Gunslinger Girl

by Lyndsay Ely

James Patterson (Foreword)

James Patterson presents a genre-bending, action-packed debut -- and introduces YA's new favorite, kick-ass heroine: Serendipity Jones, the fastest sharpshooter in tomorrow's West.

Seventeen-year-old Serendipity "Pity" Jones inherited two things from her mother: a pair of six shooters and perfect aim. When her father attempts to marry her off to a stranger, she runs away from their humble farming commune and ends up in the most dangerous, decadent city on the continent: Cessation (a lawless Las Vegas). Pity becomes the star of the Theater Vespertine as a trick sharpshooter like Annie Oakley, and there she finds fame, friendship and--what she most wanted--belonging.

But there's a darker side to the Theater...The Finale. Every so often the fighting factions of Cessation have to be kept in line with a little demonstration, a nightmarish public execution. And Pity has a starring role...

• ISBN10: 031655510X
• ISBN13: 9780316555104
• Publish Date: 16 March 2018 (first published 2 January 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 March 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Imprint: Little, Brown Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Serendipity Jones, y'all.

My goodness, I loved this girl.

Full disclosure?  Gunslinger Girl was preordered about two days before release, and it's been sitting on my shelf every since.  I've been eyeing it with doubt and suspicion for two months until I picked it up last week thinking "might as well get this over with".

I am a fool.

I wish I had read this book two months ago.  Heavens, I wish I had received an ARC.  Pity and Max and Luster and the whole gang were exactly what I needed right now in my unenthusiastic reading drudge.  I mean, for starters - PITY.  Serendipity Jones is such a fantastic character.  She's Calamity Jane, she's Annie Oakley, and she's something fierce and powerful and entirely her own.  She's a straight shot with a six shooter and yet she's also a lost kitten.  You love her and you cheer for her and you ache for her.

Gunslinger Girl is one of those books where you know you're only just skimming the surface.  While we hear a good deal of Pity's story and even some of Max's - we know that there a whole lot  more world out there and everyone at Casimir has a deep, troubling past.  I want to know them all, in excruciating detail.  Moreover, this book is just ripe for a sequel and I'm hoping that's on the horizon in some SUPER SECRET vault somewhere.  It'll be called "Bounty Hunter" and it will be amazing.  Also, guys?  Just let me dream.  I have no idea if Lyndsay is planning a sequel but if she is, I will preorder it faster than Pity can shoot a tin can off a fence at fifty paces.

This book was refreshing and rich and fun and built up in this totally stunning world and from the moment I fell in love (page 24) I have been recommending this to everyone.  Ev-er-y-one.

So if you haven't read Gunslinger Girl yet and you're crazy about rich dystopias, performances a la The Greatest Showman, women who don't need rescuing, and government plots - good god y'all, what're you waiting for?

[Beth C.]

Serendipity Jones lives with her father and two brothers, her mother having died years earlier. Her father is a brutal man, and upon hearing the news that she has been sold off because she's fertile, Pity runs. She takes only her mother's guns from the war, and her best friend. Along the way, they are set upon - leading Pity to a place and a life that she never would have imagined to be hers.

The setting for this book is after some sort of huge disaster for the world, including another civil war. However, that is a backdrop to the story - not the story itself. Instead, it influences how the story plays out and how the people are. It's like a futuristic throwback western, really.

I got this book somewhat impulsively, but I am quite glad I did. The characters are fabulous, and as with all good westerns, look out for the double-cross(es). I particularly liked Pity - she's a strong female main character who learns to trust her own strength over time.

Overall, I really enjoyed Gunslinger Girl, and would happily read more.