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A Light on Altered Land
With a nod to Patricia Highsmith’s Carol, A Light on Altered Land explores the themes of finding relevance in, and acceptance of, a changing world.
Retirees Ellie Belmont and Kathryn Kepler have suffered life-changing losses. Their chance meeting in a Minneapolis coffee shop sparks a friendship of awakening and renewal. On a cross-country road trip involving a difficult daughter and a run-in with the law, Ellie and Kathryn strive to trust the process—to believe even when things go awry, a higher wisdom may be at work. Their challenges open them to new vistas of love, passion, spirit, and hope.
The novel addresses coming out to your children, introducing a new lover to an ex-lover, PTSD in veterans, medical marijuana, and the impact of trans activism on women who fought for lesbian visibility and women-only space.
Retirees Ellie Belmont and Kathryn Kepler have suffered life-changing losses. Their chance meeting in a Minneapolis coffee shop sparks a friendship of awakening and renewal. On a cross-country road trip involving a difficult daughter and a run-in with the law, Ellie and Kathryn strive to trust the process—to believe even when things go awry, a higher wisdom may be at work. Their challenges open them to new vistas of love, passion, spirit, and hope.
The novel addresses coming out to your children, introducing a new lover to an ex-lover, PTSD in veterans, medical marijuana, and the impact of trans activism on women who fought for lesbian visibility and women-only space.
334 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 12, 2020
36 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
May 30, 2020
These two women take processing very seriously. It makes for a wordy book but there’s so much more to this story and that wordiness fits the characters so well that I didn’t really mind. I did roll my eyes a few times, but always with tenderness, with one exception to which I’ll come back a little later (and which accounts for my rating).
When Ellie and Kathryn meet for the first time, they’re just strangers getting coffee from Starbucks. Ellie is a lesbian widow, Kathryn a straight divorcée, both at crossroads in their life. Ellie is charmed at first sight, Kathryn has never even thought of anything happening with a woman, but she could do with a new friend. A new friend who makes her feel alive.
A Light on Altered Land is unexpectedly full of hope, and I was enjoying the energy and the writing until Ellie went on a rant about feminism and trans people that almost made me want to stop reading. Later, she goes off again on Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and Camp Trans. Obviously, the author has strong feelings about this topic but I’m not convinced she did Ellie a favour by making them hers. Yet I liked how Kathryn, speaking from a very different experience and background, put things in perspective.
I’m probably one of the people Ellie would accuse of not wanting her to speak her truth. So be it. While I can see where the concerns come from, exclusion has never been a solution in my eyes. Trans women are women. Moving on.
Without this aspect of Ellie’s character, which left a very bitter taste in my mouth, this book was well on its way to at least 4*. There’s a lot to love in this book, not least that both main characters are over sixty. They are also layered and completely believable, and reading about their very different journeys up to their meeting, and how joyfully they jump in what is quite certainly their last relationship was captivating. Although I could have done without Ellie’s tirades, these scenes are part of her character growth, her path to leaving the past behind and embracing a new world. I wish her enlightenment took as much space as her transphobia, however. Hence the 3*.
ARC provided by the author to www.lezreviewbooks.com in exchange for an honest review.
When Ellie and Kathryn meet for the first time, they’re just strangers getting coffee from Starbucks. Ellie is a lesbian widow, Kathryn a straight divorcée, both at crossroads in their life. Ellie is charmed at first sight, Kathryn has never even thought of anything happening with a woman, but she could do with a new friend. A new friend who makes her feel alive.
A Light on Altered Land is unexpectedly full of hope, and I was enjoying the energy and the writing until Ellie went on a rant about feminism and trans people that almost made me want to stop reading. Later, she goes off again on Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and Camp Trans. Obviously, the author has strong feelings about this topic but I’m not convinced she did Ellie a favour by making them hers. Yet I liked how Kathryn, speaking from a very different experience and background, put things in perspective.
I’m probably one of the people Ellie would accuse of not wanting her to speak her truth. So be it. While I can see where the concerns come from, exclusion has never been a solution in my eyes. Trans women are women. Moving on.
