I loved it more after meeting the author

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There's something about comparisons, comp titles, and other people's recommendations that can really skew how you view a book. Also, I heard most about this book while at YallFest, where author Charlotte Nicole Davis was put on panels with sci-fi authors to discuss her not-particularly-sci-fi story. It's dystopian, but beyond that it's a western and a western starring the world's biggest underdogs: Black sex workers.

Davis brilliantly infuses emotions to different situations: the fear when main character Clem meets her first client, the paranoia when traveling through the wasteland between towns, the joy and hurt and trust and betrayal between each of the girls in this group as they continue to survive and thrive outside of the law. Another thing that was handled brilliantly was the racism of the society, where our BIPOC main characters have to face scrutiny not just for the "favor" that marks them as sex workers but also for the color of their skin.