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Spoilers Beyond This Point

Characters:

• Lois: our main character
• Lawrence: Lois’s soon-to-be ex-husband
• Mary Elizabeth: the first divorcée Lois meets
• Rita: the owner of the divorce ranch
• Bailey: Rita’s second in command
• Anna: the cook at the ranch
• Charlie: the ranch hand
• Carol & Patty: Rita’s daughters
• Greer: a new resident with a mysterious past
• Peg: a dealer at one of the casinos

Summary (with Spoilers)

The book starts as we follow Lois from her married home in Chicago to the train that takes her to Nevada. On the train, she meets Mary Elizabeth, another divorcée heading to the Golden Yarrow. It’s clear from the first chapters that Lois is not someone with a high social battery, and she spends most of her time trying to avoid interactions. She also reflects early on that she seems to be looking forward to life as an independent woman more than the other divorcées seem to be.

“‘I hate to say it, but you’d never marry again. Never. It’s poisonous enough to be a divorcée. Only widows and certain types of girls live alone,’ Dorothy says.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

The women definitely have a variety of opinions about their own lives after their divorces are finalized. Most of them are planning on living with other family members until they get married again. A few already have their second husband lined up and ready to go. When Lois mentions her plan to eventually get an apartment and live on her own, the women immediately shut her down, telling her it’s just not done. 

Lois is already starting to feel different than the rest of the women, and that divide gets even bigger when Rita reveals Lois’s “schedule.” Lois’s father is the one paying for her stay at the ranch, and he has asked Rita to make sure Lois doesn’t go out to the bars or casinos. So while the other women leave every night to have a fun old time, Lois is stuck at the ranch with Rita and card games. 

“The girl is beautiful, with hard, high cheekbones and a square jaw, but across the side of her face that is turned toward Lois, blooming from the side of her mouth up toward the corner of her eye, is a bruise so severe that the colors of it pulse, even from this distance.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

A new resident arrives shortly after Lois and Mary Elizabeth, but takes her meals in her room for several days. This is something new, and the women gossip that it must mean she’s a celebrity, because everyone else is expected to join the group for every meal. When the new woman finally joins the group, it’s clear she’s been recovering from a horrifically violent experience. She introduces herself as Greer, says she’s from NYC and that her husband beat her right before she left.

Lois is instantly obsessed with Greer, but so are all the women. They fight for her attention, which becomes the biggest commodity at the ranch. Lois has already started spending every afternoon reading by the pool and swimming, and one day she finds that Greer has joined her. They talk a little, but for some reason, Greer seems to mark Lois as her top choice. She invites Lois out with the group, and when Lois (stared down by Rita) declines, Greer decides to stay in too.

This leads to the other women getting mad at Lois, and Greer convinces her to go out the next night. The women are freer outside the ranch, and go to a well-known bar to meet up with some of the cowboy locals. Everyone has the freedom to split off from the group, and a few definitely take advantage of the men in the crowd.

“Though before Lois wanted so deeply for Rita to think she was as strong as her, all she can think of now is that her head has never felt level. It’s a balloon one moment and an anchor in the next, but she does not want to explain this to Rita. It’s something she thinks only Greer would understand.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

The next day, Rita tries to fish information out of Lois about the womens’ adventures the night before. Rita doesn’t approve of most things that happen outside the ranch, and Lois refuses to share anything that would out any of the other residents. This is clearly a turning point in her relationship with Rita, who is quickly losing control of the group to Greer.

“How Lois feels different ever since Greer handed her the beer bottle in the back of Charlie’s pickup. Their closeness deepening to something elemental.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

Lois continues to spend every day thinking about Greer until it’s time to hang out with Greer. She quickly moves from “what a mysterious person” to “her arms are my arms,” with no explanation. Greer is continually pushing her to jump out of her comfort zone, and one day that includes going shooting in the desert. Lois refuses to shoot a gun, but Greer pressures her into doing it anyway. And after that afternoon, Lois is convinced the connection is even deeper.

“Greer knew who she was pushing her toward last night, it must have been done with intention, to make it clear that she shouldn’t waste any more of her time on men.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

Another push from Greer comes in the form of a hook-up. The group is out at the bar, and there’s a cowboy that’s been aggressively eyeing Lois all night. Greer encourages her to go for it, and Lois finds herself outside the bar, against a wall, making out with said cowboy. He quickly gets too aggressive, and Lois has to literally fight him off. She finds out later that he’s a hired worker at a ranch with a reputation for that kind of behavior, and that Greer was specifically told by Rita to make sure the other girls avoided those men. But Lois is convinced she needed the wake-up call from Greer.