Without this aspect of Ellie’s character, which left a very bitter taste in my mouth, this book was well on its way to at least 4*. There’s a lot to love in this book, not least that both main characters are over sixty. They are also layered and completely believable, and reading about their very different journeys up to their meeting, and how joyfully they jump in what is quite certainly their last relationship was captivating. Although I could have done without Ellie’s tirades, these scenes are part of her character growth, her path to leaving the past behind and embracing a new world. I wish her enlightenment took as much space as her transphobia, however. Hence the 3*.
ARC provided by the author to www.lezreviewbooks.com in exchange for an honest review.
June 19, 2020
A Light on Altered Land is a story about a blossoming romance between two sexagenarian women who arrive at their chance encounter in Starbucks from distinctly different cultures. Kathryn, 68, spent forty years in an affluent Minneapolis suburb as the wife of a successful heart surgeon, while also having a career as a nurse psychotherapist. Her marriage ended a year ago when her husband divorced her for a younger woman. Ellie, 65, a life-long lesbian and a retired community college teacher, was widowed three years ago by the death of her long-time partner/spouse.
The women’s challenges in adapting to the changes in their personal lives and moving towards a surprising new intimacy are played out against the landscape of a broader culture in flux. At the outset, Ellie, in particular, mourns the loss of the cohesive lesbian world in which she once thrived.
Ellie tries to articulate her thoughts about the “trans issue” to a perplexed Kathryn, who wonders, “Shouldn’t people be able to call themselves whatever they want?” Ellie explains that the new wave of transgender ideology and the emergence of gender fluidity is erasing her identity as a lesbian and undercutting the feminist struggle to overthrow patriarchal gender roles. She is shaken that she worked with a group of young lesbians at her college who suddenly elected to become transmen.
And Ellie remains deeply pained by the loss of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, which for years had offered a sanctuary where thousands of women, mostly lesbians, enjoyed a week of women’s music, movies, dancing and workshops. Those yearly celebrations ended, she laments, because performers were intimidated and some participants felt unsafe when the original biological boundary of the sanctuary came under attack by “entitled and aggressive” transactivists. Ellie tells Kathryn she wants collaboration and good-faith discussions with transactivists, “but it feels impossible in the face of such entitlement and rage.”
Unfortunately, some transactivists continue to use fear tactics to silence any challenge to their beliefs. It is heartening, therefore, to encounter a character such as Ellie who speaks for many saddened lesbian feminists, albeit only in the safety of a private conversation with her lover. My thanks to Becky Bohan for having the courage to let Ellie be heard by all.
Against this backdrop, the evolving romance between Kathryn and Ellie remains the center of the story. Despite their different histories and social ties, the two women with their wrinkles and their sparse pubic hair find their way to an emotionally and physically satisfying union. If their hormones rush ahead of their measured disclosures about themselves at some junctures, that is as it should be. This is a love story.
Energized by her personal happiness, Ellie attempts to use a meditation technique Kathryn has taught her to find a spiritual way beyond the resentment she feels towards transactivists and to regard them with compassion as fellow humans engaged in their own important struggles. And, surrounded by dinosaur skeletons in a Nebraska museum, Ellie and Kathryn reflect that although Ellie’s Amazon Nation is fading into obscurity, “more waves of feminism are coming. Perhaps a new and different Amazon Nation will arise.”
In the current climate, Bohan has put herself at risk of censure simply by creating a sympathetic radical feminist figure. That reality makes Ellie’s thoughts about the ways a surging trans ideology is undoing the classic feminist fight against patriarchy especially pertinent. Her immediate concerns far outweigh her wispy hopes for the coming of a new feminist revolution. But small seeds of positive change are beautifully sown in the novel’s main story: two women who learn from each other about their differences and resolve them on the way to a deeply-committed future together. Kathryn and Ellie are the light.
