This is a fantastic read. It’s 1976 and right at the start of the book a dreadful crime takes place. However, this is not directly about that crime. This is the interwoven tales of a number of protagonists who are linked directly or indirectly to what happened. A searing insight into Texas at the start of the oil boom years which, in structure and in empathy reminded me of Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. Beautifully written, this is one which will stay with you. A solid 4.5*

With thanks to Netgalley and 4th Estate/Williams Collins for an ARC in consideration of an honest review. Also thanks to the podcast Book Off where I discovered this book when it was championed by Jeanine Cummins.

One of those rare, involving stories that I couldn't wait to get back to but also didn't want to end! Yes, the opening scenes were really tough to get through but underpinned everything else that then followed. I felt like I knew the women of Odessa, that they lived and breathed, and it was a real struggle to say goodbye to them. What a book.

This is the benchmark against which all my further reading in 2020 will now be measured. Absolutely outstanding!

The writing in this book is so beautiful it's hard to believe it is Elizabeth Wetmores debut novel. I must have felt every emotion reading it. The relationships between the women and girls were fascinating. The difference between their opinions on what happened to Glory maddened and intrigued me. Valentine is not a book I will forget in a hurry. Definitely a re-read and one to recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this amazing book.

Stories can save your life. This, Corrine still believes, even if she hasn‘t been able to focus on a book since Potter died. And memory wanders, sometimes a capful of wind on a treeless plain, sometimes a twister in late spring. Nights, she sits on the front porch and lets those stories keep her alive for a little while longer.

Told from multiple perspectives, the book opens with a ghastly attack on a young girl in the 1970s Texas oilfields. She escapes and finds a rescuer: a young farmer's wife who prevents the attacker from removing all the witnesses to his crime. The book then pitches into an entirely different tone, from that dramatic and edge-of-your-seat tension, to the slow crawl of the wait for the trial. The farmer's wife slowly goes out of her mind with the threats and the small-town attitudes to a young girl left out on her own at 14. It is implied that she is ruining the life of some young man who grew up in the town.
The elderly lady over the road is mourning her husband, killed accidentally on a "hunting trip". Another woman has up and left her young daughter and husband, tired of the hopelessness of her life. The violence of the town, and the hopelessness, is related by the author to the violence meted out to the original occupants. The blurb from the publisher compares this to Elizabeth Strout, and certainly the layering approach of narratives told from different perspectives is similar.

Set in the West Texas town of Odessa during the oil boom of the 70s, Elizabeth Wetmore's Valentine sets the bar impossibly high for fellow debuts of 2020. 

Though its plot centres on the vicious assault of a fourteen-year old Mexican girl, Gloria Ramírez, the novel itself focuses less on the details of the crime than its effect on the women of the town who must deal with its fallout in both their own and their neighbours' lives. Through its patchwork of female narrative voices, Wetmore creates something which is both grounded in its period and urgently pertinent to the wider geopolitics of America now, tackling issues of race, gender and the crisis of personal versus societal responsibility with seamless skill.

Those expecting a conventional narrative may be surprised by its structure, which has more in common with short-story form than a novel, although it reaches a final catharsis of sorts, both in terms of its central story, and the lives of its main characters, as well as satisfying the reader with almost unbearable moments of tension along the way. It's interesting to note that the novel had its genesis in this shorter form, with one chapter in particular, having been previously published at an earlier date.

Though hard pressed to find weaknesses in any of the narrative voices, three, for me, are standouts: Corinne Shepard, a recent widow, who in the mire of her grief has elected to retreat from life and watches the case from afar, only to find that its ramifications come to her door anyway; Mary Rose Whitehead, a young mother and first responder to the victim, who motivated by her rage to the town's attitude, decides to testify as a witness for the prosecution in spite of the dangers this poses to her and her family; and Debra Ann Pierce, a frighteningly knowing eleven-year-old desperately searching for the atonement she believes will bring back her runaway mother. 

Throughout these interconnected narratives, Wetmore mines both the humanity and beauty of the everyday, as well as its assaults, and it is the devil in these detail that makes these women come alive. She is a voracious observer of character - sometimes blackly comic, sometimes shockingly poignant but never less than true. 

Here, and elsewhere in the novel, the language and relationships sing with all the richness of poetry and though it is an easy read it shouldn't be a quick one. Wetmore's language is deliberate in its economy and not a word is wasted in its precision and evocativeness. As Debra Ann comments at one point these are "words whose loveliness and music make her want to cry when she says them aloud."

If the male characters are dealt with lightly, and sometimes cruelly, then this is perhaps the point, especially at a time when women needed their husband's permission to return to work, and men had few aspirations for their wives aside from adopting the cookie-cutter role models of cheerleaders and baby makers, of waitresses and objects of lust. In secret, and even without, these women are much more than this, their lives as rich in rage, and disillusionment and ambition as their male counterparts. Pointedly, Mary Rose's rifle is nicknamed "Old Lady" and its wrath at her hands is not to be reckoned with. 

