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In books and movies, there are some villains who are just plain evil—while others have a tragic backstory. And in Lady or the Tiger, author Heather M. Herman takes a look back at the years of abuse that turned a teenage girl from the mountains of Kentucky into a glamorous, seductive, and ruthless killer.
The story is set in 1886, in the Wild West town of Dodge City, where notorious 19-year-old performer Belle King sits in a jail cell, awaiting her inevitable hanging for murder. Belle isn’t fighting her conviction; in fact, she turned herself in and confessed to the crime—and a few more for good measure. The last person she expects to see before her death is her abusive husband, Reginald, who’s determined to free her. But while he insists that she’s innocent, she refuses to let him control her or speak for her anymore.
As this teenage serial killer prepares for her death, she looks back on the last four years of her life—starting with the man she killed to try to protect her mother and going on to recall her time in a mental hospital for women, her marriage to Reginald, and her life traveling with a band of performers. The story jumps back and forth through time to tell the story in glimpses, dreams, and memories, while telling little of Belle’s actual crimes. But while the storytelling can sometimes feel random and puzzling—and sometimes difficult to piece together—the story itself is a fascinating one, exploring the life of a young woman growing up in the nineteenth century, when speaking up and telling the truth could lead to life in an institution.
Belle may be a killer—and readers may often question her choices—but, as she reveals more of her past, her story becomes more than just one of a blood-thirsty murderer on a killing spree. This conflicted young anti-hero has experienced desperation, fear, and even love—and she’s given in to the dark shadow that’s emboldened her to speak up and fight back. She’s an intriguing—and strangely likable—character, and readers will be captivated by every twist and turn of this tale, right up to the startling conclusion.
Lady or the Tiger is an unexpected read—one of clever twists, song and dance, and Wild West action. It’s a dark and haunting novel about a young woman who was pushed too far—and was forced to give in to a darker side of herself that she’d long tried to ignore.
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