The Vengeance of Mothers

The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill: A Novel

By: Jim Fergus

Narrated by: Laura Hicks, Erik Steele

Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

"[Narrator Laura Hicks] captures the compelling emotions of these desperate women as they escape their former lives of hardship and dare to dream of a freedom they haven't yet known." (Booklist, starred review)

The stunning sequel to Jim Fergus' award-winning One Thousand White Women.

9 March 1876
My name is Meggie Kelly and I take up this pencil with my twin sister, Susie. We have nothing left, less than nothing. The village of our People has been destroyed, all our possessions burned, our friends butchered by the soldiers, our baby daughters gone, frozen to death on an ungodly trek across these rocky mountains. Empty of human feeling, half-dead ourselves, all that remains of us intact are hearts turned to stone. We curse the US government, we curse the Army, we curse the savagery of mankind, white and Indian alike. We curse God in his heaven. Do not underestimate the power of a mother’s vengeance....

So begins the journal of Margaret Kelly, a woman who participated in the government's "Brides for Indians" program in 1873, a program whose conceit was that the way to peace between the United States and the Cheyenne Nation was for One Thousand White Women to be given as brides in exchange for 300 horses. These "brides" were mostly fallen women; women in prison, prostitutes, the occasional adventurer, or those incarcerated in asylums. No one expected this program to work. The brides themselves thought it was simply a chance at freedom. But many of them fell in love with the Cheyenne spouses and had children with them...and became Cheyenne themselves. 

The Vengeance of Mothers is an audiobook that explores what happens to the bonds between wives and husbands, children and mothers, when society sees them as "unspeakable." What does it mean to be white, to be Cheyenne, and how far will these women go to avenge the ones they love? As he did in One Thousand White Women, Jim Fergus brings to light a time and place in American history, and fills it with unforgettable characters who live and breathe with a passion we can relate to even today.

©2017 Jim Fergus (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"[Narrator Laura Hicks] captures the compelling emotions of these desperate women as they escape their former lives of hardship and dare to dream of a freedom they haven't yet known." (Booklist)

Love! Love! Looooove this book!

Such a wonderful sequel to the first. I can't wait to dive into the 3rd book.

Fabulous read

This is a follow up to “A Thousand Whitr Women” which I enjoyed tremendously. I loved this book as much. It is a page turner.. The narration was fabulous.

FASCINATING

Loved this book and the descriptions of a simpler time and world. Jim Fergus knows how to tell a story. Sad to reach the end, if you love historical fiction highly recommend.

vengeance

apart from love scene very little to recommend it. takes too long 2 finish story

Good sequel

Good sequel to 1000 White Women. Both books are easy reads and were hard to put down.

A truer history of the USA!

This is a story you may never forget and likely to be a history closer to the truth than anything you learned from a high school curriculum. If ever I am asked why I lack any hint of patriotism towards the country in which I live, I will simply recommend this book along with 1000 White Women by the same author. Jim Fergus writes with a refreshingly realistic view of the often white-washed history of the USA. This story captures a time that many Americans wish had ended differently than it did. I for one have always been one to wish for victory to go to the underdogs and I do so in this story too. To bad history is so sad in reality!

Repetitive

I thought I was having dejavu as some of the stories had the exact same wording throughout the book although those were supposedly words from different women’s journals.

“Riveting” another 5 Star Must Read

In this second book of the Trilogy by author Jim Ferguson, I’m pleased to write a “5 star” review for both story & narration; this series is one of those rare reads that one hopes for in searching Audible. I put this Trilogy at the top of my all time favorites along with the books: “Where the Crawdads Sing”, by Delia Owens and “ Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate.

Just great!

Haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long while. Second in a series. Can't wait to read the last of the series.

I was happy to revisit old friends in this sequel!

This book covers a sad period in history. A stamping out of one culture in an endless fight for supremacy of another. This story is fiction but it doesn't feel that way maybe because we still need to learn these lessons. There is literally a cliffhanger ending as well!