The women’s challenges in adapting to the changes in their personal lives and moving towards a surprising new intimacy are played out against the landscape of a broader culture in flux. At the outset, Ellie, in particular, mourns the loss of the cohesive lesbian world in which she once thrived.
Ellie tries to articulate her thoughts about the “trans issue” to a perplexed Kathryn, who wonders, “Shouldn’t people be able to call themselves whatever they want?” Ellie explains that the new wave of transgender ideology and the emergence of gender fluidity is erasing her identity as a lesbian and undercutting the feminist struggle to overthrow patriarchal gender roles. She is shaken that she worked with a group of young lesbians at her college who suddenly elected to become transmen.
And Ellie remains deeply pained by the loss of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, which for years had offered a sanctuary where thousands of women, mostly lesbians, enjoyed a week of women’s music, movies, dancing and workshops. Those yearly celebrations ended, she laments, because performers were intimidated and some participants felt unsafe when the original biological boundary of the sanctuary came under attack by “entitled and aggressive” transactivists. Ellie tells Kathryn she wants collaboration and good-faith discussions with transactivists, “but it feels impossible in the face of such entitlement and rage.”
Unfortunately, some transactivists continue to use fear tactics to silence any challenge to their beliefs. It is heartening, therefore, to encounter a character such as Ellie who speaks for many saddened lesbian feminists, albeit only in the safety of a private conversation with her lover. My thanks to Becky Bohan for having the courage to let Ellie be heard by all.
Against this backdrop, the evolving romance between Kathryn and Ellie remains the center of the story. Despite their different histories and social ties, the two women with their wrinkles and their sparse pubic hair find their way to an emotionally and physically satisfying union. If their hormones rush ahead of their measured disclosures about themselves at some junctures, that is as it should be. This is a love story.
Energized by her personal happiness, Ellie attempts to use a meditation technique Kathryn has taught her to find a spiritual way beyond the resentment she feels towards transactivists and to regard them with compassion as fellow humans engaged in their own important struggles. And, surrounded by dinosaur skeletons in a Nebraska museum, Ellie and Kathryn reflect that although Ellie’s Amazon Nation is fading into obscurity, “more waves of feminism are coming. Perhaps a new and different Amazon Nation will arise.”
In the current climate, Bohan has put herself at risk of censure simply by creating a sympathetic radical feminist figure. That reality makes Ellie’s thoughts about the ways a surging trans ideology is undoing the classic feminist fight against patriarchy especially pertinent. Her immediate concerns far outweigh her wispy hopes for the coming of a new feminist revolution. But small seeds of positive change are beautifully sown in the novel’s main story: two women who learn from each other about their differences and resolve them on the way to a deeply-committed future together. Kathryn and Ellie are the light.
July 10, 2020
I haven't had much time to read, but I devoured this book. I really liked both characters and I was rooting for their relationship to succeed. It's always nice to read about older women finding love, especially because most books in this genre feature women in the twenties or thirties with perfect bodies. This book approaches aging gently. There's nothing off-putting about the way the women's bodies or their sex is described. (Not explicitly.) Generally, the dialogue is good, although sometimes I felt like I was in a meeting of old lesbian-feminists. Although I'm a contemporary of the characters, I never felt much affinity with that movement myself, so some of the political talk bothered me, especially the rant against transexuals. Occasionally, the language was a little too flowery for my taste, but that's me. I'm giving this book five stars for having the courage of its convictions and providing me with an entertaining read.
March 29, 2020
A love story - from the first meeting to the blossom of a "real" relationship - but these protagonists are mature - retired - women. The love story is just that - lovely. The journey, however, is full of eye-opening discussions on a wide range of fascinating topics, all of which allow our heroines to learn more about one another while the reader is learning more about everything from green funerals to various types of medicinal marijuana.
With a sensitive and caring voice, the author takes us through feminist and lesbian history, comparing and contrasting the last 60 years with today's climate. Our heroines' romance grows, and we understand more about them, and ourselves, in the end.
A wonderful read.
