3 out of 4 stars
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An old woman on a train headed south in an alternate California in the late 1800s comes to rescue a baby girl wearing a blue and white dress she’d made for her own children. The ghost of her husband helps her to escape the train, and thus, Juanita’s story begins. The story picks up 16 years later, where Juanita is training to be a mystic for her people in the small village of Promise. The spirits of her ancestors guide her to lead the people of her village, and adopted family, to sabotage a train much like the one that carried her southward as an infant.
There are so many elements of The Engine Woman’s Light that should culminate into a really gripping story, but it doesn’t all quite work. Part of the reason is a huge chunk of the book centers around Juanita being afraid of the men around her raping her, as well as the loss of her virginity making her less valued by the men she cares for. Rape and domestic violence are used as plot devices and as part of the character backstory/redemption for several characters. In addition, the first section of the book is very haphazard, and it takes a great deal of gleaning to understand the alternate world in which the story is set. This is, in part, because none of it is explained, as well as the fact that the narrator for the story is from a very small, secluded, somewhat hidden village, and she learns very little about her world in the course of the narrative. For these reasons, I give The Engine Woman’s Light 3 out of 4 stars.
I was still pretty captivated, despite its weaknesses. The book is professionally edited, and once you digest the weird cult-like mysticism, it is a decent read. There is an instance of an eggcorn on the first page: “what the tarnation” rather than “what in tarnation,” as well as a misspelling of banditos as “bandidos [sic]” a couple of pages later. Otherwise there aren’t any traces of spelling or grammatical errors that I noticed.
The reason I found myself absorbed in the narrative was because the characters were so interesting. Each character, even the ghosts, were fully characterized, with internal motivations, backstory, and a unique voice. They all retained a certain mystery, which Hill developed by not info-dumping on the reader. This works beautifully for revelations from the characters, but tended to hurt the world-building to a degree.
I would recommend The Engine Woman’s Light to readers who enjoy westerns, as well as alternate history. Less so for steampunk, it was very tech light. Comparatively, I think The Engine Woman’s Light reads like a mash up of a spiritual narrative mixed with an alternate history written by Anne Bishop, crossed with the movie Wild Wild West. Would I read more about the characters, yes, definitely, but overall I’d have loved to see more of this world, and learn how it got that way.
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The Engine Woman's Light
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