The Devoured and the Dead by Kristopher Rufty
My rating: 8.5 of 10 stars
Pages : 249
Year : 2021
Genre : Weird Western, Splatterpunk, Horror
Series Splatter Western
Finally a good Splatterpunk Western novel which doesn't try to be Woke. Interesting that is one of the best ratings in the god damned series... Please learn. People don't want to be preach upon. They want a good tale.
This was the second to last novel published by Death's Head Press (I believe or something like that) because this is number 12. Then we've got the number 13 (and last one that was numbered). There was an hiatus of 6/9 months and they start publishing again a more expensive line of novels, but the numbers were gone and they had another company behind it (still death's head press) called death's sky published. I bought several but paying 16€ for a 100 page novel is ridiculous. But alas, what about this book...
What's this all about you may ask.. Well a group of four families (one of them a family of Indian trackers) are moving from one place to another so they can start anew. Supposedly it was something safe but due to some storms and misguiding they end up stranded on the snow.
Then the problems start, the horses run amok, families are being thrown one to another and finally one of our guys and the tracker go alone to get some help and this is basically the first 50 pages. The rest? Well it's mayhem, cannibalism, horror and a hit of a chase. Right from the start, the first page it starts with "THEY HATE THE BABY". Since there is only one baby in the book, you know where this is going... We've got around 15 characters, most of them you can easily identify, others have no distinct voice. But some, oh my.. The main character, the one narrating a young 12 year old boy is surely one of the best in this line of novels and was a joy to read.
I enjoy what he did with the Indian couple, most other writers would be scared to portrait the Indians on a not so good way and that's fine you know why? Black people, Indians and all other can be good or bad people. It doesn't make you a racist for saying that. Everyone sucks big time, no matter the colour of our skin.
In the end I Was surprised, gladly surprised and probably one of my favourites... 8.5
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