With a sensitive and caring voice, the author takes us through feminist and lesbian history, comparing and contrasting the last 60 years with today's climate. Our heroines' romance grows, and we understand more about them, and ourselves, in the end.
A wonderful read.
January 2, 2026
4 Stars
The highlight and what makes this story different is the characters’ emotional maturity. Yes I understand that realistically there are very very few people who are actually as emotionally mature as they are. However, reading about them, how they react to situations and hiccups in their own individual lives was refreshing and sets a good example how one could live their lives. It was a fantastic read.
The highlight and what makes this story different is the characters’ emotional maturity. Yes I understand that realistically there are very very few people who are actually as emotionally mature as they are. However, reading about them, how they react to situations and hiccups in their own individual lives was refreshing and sets a good example how one could live their lives. It was a fantastic read.
July 23, 2020
This is a well-written look into a mature relationship. Others have said good things here already; I agree with them. I might add that as an author, I appreciate Becky Bohan's work in developing a cogent structure and realistic characterization.
June 22, 2021
A Light on Altered Land had a lot of depth. The characters are older (in their 60s) which is something I don't come across often in WLW stories. There was conversation of growing older and the changing dynamics of culture. Real conversations about home buying with an elderly future.
In the end are discussion questions because there are some big topics touched on within the story.
Triggers: transphobia (or trying to figure out their thoughts on transgender people)
Jae's SRC
character is a book lover
character is a medical professional (retired)
character is a teacher/professor (retired)
coming out later in life
friends-to-lovers romance
road trip
new to you author
book unicorn:
character over 40
In the end are discussion questions because there are some big topics touched on within the story.
Triggers: transphobia (or trying to figure out their thoughts on transgender people)
Jae's SRC
character is a book lover
character is a medical professional (retired)
character is a teacher/professor (retired)
coming out later in life
friends-to-lovers romance
road trip
new to you author
book unicorn:
character over 40
July 24, 2020
Reading A Light on Altered Land gave my wife and I lots of things to discuss. For me, that’s the measure of a good book! As a criminal justice instructor and former sheriff’s deputy, I was particularly intrigued with the character of the Police Officer. At first, I thought how improbable it was that he responded to Kathryn and Ellie the way he did. But then I thought, why not? What a wonderful change from the usual police response. Especially in these times, let’s hope that more officers would get the help they need before tragedy strikes. As a 60 something lesbian, I could identify with Ellie. Her character is flawed and yet she is always seeking to be a better person. Both the flaws and the striving for improvement made me like her even more. I particularly appreciated how Ellie helps Kathryn understand how oppressive internalized homophobia is. I did wonder what Kathryn’s flaws were as she seemed just a bit too perfect. All in all, an excellent book!
July 23, 2020
What a wonderful read! The writing is fluid, smart and engaging. This book gives voice to a point of view that has impacted the lesbian feminist community and isn’t often represented. The novel is true to the characters’ beliefs even when they are not popular or politically correct. The twists and turns throughout the book kept me involved from beginning to end. The main characters are a delight. They’re mature and intelligent and their honesty with each other is inspiring. Their adventures together are sometimes just plain fun and oftentimes thought-provoking. At one point, Ellie asks Kathryn, “What makes you come alive?” It’s a good question for all of us. I found myself wanted to be in the back seat on their road trip, to be part of the adventure and to get to know these two better.
Read
June 14, 2020I want to hang out with Ellie and Kathryn! It's a brilliant love story between older women, but it's more. This book also contains a blue print for many of the core tenets of life, including relational and personal integrity. I felt like I got to be in conversations with two people who have done a lot of work on reverence. The characters are so gentle and thoughtful. This is so rare in the world. I appreciated the author's courage in naming and feeling some of the loss and hurt stemming from others' lack of gentleness and reverence, including within families and within the LGBTIQA community.
May 12, 2020
It takes a lot of skill to write a story without using bad behavior to heighten the stakes. I found Becky Bohan's writing to be so refreshing: motivated by love rather than running from fear! I loved her character's honesty, their courage to be vulnerable, and their brand of adventures. I kind of miss Ellie and Kathryn now that I have finished the book. They were good company.
