Margaret Killjoy remains one of the most interesting, capital "W" Weird authors of fantastical anarchist fiction out there. I found the first novella in this series, "The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion," a bundle of fascinating Tarot trivia and occult influences, and Killjoy's sentences remain sharp as ever here in the second installment. Why three stars, then? Killjoy made the unfortunate decision of setting this novella in Montana and specifically in Glacier National Park and surrounds, without managing to get literally anything about Montana right. Apart from, perhaps, the side of the road we drive on. And that junked vehicles off the side of the road arouse very little interest from passerby. To add an extra layer of personal kneejerk "no way!" to the mix, Killjoy set a good chunk of this novella in an anarchist appropriation of a defunded Montana *library,* and those who follow my reviews will already be keenly aware that I am, in fact, a Montana librarian. A Montana librarian with a lot of recent experience in the details of what happens when Montana libraries are defunded and shut down. When Montana libraries are defunded, for example, the buildings are repossessed by the City or District which funded them, and the books are sold (preferably) or taken to the dump (more frequently) in order to offset City or District debts and clear up the space for alternate use.

Also I have it on good authority from my secret underground network of fellow Montana librarians (AKA the Montana Library Association) that none of our libraries was built in such a way that an upper floor could be converted into an apartment or other private residence. We do have a couple of really neat old Carnegie libraries, however.

I know that quibbling over the architecture of a made-up library in a made-up Montana town makes me super petty (the pettiest of petty people). Oh yes, I do. I also know that I'm super pissed off at authors who use Montana as a setting for the fantastical Other without having the bare decency of visiting the place, doing a Google satellite search of the place, or basically any research whatsoever about this grand, awesome state of mine. Which by the way, has plenty of truly Weird quirks just waiting for keen and insightful authors (who do their research) to exploit.

It's even more heartbreaking that a bit of this book takes place in Glacier National Park, where half of my soul still lives, and again it got everything wrong. You can't drive to any trailheads, for example, much less dump a car in a lake at a trailhead; the park infrastructure is designed to prevent that, and all of the lakes are alpine lakes, which means they're crystal clear. There's no hiding a vehicle in one even if you could get the vehicle there on an unpaved forest path. Also, each year I've been here GNP has set records for use. Visitation in the early 2000s was around 1.5 million vehicles per year. In 2016, visitation brushed 3 million. In 2017, it was up to 3.3 million. What does this mean for the Park? Well, first of all, it means that the only through-road in the entire Park is stop-and-go traffic from 8 AM in the morning until well after sunset. It can take roughly two hours to drive that road in summer, if you're lucky. It also means that the campsites are all taken before 10 AM in the morning starting in June, and the parking lots have miles-long queues through the summer. It used to be that you could line up for a back country permit around 10 AM and still be likely to get something, but nowadays people start lining up before 6 AM and still get turned away. A bus system has been re-introduced in recent years to alleviate some of the traffic problems, but even if 300,000 people took them you'd still see an increase in foot traffic at all of the picnic areas, trailheads, and back country routes. I haven't had a bend of a trail, much less a picnic area or campground, to myself in the park except in deep winter and when I choose the least popular paths.

In short, even if your book is a work of fantasy fiction, it really pays to do your research. If your setting is the real world, make sure you put the same effort into your world-building that you would for a work set in an alternate universe. Montana is a big state with a growing population, and it's not here to be your exotic Other. It deserves better. Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park are both wonderful, unique, capital "W" Weird spots with a lot to offer apart from "here's a generic, pretty, and somehow magically empty Western landscape." They, too, deserve better.

I will of course read Killjoy's future works, because they contain such elegant sentences and LGBTQIA+ representation among other things, but I'll have to work at healing my ability to suspend disbelief.

Another fantastic addition to the Cain series, proving that the true demons really do lie within humanity itself. A thrilling and engaging world that I just can;t get enough of!

This is an ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE book. It starts off edgy and descends into anarchy — in the best possible way. I will now be reading everything the author writes. RUN and get this book.

The Barrow Will Send What it May by Margaret Killjoy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. I'm kicked in the head from out on left field. I got this through Netgalley based only on its cover and a single word in the blurb, but the tasting and devouring of the novella? SOOOO good. :)

What to expect? ANARCHY! Woooh Hooo!

The best description I can make is likening this to the Rowdy crew from that Dirk Gently tv series but they're hunting baddies a-la UF fiction and when they aren't mystery-ing it up like the Scooby Gang, they're making pacts with ancient Egyptian gods to resurrect dead friends.

With huge complications.

And in the meantime, the Scooby gang steals, breaks, and thumbs their noses at evil magical Feds and makes sure their lives are led in the freest way ever. Spice of life. Live like this is your last day. Because, for some of them, it was. Yes, past tense. :)

So rowdy! :) Roadtripping, resurrecting, randomizing, you name it, they're doing it. And it's a pure delight.

I do think I'm going to be keeping my eye out for this author something fierce. :)