“The silence makes her doubt the steps she took, and she wants Greer to clear the air, to assure the others that Lois simply did what was necessary.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

Over the course of Lois and Mary Elizabeth’s four weeks at the ranch, Mary Elizabeth’s husband has become more and more aggressive about trying to see her. He’d started by sending gifts, but had finally resorted to flying to Nevada and stalking the ranch. One night Lois wakes up to the sound of broken glass. She gets up, and sees Mary Elizabeth’s husband, drunk, trying to get into Mary Elizabeth’s room. In a moment of panic, Lois grabs a gun off the wall and threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t stop. He doesn’t and in front of all the women, Lois shoots. Luckily, the gun was not loaded (more of a wall decoration than an actual weapon), but the women still avoid Lois like the plague.

“Over the next few days, as Lois comes to the end of her fifth week, she and Greer go to the casino alone.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

Lois has endured days of almost radio silence from the rest of the group, and Greer uses that to their advantage. At the casino, Greer encourages Lois to steal a chip or two, which leads them to a conversation about planning a heist. Greer convinces Lois that they could accomplish a heist at the casino to fund their independent lifestyles. Greer confides in Lois that while she’s been using her husband’s money to fund everything at the ranch, she has no money to her name once the divorce is finalized. 

To further sweeten the deal, Greer tells Lois that she wants to move to LA after the divorce. Lois, a diehard movie fan, says she’s always dreamed of living in LA. Greer pushes, saying that if they stole enough money, they could get an apartment together in LA. Lois immediately jumps on the idea, and they begin plotting.

“Lois imagines Florence finding a ropy nest of Greer’s hair in the wastebasket. The thought repulses her, Greer’s hair as much a part of her as an ear or finger.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

Greer reveals a short haircut one day, and Lois’s fixation grows even deeper. This is the part where I really, truly got pulled out of the story because of the obsession on Greer. Lois spends an entire chapter trimming Greer’s hair after an impulsive chop, and the undertones are so charged that it’s impossible not to think something’s going to happen between the two women. The way Lois feels so possessive over part of Greer body, time, and attention, is beyond any level of friendship. The tension between them continues to grow after this, which continued to annoy me.

Then it’s time for the heist. Greer and Lois have been rehearsing every aspect of it, including working with Peg, one of the female dealers. The night of the heist, everything is timed out and planned, but none of it works. In the middle of the sequence, Greer disappears from the casino, and Lois spends hours trying to find her.

Some of the casino security approaches her, asking about Greer. Then the next morning, two police detectives arrive at the ranch, asking similar questions. It’s quickly revealed that Greer Lang was a made-up persona, and that Greer was not an abused housewife from NYC. Instead, she had been in the area for quite some time, frequenting bars, stealing hotel keys, and stealing from men. She’d gotten into an altercation with one of the men, which explained her bruises. She’d also been paying Rita in installments, and had been continuing to rob people as the group was out at bars.

“She slowly opens the drawer and unfolds the pale pink slip, uncovering her velvet jewelry box. She takes a breath and opens it quickly, as if that will lessen the pain of what’s to come. Her mother’s necklace, gone.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

Lois is devastated because of their cOnNeCtIoN, and because she doesn’t have a roommate. Then the women start going through their things and realize they’re all missing jewelry and other expensive items. Lois has a moment of “surely not me,” but quickly finds that Greer had stolen her mother’s necklace as well.

The situation seems to convince Lois that she needs to stop depending on other people. She makes plans to move to LA, even though everyone tells her not to. She gets a roommate with a little help from Bailey, and works at a makeup counter. Her roommate is an aspiring actress (it’s LA), and encourages Lois to get into doing makeup on set, which Lois does well at.

“The camera cuts to a close-up, and Lois notices that Greer is wearing a necklace, the chain tucked into her dress, disappearing into the long, lean shadow of her chest. It’s her mother’s necklace, Lois knows and does not know.”

The Divorcées, Rowan Beaird

The final reveal is that one day while watching TV, Lois sees Greer in a commercial. It’s clear that Greer has also been in LA this whole time, proving to Lois once and for all that she was nothing more than a mark. The twist of the knife is that in the commercial, Greer is wearing the necklace she stole from Lois.