June 4, 2023
This is a great eye opening read. The story of life and new love, while trying to get over old love in your 60s. The feelings are all still there. Excitement, lust, curiosity, wonder, everything a new relationship can bring whether you're in your 20s or 60s. I like this view that the awkwardness of new love never leaves you. Butterflies in your tummy may be sleeping but maybe a road trip with that special someone will wake them. Enjoy the wonder that is life till the end.
June 24, 2020
I completed reading an extremely long and well written, historical novel that was full of dense, philosophical musings. It was a challenging, rewarding and exhausting month-long read. I read Becky Bohan’s book, A Light on Altered Land immediately after. It was a refreshing dessert that provided an accessible and quick read. The two main characters were well developed and as a sixty-something woman, I appreciated the passion and sensuality between them. This was a rare opportunity to celebrate “older women’s” sexuality. It also presented two stories of individuals overcoming personal loss to embrace life and write a new future. Finally, I enjoyed the description of two women whose lifestyles were significantly different from each other navigating the space between in order to build a new relationship. In their effort to convey to the other which issues were personally significant, the dialogue sometimes led to didactic passages. However, I remained engaged with the characters, their relationship, the narrative and the land they traveled over. I recommend the book highly.
July 16, 2020
Well written. It is great to see mature characters, dealing with change with intension. Becky incorporated many of the current issues of life as old lesbians. Just enough background and family history to give perspective. This is a book I will read again in the future.
Read
June 7, 2020Ellie & Kathryn feel their love in glances shared, touches felt and words spoken, given descriptive writing by Becky Bohan. The storyline led to my not wanting to put the book down. I wanted to savor the book in one long luscious reading, though caught myself reflecting between readings on issues lesbian feminists grapple with, besides ageism and the challenge for all of us to accept with grace. When I finished, I wanted more!
June 16, 2020
I liked this Becky Bohan book a whole lot better that Highsmith's "Carol". It is well written, moving and informative. It was hard for me to put it down once I started reading. The characters are so memorable that I'm going to recommend the book for my public library book club -- it's about time for people to read a great lesbian love story.
October 30, 2022
As a mature lesbian, I was thrilled to find A LIGHT ON ALTERED LAND by Becky Bohan. This romance between Ellie and Kathryn, two women in their sixties, is rare; a believable tale in which Kathryn only recognizes her capacity to love a woman when she falls for Ellie is even more unusual. This novel is authentic, admirable, fun, sexy, and with some inspiring spiritual overtones. I loved every scene, every word. I don't often think of reading a book twice, but this one I would!
July 8, 2020
I just finished this book and I am still smiling at the joy of reading a well-written book about romance and older women. The characters are relatable and following their adventures gave me the same pleasure I had in reading Nancy Drew as a girl.
May 18, 2025
A carefully written, thoughtful lesbian romance about two older women, one straight and one a lesbian, who meet in a Starbucks, chat, and end up falling in love. The book feels a bit over-edited and in its author’s intentional eschewing of damaged or dysfunctional characters, it feels like an advertisement for the joys of average women. But hey, that’s just me. I’m old enough to remember when every dyke was extraordinary, in one way or another. Personally, I guess I’m too damaged to be relieved at having no “damaged” characters. But not a bad book.
August 18, 2020
In Bohan’s provocative, artfully woven romantic drama, two women in their 60s set on a journey of self-discovery.
The chance encounter at a Minneapolis Starbuck sparks a friendship of renewal and awakening for 68-year-old Kathryn, a nurse psychotherapist and a straight divorcee and 65-year0-old Ellie, a retired community college teacher and a life-long lesbian. A cross-country road trip opens them to the new vistas of love, passion, spirit, and hope.
Bohan’s writing is both elegant and provocative as she wrings genuine emotions from Ellie and Kathryn’s past tragedies. The women's’ friendship, their underlying chemistry, and their gentle demeanors make them the kind of characters readers wouldn’t mind seeing more of. Bohan weaves themes of feminism, gender fluidity, and transgender ideology through Ellie’s mourning of the loss of the unified lesbian world in which she once flourished.