Wetmore knows the West Texas landscape intimately to the point where, it too, becomes a character in its own right, rendered in the same muscular, desolate language as the male characters of the novel. The land, like the women, is a place to be dominated and taken at will, plundered when its oil riches are good, abandoned when the wells dry up. But it is also fraught with hidden danger, and here, as elsewhere, Wetmore offers us an almost Darwinian half-smirk at the riggers who push too far and go down with "a fatal case of the stupid." Only one of the male characters, in fact - the young soldier Jesse Belden - seems immune to this treatment. Although traumatised by his experiences, he is still too young to have succumbed to the cynicism and viciousness of his peers, and through his friendship with Debra Ann remains a symbol of male hope.

Ultimately, however, and in homage to the many interpretations of its title, Valentine is a fiercely passionate love letter to the women of West Texas, a celebration of their self-effacement and knowledge, and, above all else, of their survival instinct. It fully deserves to prompt wider conversations about who we were as well as who we are and what we want to be in the future. I cannot recommend it enough. 

My sincere thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review. 

NB: Content warning for descriptions of sexual assault, injury and suicide references.

4-5 stars. This was an emotional and I trifling read for me. It started out quite brutal, which really had my attention. Well written, characters developed amazingly, and unputdownable. I found I was either numb from shock or in chills most of the book, which shows me the writing was quite powerful. Overall, I recommend to those who enjoy fictional account of a true crime type story, showing very well the emotional turmoil many feel after the crime is committed. I think those who love thrillers, true crime, and other genres will enjoy this absolutely brutal and powerful read.
Will make sure I buzz it up on all the different sites!

The tale starts with a brutal rape. What follows is the reaction of a cast characters to the assault, the justice system and society. It is a book that makes you think, as well as want to shout about society's many infuriating double standards and inequalities.

It is a deeply caring book, but also brutally frank, Mexicans in Texas won't get justice and in particular, young girls will not be believed when they are up against the good ol' boys. I enjoyed the voices of the many characters, a device which could have so easily lead to confusion brought a pleasing continuity to the story.

A small town in Texas a group of women’s horrific crime.the. After effects on their lives the women drew me in kept me turning the pages.A debut an author to follow #netgalley #4thestate

I don't mind admitting this didn't draw me straight in. In fact I was a tad annoyed to be taken away from the main story.
Then as I saw how all the stories overlapped and were connected in some way,I fell right into it.

The stories are harsh,the farm life,the way women are treated,and the racism.... but harsh often tells the best story.
I'm wishing I'd not raced through this now,and it could have been my last book of 2019,going out on a high.

The Year:- 1976. The place:- Odessa, West Texas. Oil boom. It’s hell, hard, harsh, brutal, bigoted, full of machismo, mayhem, sexism, violence and injustice. When Gloria Ramirez, 15, is brutally raped it sets of a kind of chain reaction of blame, counter blame, prejudice, gossip and bigoted innuendo that some women are never the same again. Dale Strickland is the coward in question who thinks he can take what he wants and there will be few repercussions. Sadly, he’s right despite Mary Rose, who’s ranch poor Gloria staggers to, standing up to him both for herself and the girl against the arrogance of the male dominated society. Mary Rose is my hero of this story as she has guts and sass. She moves away from the ranch as she can no longer bear the place or her husbands attitude and moves opposite Corinne Shepard. Corinne is struggling after the death of her husband and is doing her darned best to drink herself into a grave next to him. We also follow Debra Ann Pierce who is 10 and running feral after her mum Ginny runs out on her. DA is kind and resourceful. These women/child connect together in this superb debut novel and is told in alternate storylines by the female protagonists.

The writing of this thought provoking snapshot of a period of time has been described as masterful. It is. Elizabeth Wetmore has been compared to writers such as Elizabeth Strout. She should be. Her prose is beautiful, creative and original, she build tension perfectly, makes you feel a powerful array of emotions from sadness to anger at the injustice, venom towards Dale and despair that men had so much power at this time. Some characters are very caring and kind and that is a welcome relief. The hostile environment, hostile people, hostile weather and hostile wildlife provides a perfect backdrop to the unfolding drama and some of the descriptions of the area are superb. The alternating storylines flows well and the author matches the personality to the tone of the writing so that you get a real sense of their character. There is sensitivity and understanding in the approach to Gloria's story and you feel her pain, she refuses to be called Gloria after the rape as she is not the same person and calls herself Glory.

Overall, a wonderful and very powerful story which depicts the characters well but is also an excellent portrayal of the times and attitudes of the ‘70’s world. It’s is beautifully written and is one of those books that touches you, makes you feel what the characters feel and is most certainly a book I will remember. Highly recommended.

Special thanks to NetGalley and 4th Estate and William Collins for the ARC.