Coyote Cowgirl
Kim Antieau
(Guest Reviewer - Michæla Roessner)
2003 Forge Books
ISBN: 0765302675

With the help of a talking crystal skull Jeanne Flambeaux searches for a stolen heirloom.

Jeanne is the black sheep of her very accomplished family. Apart from being a lousy cook she hears voices emanating from strange objects, & seems to be always choosing flaky lovers who rip off her family's heirlooms, as they head out the door.

Guest Reviewer Michæla Roessner writes:

Coyote Cowgirl is a refreshing, charming magical & realistic romp. Poor Jeanne Flambeaux! After a traumatic experience in her childhood when she believed that a crystal skull (a valuable -- in more ways than one -- family relic) talked to her, thereby causing her family to panic, she's been treated, well, differently. Jeanne feels her relatives consider her not-up-to-par, an underachiever to be merely tolerated.

From the very beginning, we (the readers) wonder if her perceptions, though heartfelt, are entirely accurate, since her older siblings aren't shy with their own observations that she's the coddled protected baby of the family. There's no denying, however, that she doesn't quite fit in: though she works in the family restaurant in the American Southwest she's got lead hands, & cannot match the brilliance of her culinary relatives. & she suffers in her own encounters with food in the form of a most peculiar eating disorder.

Now in her twenties, Jeanne is coasting through life until another family heirloom is stolen by a ne'er-do-well lover. Her quest to retrieve it propels her into a journey of unexpected twists & turns, aided by the most unlikely of guides & side-kicks -- the wise-cracking crystal skull, self-named Crane, who's decided to start talking to her again.

As the pair experience both physical & metaphysical escapades throughout the landscape of the Southwest -- from Arizona to Nevada to Mexico, Jeanne unravels her family's secrets & discovers a true calling of her own in the kitchen.

Coyote Cowgirl deals with serious themes in its concerns for the environment, & the impact of dysfunctional families on the young, however, Kim Antieau eschews strident scolding & instead conjures up a delicious narrative written in crisp, sparkling prose; her message delivered with compassion & warmth.

Coyote Cowgirl was short-listed for the prestigious Tiptree Award, an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.

More from Kim Antieau:
The Jigsaw Woman
The Gaia Websters

Michæla Roessner is the author of The Stars Dispose & The Stars Compel & is a member of the The Brazen Hussies
(06/27/04)

Guest Reviewer - Michæla Roessner
2004©Michæla Roessner