The book has the pull of a romantic drama, and Bohan’s assured prose, deep understanding of the intricate framework of romantic and marital relationships, and topnotch characterization provide this story both authenticity and rationality. The parts where Ellie muses about the ideology of the new age transactivists and their disappointing role in depreciation of the once significant feminist moment of overthrowing the typical patriarchal gender roles become a bit preachy, but Bohan proposes no simple answers, and Ellie’s musings raise significant questions.
A meditation on both finding relevance and acceptance in a changing world and intricacies of mature love, Bohan’s provocative tale isn’t to be missed.
Lovers of both literary fiction and women’s fiction will be rewarded.
The chance encounter at a Minneapolis Starbuck sparks a friendship of renewal and awakening for 68-year-old Kathryn, a nurse psychotherapist and a straight divorcee and 65-year0-old Ellie, a retired community college teacher and a life-long lesbian. A cross-country road trip opens them to the new vistas of love, passion, spirit, and hope.
Bohan’s writing is both elegant and provocative as she wrings genuine emotions from Ellie and Kathryn’s past tragedies. The women's’ friendship, their underlying chemistry, and their gentle demeanors make them the kind of characters readers wouldn’t mind seeing more of. Bohan weaves themes of feminism, gender fluidity, and transgender ideology through Ellie’s mourning of the loss of the unified lesbian world in which she once flourished.
The book has the pull of a romantic drama, and Bohan’s assured prose, deep understanding of the intricate framework of romantic and marital relationships, and topnotch characterization provide this story both authenticity and rationality. The parts where Ellie muses about the ideology of the new age transactivists and their disappointing role in depreciation of the once significant feminist moment of overthrowing the typical patriarchal gender roles become a bit preachy, but Bohan proposes no simple answers, and Ellie’s musings raise significant questions.
A meditation on both finding relevance and acceptance in a changing world and intricacies of mature love, Bohan’s provocative tale isn’t to be missed.
Lovers of both literary fiction and women’s fiction will be rewarded.
September 19, 2020
The topic was good, it was nice to have a book centered around women, who are not in their twenties or thirties. I liked Kathlyn a lot, a wise woman. Ellie, on the other hand, started positive and then became the reason why I did not like the book as much as I'd have liked to.
The story starts at Starbucks (always a good place to start anything) and I wished the author had given the characters a little bit more time to explore their feelings. Especially Kathlyn was very fast with falling in love with a woman - for the first time of her life. I'm not sure in real life this can happen this fast. But that was the only thing that irritated me about her.
Now Ellie was another cup of tea. She demands acceptance, wants to be honored for what she has done for lesbians and is so narrow-minded when it comes to trans woman, she could also be a part of the right-winged community. More than once I found myself ready to shake some sense in her when she complained that butch woman nowadays get a dick instead of just being a lesbian and that women born in the wrong body are not women and are not welcome at women festivals because it is supposed to be for lesbians only.
So yes, she kind of ruined the book for me.
The story starts at Starbucks (always a good place to start anything) and I wished the author had given the characters a little bit more time to explore their feelings. Especially Kathlyn was very fast with falling in love with a woman - for the first time of her life. I'm not sure in real life this can happen this fast. But that was the only thing that irritated me about her.
Now Ellie was another cup of tea. She demands acceptance, wants to be honored for what she has done for lesbians and is so narrow-minded when it comes to trans woman, she could also be a part of the right-winged community. More than once I found myself ready to shake some sense in her when she complained that butch woman nowadays get a dick instead of just being a lesbian and that women born in the wrong body are not women and are not welcome at women festivals because it is supposed to be for lesbians only.
So yes, she kind of ruined the book for me.
October 1, 2021
I love the themes Becky addresses in this book, and I couldn't put it down. Healthy, loving relationships and the concepts of how the trans world is affecting lesbians, particularly older lesbians. Change. I felt hopeful.
