Sarah Miller, author of Hanged!, pens an intriguing, engrossing young adult biography in Hick, about pioneering female journalist Lorena "Hick" Hickok. Miller, like her subject, "lure[s] readers in at the start and hold[s] them captive until the end" as she recounts Hick's life, her career, and her complex relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Using a wealth of sources, including some 3,500 personal letters between Hick and Roosevelt, Miller details the trajectory of Hick's life, from a 14-year-old servant to "the first woman at the Associated Press whom editors 'trusted with straight news leads on big stories.'" Because Hick's editor "never hesitated to give her the best story that came along," the journalist was ushered into the world of the Roosevelts. Hick's assignment to cover the First Lady of New York as her husband campaigned for the White House became a deep friendship that blossomed into a love affair; their relationship withstood not only the test of time, but also the national spotlight.
Miller delivers a well-researched, fascinating biography of a person who played an important and uncommon role in U.S. history. The author gives a crystalline depiction of Hick's frustrations as a woman in a male-dominated field ("My God, how tired I get of being a woman reporter!") and viscerally portrays the struggles Hick and Eleanor experienced as women in a queer relationship under the blinding lights of national politics. Readers who enjoyed Most Dangerous by Steve Sheinkin or Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming will likely appreciate both Miller's writing and the extraordinary life of Lorena Hickok. Miller includes a note on language and the use of "queer," as well as extensive backmatter, an author's note, sources, and notes. --Jen Forbus, freelancer