I have no idea why weird westerns are so damn good. Is it that the wide open spaces out here are just crying out to be filled up with the supernatural? Is it because the weather is so unpredictable, the terrain so rugged, and the going so hard that there must be something that resists being tamed? I’ve lived west of the Rockies most of my life and I have no idea why this genre feels so right to me. If you are intrigued by the blend of western, fantasy, and horror, have I got a book for you. Alex Grecian’s wild, violent, redemptive novel, Red Rabbit is one of the best weird westerns I’ve read.
Sadie Grace has stayed too long in once place. Although some people might like having a witch nearby—they tend to protect the land, smooth out the weather, and heal the odd fever or broken bone for folks who are polite—the mood always changes when the witch inevitably has to say no to someone who won’t take no for an answer. When two women in Riddle, Kansas die of a horrible strain of smallpox, two men decide to put a bounty on Sadie’s life. The bounty is so high that all kinds of men (and things that only look like men) come out of the prairie scrub.
Meanwhile, Rose Nettles’s husband has died, leaving her alone on their homestead. She never really wanted to be there in the first place; she was pressured to answer an ad for a wife to clear out of her mother’s house. Now that he’s gone, Rose finds herself at loose ends until a quartet of strangers arrives at the farm. Old Tom declares himself a witch-master who aims to go after Sadie Grace. With him is Rabbit, an injured girl who doesn’t talk and has a curious ability to disappear at the first sign of danger. Tom and Rabbit are accompanied by Ned Hemingway and Moses Burke, two Civil War veterans with no fixed abode. They only came with Tom and Rabbit because Rabbit was injured and they worried that the gruff, extremely dodgy Tom wouldn’t be able to take care of her.
The quintet of Rose, Tom, Rabbit, Ned, and Moses start out on the road to Riddle (since Tom is the only one who has anything like a goal) only to run into all kinds of gory trouble (including a very close shave with an even more sinister version of the Bloody Benders) on their way. Ned and Moses are very much the type to right wrongs on their way, though it would be much more sensible to sidestep whatever the hell is going on or hurry on to their next stop. This might be another thing that draws me to this genre: the restoration of justice against evils so old that they pollute the land.
Red Rabbit is a deeply satisfying read, though some readers might find the violence a bit much.