February 5, 2020
What a joyful book. The protagonists display remarkable intention in their lives and their interactions. This book taught me many things about how to live gracefully.
June 18, 2022
I read A Light on Altered Land because it won the “love after 50” category on the I Heart Sapphic website. The novel starts with a lovely meet-cute and then the two MCs go on an interesting road trip. It is quite well written and has some interesting characters. I was enjoying the book, despite the author’s tendency to have her characters to process absolutely everything (resulting in a lot of stilted, overly analytical and unnatural dialogue). Then came Ellie’s rant against trans women, non-binary people and younger queer folk - seemingly out of the blue! I seriously considered abandoning the book at this point. I read on in the hope that Ellie would come to some sort of acceptance or that there would be a balancing of views, but the vitriol towards the non LG part of the community just kept coming. It frustrated me that the only call for tolerance came from Kathryn - a cis gendered woman who has lived and identified as a straight woman for her 68 years. Ellie’s - well I guess I have to accept that things change but I don’t have to like it - attitude at the end of the book in no way made up for her previous behaviour.
I was really disappointed that the author expressed such TERF views through Ellie’s character without any real balance. This could have been a groundbreaking novel about women, instead it divides us as a community and adds fuel to the TERF agenda. It also expounds an intolerance which creates fissions between the generations based on incorrect assumptions and stereotypes which patronise and vilify younger queer folk for making their own choices about how they identify. I was shocked, angered and personally offended by Ellie’s rants. This book could be triggering for many people.
I was really disappointed that the author expressed such TERF views through Ellie’s character without any real balance. This could have been a groundbreaking novel about women, instead it divides us as a community and adds fuel to the TERF agenda. It also expounds an intolerance which creates fissions between the generations based on incorrect assumptions and stereotypes which patronise and vilify younger queer folk for making their own choices about how they identify. I was shocked, angered and personally offended by Ellie’s rants. This book could be triggering for many people.
May 20, 2021
A good story needs good writing, and in A Light on Altered Land, Becky Bohan offers these in heaping measures. Her word choice is precise and pure, evocative and lyrical: simply a pleasure to read. That would be enough to recommend this book, but Bohan also brings the two principals—Ellie and Kathryn—into sharp and compelling focus. I want to have a long dinner with both.
A Light on Altered Land is first a love story, and love can be messy. Being afraid but taking chances anyway, especially later in life, speaks a language to heed: Love is ours for the taking at any age when we are open and—perhaps even—when we invite it. I admired these women for risking the comfort of their predictable lives, lives each created following love’s loss. That they were not closed off to the possibility of romance struck me as brave and worthy of emulation. And also hopeful, which alone is worth the five stars.
I see that several reviewers here were turned off by what they viewed as Ellie’s closed-mindedness about trans culture, but I know many women in the 60s-80s age range who express similar sentiments. Even when Ellie frames the loss of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in these terms, I found her view rings true among lesbians of that cohort. Not politically correct, maybe, but beliefs often aren’t. Bohan doesn’t write what is easy or without conflict, and Ellie’s stark pronouncements allow us to glimpse her own struggles to make sense of a changing world. As we all try to do.
The highest praise I can give a book is turning the last page and wanting to read it again. And I do.
A Light on Altered Land is first a love story, and love can be messy. Being afraid but taking chances anyway, especially later in life, speaks a language to heed: Love is ours for the taking at any age when we are open and—perhaps even—when we invite it. I admired these women for risking the comfort of their predictable lives, lives each created following love’s loss. That they were not closed off to the possibility of romance struck me as brave and worthy of emulation. And also hopeful, which alone is worth the five stars.
I see that several reviewers here were turned off by what they viewed as Ellie’s closed-mindedness about trans culture, but I know many women in the 60s-80s age range who express similar sentiments. Even when Ellie frames the loss of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in these terms, I found her view rings true among lesbians of that cohort. Not politically correct, maybe, but beliefs often aren’t. Bohan doesn’t write what is easy or without conflict, and Ellie’s stark pronouncements allow us to glimpse her own struggles to make sense of a changing world. As we all try to do.
