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mcf's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this a lot -- it's a fun, magical world, with a good dude main character and some interesting female co-leads. The best part of the story, though, was the foreground presence of a trans woman, someone who has good friends but also faces abuse and hatred; the latter is hard to read but its presence seems important, because it roots her identity a bit more in the reality a trans woman would face in the old west (even an magical one). She's tough and smart and is, arguably, the hero of the story, something that we can say about trans characters in fiction far too infrequently.
readingwithhippos's review against another edition
4.0
Talk about delightful! This is a Western with a hefty serving of fantasy and a side of romance—an unstoppable combo, if you ask me. Clayton Jensen is a marshal, but being half-fae he specializes in “weird” cases. He’s got more problems on his hands than just enforcing the law, however, as his fairy ex-girlfriend Cora enlisted a witch to put a curse on him. When Jensen kills the witch in self-defense, the wrath of her many witch sisters descends upon him. Now he’s running for his life with his trusty sidekick Doc Irene, a transwoman and physician who can usually patch Jensen up but is no match for the magical sickness caused by the curse. Also along for the ride is Cora’s sister, Adelaide, the bawdiest, bustiest fairy prostitute you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting. Rowdy fun from start to finish!
rachels1127's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
yeah i took off .25 of a star for the romance bc i'm petty like that but damn was this fun
Marshall Clayton Jenson is a lawman for the "weird"-witches, fairies, monsters. He's half fairy himself, which means he can sniff out magic and is pretty af. He's also witty and sarcastic but not a toxic jerk? We love to see it.
I loved the easy readability of this, the chapters alternating between past and present until they converge, and the simplicity of the world (the West, but with a supernatural twist). As mentioned, I didn't care for Cora nor her relationship with Clay. What really shone for me was his years-long friendship with Doc. Doc faces a lot of discrimination being a transgender woman in the West, and starts traveling with Clay, who calls out the haters. There's genuine love between the two and I loved their verbal sparring. Doc is quick to call Clay out on his bs and keeps him humble. As she should!
Overall, a fun paranormal Western, and I'd love a book 2.
Marshall Clayton Jenson is a lawman for the "weird"-witches, fairies, monsters. He's half fairy himself, which means he can sniff out magic and is pretty af. He's also witty and sarcastic but not a toxic jerk? We love to see it.
I loved the easy readability of this, the chapters alternating between past and present until they converge, and the simplicity of the world (the West, but with a supernatural twist). As mentioned, I didn't care for Cora nor her relationship with Clay. What really shone for me was his years-long friendship with Doc. Doc faces a lot of discrimination being a transgender woman in the West, and starts traveling with Clay, who calls out the haters. There's genuine love between the two and I loved their verbal sparring. Doc is quick to call Clay out on his bs and keeps him humble. As she should!
Overall, a fun paranormal Western, and I'd love a book 2.
samantha_randolph's review
5.0
Hillary Monahan delivers another irresistible and wholly original story with GUNSMOKE AND GLAMOUR. I've never been a fan of classic Westerns because of their problematic nature, but Monahan turns the stereotypes on their heads and then adds magic. In short, this book is an absolute thrill ride, complete with romance, morally gray characters, danger, curses, and a tiger to tie it all together.
redmoon's review
I got about 100 pages in, did not find the characters interesting/relatable.
misssleepless's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
nightmare's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
mcf's review
4.0
I enjoyed this a lot -- it's a fun, magical world, with a good dude main character and some interesting female co-leads. The best part of the story, though, was the foreground presence of a trans woman, someone who has good friends but also faces abuse and hatred; the latter is hard to read but its presence seems important, because it roots her identity a bit more in the reality a trans woman would face in the old west (even an magical one). She's tough and smart and is, arguably, the hero of the story, something that we can say about trans characters in fiction far too infrequently.
matth's review
1.0
Spoilers ahead. I haven‘t been so disappointed in a book for a very long time.
I can‘t promise to be objective, fair, or reasonable in this review. However, I will do my best to convey my honest emotions to you. Make of that what you will. This book is firmly stuck in my head. I can‘t apply detached criticism as is perhaps proper.
Even though it was clear to me fairly early on that I wouldn‘t like this book, I decided to finish it becauseI wanted to write a review. After all, an educated complaint is better than an incomplete rant. My gripes aren‘t plentiful but they are severe.
Another preface: I don‘t trust my own memory very much. If I am factually wrong about things, call me out. I will do my best however to not misrepresent the reality of the text. My interpretation of it will be heavily biased because I can‘t turn them off for this review.
Okay, here we go.
The book takes place in a version of the old Wild West except there are witches and fairies and all sorts of magic. It repeatedly reminds us that it is indeed an alternate history firmly connected to our world because it drops real life names like Lincoln and references wars.
That means it has all the same social issues cropping up like that time had. More on that later.
The structure didn‘t make sense to me. It‘s like this: one chapter starts in the present, the next takes place in the past. The chapters alternate until we are caught up with the present. In other words, it is chronological but we don‘t get to read the book that way.
Here‘s the thing. I didn‘t gain any information from the past chapters that weren‘t already apparent from the present chapters, or at least you could make educated guesses. They didn‘t serve a purpose. I didn‘t learn anything new.
The present chapters move at a nice enough clip. They are fine. The events themselves weren‘t terribly interesting to me but they worked, mostly. I won‘t recount the plot very much because it is paper tissue thin. Good guy gets cursed by witch, kills the witch, other witches pissed. He needs cure but witches come after him.
The ending is anticlimactic. The reason why he was cursed? A silly lover‘s quarrel. He should just leave his love behind. He‘s better off without her. Not that he is a flawless human either but at least he didn‘t curse anyone because he lost his temper. (His lover isn‘t a witch but the lover told a witch to curse him except the witch overdid the curse)
Okay. That out of the way, let me explain why the book stuck in my brain like barbed wire.
