I’ve had a long fascination with the mixing of horror and westerns.
There’s just something about the two that feels like they could (and should!) blend together so damn perfectly that it’s near criminal that we don’t have a ton of spooky Western Movies and TV Shows.
That is one of the great disappointments of the modern age, but thankfully we have books.
And when everything else in life lets us down, books never do…or do they?
Strap your spurs on and let’s take a trip back to the dusty days of yore and find out if this collection of stories can rise up and meet the challenge set before it.
As always, this is your spooky and special ***SPOILER ALERT***
First and foremost, this collection gets major points for variety.
We have vampires, golems, ghosts, demons, curses, and a plethora of other types of monsters and spooky happenings.
Fun shit indeed, but there’s also detectives, bounty hunters, gunslingers, and other types of in and outlaws.
All of that does nothing but work in the favor of a book like this because it stretches and shows even more so that these genres definitely belong together.
My two favorite here would have to be Mario Acevedo‘s El Jefe De La Comancheria and Charlaine Harris‘s (of True Blood fame) A Talk With My Mother.
El Jefe features a couple of bounty hunters, out in the wilds, who get a vague message delivered to them by a mechanical bird with the name and location of a well known and notoriously hard to capture con artist.
This sounds like an ever so slight bend on an Old West staple, but the major twist is that one of the hunters is also a vamp, which leads to some cool vampire action that feels fresh and, dare I say, ahem…on point. *wink*
I’m sorry…moving on…
Meanwhile, A Talk is a more traditional tale that really helps anchor, and almost lends the most western credibility to, the whole damn book.
It’s a pretty badass and chilling story of generational “you reap what you sow” style vengeance that is surprisingly heavy but also deliciously and poetically satisfying.
A few other highlights for me would be Jane Lindskold‘s Doth Make Thee Mad, a tale of a teacher that just can’t abide mistakes from his students.
Sunlight And Silver by Jeff Mariotte, a creepy ass story about a post-mortem photographer and his incredibly specialized, and spooky, clientele.
Pinkerton’s Prey from Frog & Esther Jones, where a Pinkerton detective teaches his “by the book” employer that the famous agency can’t go and reveal all of their secrets.
The Relay Station At Wrigley’s Pass by Derrick Ferguson, a story of loss and moving on that has a good deal of action as well.
And the final story I want to make sure I mention here is Marsheila Rockwell‘s Dreamcatcher, this one is great in that it brings an entirely new meaning to the old idea of catholic guilt!
That’s not even half of the fun that’s crammed in here, gang.
I mean, there’s a Deadlands story in here, and I know I have talked a few times on Twitter about how much I loved Critical Role’s Undeadwood, which used the Deadlands system.
This makes me want to check out some of the other fiction from that verse.
There are a few more stories that I really dug but, as I usually say with these reviews of short story collections, I always like leaving some gems for you to discover all on your own little onesies.
The end result is this, gang, weighing in at 357 pages, Boop has managed to curate an impressive collection of weird westernage into this second installment of his Straight Outta series.
If you dig the chocolate and peanut butter that this combo is bringing out on the trail, I suggest you saddle up and get ready for one hell of a ride because a good book can never be a let down.
Special thanks to @ACFerrell1976 for her continued editorial assistance.
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And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.
