Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
In a post-collapse
eternally-at-war America, most States are rigidly controlled, with traveling
women Librarians bringing only Approved Materials to small communities.
Conventionally rigid “virtue,” subservience to male authority, and suppression
of free thought are the rule in Esther’s world. Just before the start of the
story, she has fallen in love with another teen girl, their affair has been
discovered, and her lover has been hanged. Only the power and political standing
of her father has saved Esther’s life. So she does the only reasonable thing:
she runs away to join the Librarians. Who are not at all the conventional,
convention-enforcing women she expected: a lesbian couple and a third, who
presents as female in public but wears trousers and insists on “they” in
private. To say this blows up Esther’s preconceptions and challenges her guilt
for having the “wrong” attractions is putting it mildly.
The core of the
story emerges as Esther gains in confidence, rising to face one increasingly
dangerous challenge after another. The world is nothing like what she expected,
and the only way to gain her own freedom to be fully herself is to fight for
the rights of others to do the same.
A satisfying ending
concludes this thoughtful page-turner.
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