The Vengeance of Mothers

July 31, 2017
Set in the 1880s, Fergus’s follow-up to his bestselling One Thousand White Women focuses on the women who fell in love with Cheyenne men during a vicious war between the United States government and the indigenous population. Told through two alternating journals that cover the same time period, the book begins with the logs of Margaret Kelly, who—along with her sister, Susie—was part of the Wives for Indians program that sent “undesirable” women from prisons and asylums to marry Native Americans as a means to encourage assimilation. The second journal is that of Molly McGill, another woman sent to marry into the Cheyenne tribe. But when Molly arrives in the West, the program is virtually defunct, and the group of Cheyenne she was sent to meet is now on the run. After their village is destroyed by U.S. soldiers in a raid that leaves their children and husbands dead, Margaret and Susie are overwhelmed with a desire for revenge and refuse to leave the Cheyenne. Meanwhile, Molly and the other women sent west must either return to imprisonment or make a life for themselves in the face of extreme violence and danger. Although historically accurate, the book’s reliance on the journal form leads to long monologues that read as wooden and redundant. However, the book starts quickly, bringing readers immediately into the time and place, and fans looking for adventure during the time of the Oregon Trail will find some thrills.

September 1, 2017

Fergus continues his reimagining of the American West in the 1870s in this follow-up to One Thousand White Women, which was inspired by a historic proposal (never carried out) to send white women west to marry Cheyenne men. The story is told through the journals of women involved in the "Brides-for-Indians" program; Meggie Kelly, the Irish wife of a Cheyenne warrior, and Molly McGill, a murderess who joins the program to escape a life sentence in Sing Sing. Both mothers, Meggie and Molly have lost children in acts of violence. The women channel their grief by training to be warriors and vowing for vengeance. VERDICT Readers sensitive to racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes will find no enjoyment here, as the author ignores the more interesting stories of the Cheyenne and Lakota women who appear on the margins. However, fans of the TV show Hell on Wheels might find the novel of interest.--Emily Hamstra, Seattle

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2017
Twenty years on, Fergus' best-selling novel, One Thousand White Women (1998), remains vivid in readers' memories and continues to be discovered by historical-fiction fans. He now continues the intriguing tale of the U.S. government's controversial, little-publicized, assimilation-oriented Brides for Indians program. The story begins in March 1876 with the diary of Margaret Kelly, an Irish lass who, along with her sister, Susie, married Cheyenne warriors and became immersed in the tribe's culture. Their village has just been attacked by the U.S. army. They both lost their husbands and, on the long, frigid trek to a nearby Lakota village, baby daughters. When a fresh contingent of white women arrives, Maggie and Susie are enlisted to help integrate them into native life. The newcomers include Molly McGill, who had been imprisoned at Sing Sing for murdering the man who killed her daughter. She starts her own diary, and in chapters alternating between her voice and Maggie's, Fergus re-creates all that happens leading up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn that June, including how the Kelly sisters finally get revenge for the loss of their babies. It's a gripping tale, a history lesson infused with both sadness at the violence perpetuated against the Cheyenne and awe at the endurance of this remarkable group of women. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a twentieth-anniversary edition of Fergus' million-copy hit, One Thousand White Women, and a major publicity campaign for the long-awaited sequel, requests will be legion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)