Shoot Like a Girl: A Prequel Novella to Girl with a Gun (Unabridged‪)‬

She became an American icon. But would she ever escape her past?

Shoot like a Girl depicts the historically fictive tale of a young Annie Oakley's struggles before she becomes the most famous sharpshooting woman of all time.

After the death of her father, Annie is sent to the Drake County poorhouse where she learns to cook, sew, and keep house for other families to help her mother make ends meet. Annie ends up at the McCrimmons, a couple whom she comes to refer to as "the wolves". Cruel and neglectful, the McCrimmons push Annie to the brink of despair. The only bright spot in her dreary existence is Buck, a beautiful buckskinned horse, and the two form a bond.

Despite her resolve to help her family, Annie loses hope of ever seeing them again, as life at the McCrimmons' becomes more oppressive, and she is cut off from all outside communication. Physically and emotionally weak from illness, hunger, and abuse, Annie resigns herself to a life of servitude to the abusive couple. But, when Mr. McCrimmon's continued cruelty to Buck finally threatens the horse's life, Annie takes matters into her own hands and formulates a plan for escape.