The highest praise I can give a book is turning the last page and wanting to read it again. And I do.
May 20, 2022
Much to consider
Although Becky Bohan’s A Light on Altered Land is an engrossing love story, I found it more compelling as a study in contemporary issues affecting women in America. Among the topics explored are the grief of losing a long term lover; having the courage to begin dating again later in life; exploring one’s first lesbian relationship; conflicts between feminists and trans women against the backdrop of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival; weighing where to live and what help you’ll need during your senior years; how retail America contributes to the oppression of women; and how to communicate effectively with your partner. I also appreciated Bohan’s making both of her main characters women in their sixties rather than setting up another clichéd age-gap romance.
Although Becky Bohan’s A Light on Altered Land is an engrossing love story, I found it more compelling as a study in contemporary issues affecting women in America. Among the topics explored are the grief of losing a long term lover; having the courage to begin dating again later in life; exploring one’s first lesbian relationship; conflicts between feminists and trans women against the backdrop of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival; weighing where to live and what help you’ll need during your senior years; how retail America contributes to the oppression of women; and how to communicate effectively with your partner. I also appreciated Bohan’s making both of her main characters women in their sixties rather than setting up another clichéd age-gap romance.
October 19, 2024
I originally found this book to be a moving tribute to two dynamic female characters as they find new love with each other in their 60s. I thought Kathryn’s story in particular was beautiful and how she handles conflict (especially with her daughter Jenn) is very admirable. However, I just couldn’t stomach the anti-trans sentiments being echoed by Ellie (a lesbian who feels trans women are encroaching on lesbian spaces). It felt so insanely out of no where - especially since the characters both address lots of social issues like ageism, homophobia, & ableism. To me these aggressive anti-trans ideas didn’t have a place in this book, or any book for that matter.
October 23, 2021
A profound story
I feel that this book said so much about people, struggles, humanity, spirituality, and life. The main characters were of an older age, but that shouldn't push away younger readers. In fact, it's a must-read for younger generations of wlw. There were a few times that I took things personally, but it was part of the character's journey that led to better tolerance, or even acceptance of the issues.
I highly recommend this book, and implore you to read it all of the way through if you take offense to any of it.
I feel that this book said so much about people, struggles, humanity, spirituality, and life. The main characters were of an older age, but that shouldn't push away younger readers. In fact, it's a must-read for younger generations of wlw. There were a few times that I took things personally, but it was part of the character's journey that led to better tolerance, or even acceptance of the issues.
I highly recommend this book, and implore you to read it all of the way through if you take offense to any of it.
October 27, 2022
What A Walk Through 60+ Lesbians Life!
What can I say about this book other than I am impressed. I can see why this book won a Goldie Award. The way they meet, to how they feel, to how they act and to how they live. You get their present, their past and their future. It opened a whole living and hoping for the more mature lesbians and heterosexual women who have suffered loss in some form. I loved it!
What can I say about this book other than I am impressed. I can see why this book won a Goldie Award. The way they meet, to how they feel, to how they act and to how they live. You get their present, their past and their future. It opened a whole living and hoping for the more mature lesbians and heterosexual women who have suffered loss in some form. I loved it!
September 20, 2024
I loved the lesbian romance between two women in their sixties, sweet and hot. I also enjoyed the road trip from Minneapolis to California and back.
I sympathized with the “Gold Star” lesbian character feeling like she was a dinosaur. But I also felt like the book did good (yet unintended) job so showing how limited and stifling (white) lesbian feminist culture was of the 70s and 80s was.
Content warning for regurgitated TERF spew, exhumed from the stapled pages of LC.
I sympathized with the “Gold Star” lesbian character feeling like she was a dinosaur. But I also felt like the book did good (yet unintended) job so showing how limited and stifling (white) lesbian feminist culture was of the 70s and 80s was.
Content warning for regurgitated TERF spew, exhumed from the stapled pages of LC.
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