In my opinion as a non trans reader—I’m non binary—the book is trans phobic in a bad way. Second, it‘s racist. Let me explain.
First, we have Irene. She is trans. Trans characters are great. More of them, please. My problem is that her character is almost entirely defined by her struggles as a trans woman. She receives physical and verbal abuse over and over again. I felt sick. It serves no narrative purpose other than „this world is shit for people like her y’all“ In my opinion that is not enough to justify torturing a queer character.
I don‘t understand why this was there. Trans readers will likely be upset. Yes, the character doesn‘t give up and keeps going despite everything. She stays with our protagonist because they can keep each other safe, him being good with guns, her being a doctor. They are good friends. I liked their friendship, just why?
Here‘s where my biases kick in fully. Her queer suffering served no purpose. Her happy ending is only implied, not shown. She might have fond a man who loves her. It‘s so disappointing. Why do we have all this suffering when it‘s deliberately not our world because magic? If you want the aesthetics of the time, you can take them without also making the only trans person in your cast suffer.
Second, the racism. Our protagonist stumbles over the aftermath of the lynching of a black man carried out by angry townspeople. The black man murdered his former masters. He died a cruel death for that. The purpose of the scene is to show our hero as a good guy and give him a chance to be angry and sad about the injustice. Yeah, we know it was a bad time.
Then there is another issue of racism. Irene says she doesn‘t like light skinned men. She is white herself, at least if the cover is to be trusted. I can‘t recall if it‘s mentioned in text. Anyway, one day a fairy companion and friend transforms herself via glamour illusion into a „muscled Nubian“ to have sex with Irene. It‘s heavily implied if not outright stated that this fake black man had a huge cock. Make of that what you will.
It‘s shallow. It briefly touches upon social injustices but that‘s it.
I am tired. Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe I have gone mad. But that‘s how the book read to me.
That was my honest review.
I can‘t promise to be objective, fair, or reasonable in this review. However, I will do my best to convey my honest emotions to you. Make of that what you will. This book is firmly stuck in my head. I can‘t apply detached criticism as is perhaps proper.
Even though it was clear to me fairly early on that I wouldn‘t like this book, I decided to finish it becauseI wanted to write a review. After all, an educated complaint is better than an incomplete rant. My gripes aren‘t plentiful but they are severe.
Another preface: I don‘t trust my own memory very much. If I am factually wrong about things, call me out. I will do my best however to not misrepresent the reality of the text. My interpretation of it will be heavily biased because I can‘t turn them off for this review.
Okay, here we go.
The book takes place in a version of the old Wild West except there are witches and fairies and all sorts of magic. It repeatedly reminds us that it is indeed an alternate history firmly connected to our world because it drops real life names like Lincoln and references wars.
That means it has all the same social issues cropping up like that time had. More on that later.
The structure didn‘t make sense to me. It‘s like this: one chapter starts in the present, the next takes place in the past. The chapters alternate until we are caught up with the present. In other words, it is chronological but we don‘t get to read the book that way.
Here‘s the thing. I didn‘t gain any information from the past chapters that weren‘t already apparent from the present chapters, or at least you could make educated guesses. They didn‘t serve a purpose. I didn‘t learn anything new.
The present chapters move at a nice enough clip. They are fine. The events themselves weren‘t terribly interesting to me but they worked, mostly. I won‘t recount the plot very much because it is paper tissue thin. Good guy gets cursed by witch, kills the witch, other witches pissed. He needs cure but witches come after him.
The ending is anticlimactic. The reason why he was cursed? A silly lover‘s quarrel. He should just leave his love behind. He‘s better off without her. Not that he is a flawless human either but at least he didn‘t curse anyone because he lost his temper. (His lover isn‘t a witch but the lover told a witch to curse him except the witch overdid the curse)
Okay. That out of the way, let me explain why the book stuck in my brain like barbed wire.
In my opinion as a non trans reader—I’m non binary—the book is trans phobic in a bad way. Second, it‘s racist. Let me explain.
First, we have Irene. She is trans. Trans characters are great. More of them, please. My problem is that her character is almost entirely defined by her struggles as a trans woman. She receives physical and verbal abuse over and over again. I felt sick. It serves no narrative purpose other than „this world is shit for people like her y’all“ In my opinion that is not enough to justify torturing a queer character.
I don‘t understand why this was there. Trans readers will likely be upset. Yes, the character doesn‘t give up and keeps going despite everything. She stays with our protagonist because they can keep each other safe, him being good with guns, her being a doctor. They are good friends. I liked their friendship, just why?
Here‘s where my biases kick in fully. Her queer suffering served no purpose. Her happy ending is only implied, not shown. She might have fond a man who loves her. It‘s so disappointing. Why do we have all this suffering when it‘s deliberately not our world because magic? If you want the aesthetics of the time, you can take them without also making the only trans person in your cast suffer.
Second, the racism. Our protagonist stumbles over the aftermath of the lynching of a black man carried out by angry townspeople. The black man murdered his former masters. He died a cruel death for that. The purpose of the scene is to show our hero as a good guy and give him a chance to be angry and sad about the injustice. Yeah, we know it was a bad time.
Then there is another issue of racism. Irene says she doesn‘t like light skinned men. She is white herself, at least if the cover is to be trusted. I can‘t recall if it‘s mentioned in text. Anyway, one day a fairy companion and friend transforms herself via glamour illusion into a „muscled Nubian“ to have sex with Irene. It‘s heavily implied if not outright stated that this fake black man had a huge cock. Make of that what you will.
It‘s shallow. It briefly touches upon social injustices but that‘s it.
I am tired. Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe I have gone mad. But that‘s how the book read to me.
That was my honest review.
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