Secrets in the Tallgrass
Phreddie has spent her entire life searching for love and acceptance. She thought she found it in Remy Delaroux, the wealthy son of a sugar merchant. On their wedding night, Phreddie reveals a secret to her new husband that she has never told anyone: she is an intersex woman. Horrified, Remy attacks her, and in the scuffle, he is accidentally killed. Now she must go on the run to escape her husband’s vengeful brother. Racing from New Orleans to New York to Kansas, Phreddie hopes to start a new life and find a place where she can truly belong.
From the start, this book is fast-paced and plot-driven, with some truly exciting chase scenes, but it leaves little room for character development. Some side characters get a snippet of backstory, but there just isn’t enough about Phreddie. Being intersex has certainly shaped her character’s experiences, but the reader will want to see her be a more multi-dimensional person. Fewer subplots or a longer length would have given the author more room to expand on the characters. The novel also relies heavily on familiar Western archetypes and tropes, including its portrayal of Native Americans. The author does include a thoughtful note to the reader explaining that the book contains bigoted language, particularly toward Native Americans and intersex people, and that they made a conscious decision to include it to represent how people spoke in the 1860s. Since the author demonstrated their sensitivity and consideration of marginalized groups, I was surprised to see the Native American characters treated as set dressing and falling into the tired tropes of either the bloodthirsty villain, indiscriminately scalping people, or the noble savage. The novel has an interesting concept but unfortunately lacks in execution.
