring at anybody. She grew up in New Orleans with her parents and several brothers. Her mother wants her to act like other girls, while her father is fine with who Jeannie wants to be. The family moves to Wyoming when she is 10 years old. As Jeannie grows up, she discovers that she has a phenomenal gun hand, a powerful persona, and a fluid sexuality. Many men and women desire her, and there are some that she yearns for as well. However, she finds it difficult to live on a land, where a number of men want her dead. She kills two of them in self-defense and is wanting to take revenge on a group who harmed a dear friend. Will she be able to live the life she wants to live?

Go West, Girl! is essentially a biography of the fictional Jeannie Delaney. What makes it interesting is the framework. The first two chapters center around a journalist named Kate Howard. She’s desperate to write a book about Jeannie because of how much she admires her. At first, Jeannie is not keen on the idea, but later on, she tells Kate to “give it to ‘em in a barrel load” and make it pretty.

I wonder what parts that Kate “wrote” about Jeannie are the truth. Sadly, she disappears afterwards. Maybe Kate will come back in the second volume. I’m also curious to know how Jeannie will react to it when the biography is done. Regardless, this framework shows the motive of writing such a story about someone the writer admires so much. The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers by Sarah Tomilson does this too, but it emphasizes the ghostwriter so much that it leaves behind what makes the subject that they’re working on so special. Go West, Girl rightly focuses on Jeannie while still finding the time to develop the journalist.

Since the novel mostly takes place in the American West, various characters speak in that dialect. Words like “I” and “something” are turned into “Ah” and “summat.” This is on purpose because people living in such a rugged area are not going to talk like those in more refined locations. I was able to understand what the characters were saying even if I had to read it outloud sometimes to get it. So, no, it doesn’t need a professional edit.

But of course, the book’s crowning achievement are the fleshed-out characters. Jeannie is quickly established as a strong and confident woman. She always knew that she was different since she was a kid when she favored pants over dresses. There are plenty of scenes that demonstrate that side of her personality. However, I felt more for her when she showed her softer side. I enjoyed the scenes, in which she tells stories to people, especially the children (much to the dismay of their parents.) It displays one more side of why people like her. She’s even vulnerable and doubtful at times. These come in the second half of the story when she’s discovering more of her sexuality, and she doesn’t know what to do. I wondered how she was going to deal with that since she couldn’t always shoot it away nor retort with a witty line.

It’s not just Jeannie who’s fleshed out. I love her dad Dean (lovingly called Pa.) He was the parent who supported her decision to wear pants and dress more masculine when she was a child. Pa was also the one that allowed her to work with the farmhands when they relocated to the west, particularly during their cattle drives, and taught her how to use a gun. At the same time, he later ponders on what would’ve happened if Jeannie acted like a lady once in a while. Even her brothers have a variety of thoughts on her choices. Most are supportive and try to help (even if it’s not what she wants), yet her oldest brother is religious and expresses his disappointment with her “lifestyle” in one scene.

This book is not for everyone. The language can be quite foul, especially with the f-word being dropped on several occasions. Some readers might interpret it as vulgar. Furthermore, there are a handful of scenes, in which Jeannie has her rendezvouses with men and women. These are tastefully done, yet I understand that there will always be people who don’t like love-making depicted in books and in media in general.

I have only one minor complaint. Some characters are of color, and they mainly exist to help Jeannie – a white woman. For example, when Jeannie gets herself into a fight with some men at the saloon, an Asian man notices and performs martial arts to defeat them. She asks him if he could teach her his moves, and he agrees. Readers never hear from him again. Earlier in the book when her family are in New Orleans, Jeannie goes to Jackson Square and sees some Africans dancing in a way she’s never seen before. They show her their moves. Like with the Asian man, they are never heard from again, but the dancing comes back into play when she attends a barn dance in Wyoming years later, proving how different she is from other women. 

Go West, Girl! by Kit MacKenzie is a wonderful story about a courageous bixsexual cowgirl. Jeannie Deleany is an interesting character who’s more than just a sharpshooter. The exploration of her vulnerable side is what elevates her. Other characters like her father and brothers are well developed too. Also, the language fits well with the environment, and the framework makes me wonder how much truth is being presented. I would recommend this to readers who want more strong, confident women and LGBTQ+ characters in their western novels. The second volume The Outlaw’s Return is coming out on Saturday, August 3, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to order my copy.