She looked over the menu at her daughter. “How about this Ed
Gein Bar-B-Que? That sounds good!”
“That name’s familiar,” Paul said. “I think he was a
governor or something.”
A diner called Zodiac Lodge with entrees named after serial killers,
may be a business venture that R.S. Belcher should look into. There
are larger take-aways from this book but this may, perhaps, be my
favorite.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Belcher is the master
of genre mash-ups. The Brotherhood of the Wheel comes off as a
mix of horror, grimdark and urban fantasy. It’s a blend that worked
together and in my humble opinion, an ample dosing of horror that
should throw him the leagues of King and Koontz.
The United States transportation systems are the perfect hunting
ground for all manners of killers. They provide access to victims,
hiding places to commit their crimes and dumping grounds galore. Both
evil humans and paranormal predators stalk these interstate super
highways, leaving death and destruction in their wake.
Where there are horrors, there must also be heroes who lead the fight
against evil. That is the purpose of the Brotherhood, a secret
organization tasked with protecting the innocent. They are police,
taxi drivers, truckers, bikers, etc. They come together from all
walks of life to take down serial killers, rapists, and human
traffickers.
Something ancient and hungry is working it’s way free into the
world, turning children into mindless monsters and using human
sacrifices to increase it’s power. It hides away in a hidden town,
not on any map. The residents there are captive, they cannot leave to
find help and the monster’s minions lurk about, prepared to make
their lives a living hell for trying.
A renegade cop, biker, trucker, and a book worm are the only ones on this thing’s tail after looking into multiple missing teenager cases and it may just save all of humanity if they can take him down.
Ever since I was little, I’ve enjoyed westerns. A large part of that is probably because I adore horses and the other part was watching movies with adults that liked westerns. I’ve seen a decent amount of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies, and so many others I couldn’t possibly name. Take that western love and add it to my love of fantasy and weird westerns are clearly going to be winners in my book. Here I showcase my love for five:
The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher. (To be fair, this book makes it on a LOT of my lists.)
“Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.
A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation. “
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
2. Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
“Gold is in my blood, in my breath, even in the flecks in my eyes.
Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend—who might want to be something more.
She also has a secret.
Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it.
When everything Lee holds dear is ripped away, she flees west to California—where gold has just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl can be herself. If she survives the journey.
The acclaimed Rae Carson begins a sweeping new trilogy set in Gold Rush-era America, about a young woman with a powerful and dangerous gift. “
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
3. Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen
“Nettie Lonesome lives in a land of hard people and hard ground dusted with sand. She’s a half-breed who dresses like a boy, raised by folks who don’t call her a slave but use her like one. She knows of nothing else. That is, until the day a stranger attacks her. When nothing, not even a sickle to the eye can stop him, Nettie stabs him through the heart with a chunk of wood and he turns to black sand.
And just like that, Nettie can see.
But her newfound sight is a blessing and a curse. Even if she doesn’t understand what’s under her own skin, she can sense what everyone else is hiding—at least physically. The world is full of evil, and now she knows the source of all the sand in the desert. Haunted by the spirits, Nettie has no choice but to set out on a quest that might lead her to find her true kin . . . if the monsters along the way don’t kill her first.”
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
4. American Hippo by Sarah Gailey
“Years ago, in an America that never was, the United States government introduced herds of hippos to the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This plan failed to take into account some key facts about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.
By the 1890s, the vast bayou that was once America’s greatest waterway belongs to feral hippos, and Winslow Houndstooth has been contracted to take it back. To do so, he will gather a crew of the damnedest cons, outlaws, and assassins to ever ride a hippo. American Hippo is the story of their fortunes, their failures, and his revenge.”
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5. Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman (Not a weird western but a good western.)
“Revenge is worth its weight in gold.
When her father is murdered for a journal revealing the location of a hidden gold mine, eighteen-year-old Kate Thompson disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers—and justice. What she finds are untrustworthy strangers, endless dust and heat, and a surprising band of allies, among them a young Apache girl and a pair of stubborn brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, a startling truth becomes clear: some men will stop at nothing to get their hands on gold, and Kate’s quest for revenge may prove fatal.”
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
As you can see, all of these are rated 5 out of 5 stars so I may be a little more in love with this genre than necessary.
Any weird westerns not on this list that you think I should check out? Leave a comment, I’m always in the market for more weird westerns!
Set one year after the events of The Six-Gun Tarot, Jim is a deputy partnered with Mutt. Mutt and Maude are approaching item status much to the chagrin of many town racists. Malachi Bick owns practically everyone and everything in town and someone has begun brutally murdering prostitutes.
An ancient artifact buried beneath the town is luring serial killers from far and wide to Golgotha. (Serial killers who are clever blends of real serial killers.) Trouble once again braves the 40-mile desert to bring suffering, pain and loss to the townspeople and the only ones that can stop them are our motley crew of heroes; Jon Highfather, Mutt, Jim Negrey, Maude Stapleton, Harry Pratt and Clay Turlough. (Introductions to some new bad ass heroes as well.)
This second installment was not a disappointment. When you think to yourself that the author could not possibly add one more element to this, then they do and they do it successfully, it makes you want to weep with joy.
There are layers to a cake and then there is this handcrafted, masterful art of a seven-layer cake called The Six-Gun Tarot. An orgasmic, literary cake. I stuffed my face with it and Iregret nothing. In fact, I think that I will force feed it to everyone I know.
This cake is not a lie.
It takes a special talent to genre blend. When talking to my boss about this book and its many genres, he commented that it sounded too messy. That is not the case here. R.S. Belcher is a sorcerer. Everything flows together so well that sometimes you have to sit back and think about what you read. For example: I just read an exquisite horror paragraph followed by an epic old fashioned western brawl and it was brilliant.
Fantasy, historical fiction, murder mystery, steampunk, mythology, paranormal, horror, and western. Fucking name it, it’s probably in there.
Jim is a fifteen year old boy trying to find his way through the desert, on his little mustang Promise, running from his past. He ends up where all the people hiding from their troubles end up, Golgotha. Once a booming mining town, it is now mostly filled with Mormons, chinese workers, and poor people in slums that used to work in the mines.
He is immediately accepted by an Injun deputy and the town sheriff who just doesn’t die. But as soon as he arrives strange things begin happening in Golgotha. Stranger than the usual (mysterious rat people). An ancient evil is struggling to free itself from the chains that tie it to the earth below this small, strange town. Jim can help or he can run back to the desert.
There are multiple POVs and each one is great. I can’t pick a favorite. Each adds so much depth to the story (layers, so many fucking layers!)
Read it. If you don’t love it, we’ll have a good ol’ fashioned gunslinger face off to determine the winner. (I’ll win.)
cupcakesandmachetes 