Feminist horror and a peculiar read, especially with the way Ms. Chronister lays out the narrative. A bleak, mostly unforgiving and strange western future.

Enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, very good at building tension and dread. All my issues with the book seem to just come from minor writing issues that are either active choices the writer makes (fine!) or things they may grow out of over time (also fine!) so i look forward to reading more

I really enjoy apocalyptic stories and this one was something different and quite unique. I really liked this one and look forward to more from this author. Great characters, intriguing story line, suspense, tension. Loved it.

I requested a review copy of this one after seeing the glowing things Michael Kelly had to say about it (for those of you who don't know, Michael drinks the best beers, reads the best books, and publishes some of the most amazing small press literature out there!)

This book was a brain bomb of post apocalyptic dystopian western religious fanaticism (yes, I'm aware that's a mouthful). It takes place out in the middle of the desert. The world has been ravaged. Those who are still clinging to life do so against all odds, surviving in a brutal landscape, fighting off horrific "stuffed men" who have been infected by the desert, and avoiding other survivors who most certainly mean you more harm than good. Many are making their way to the city of Las Vegas, where religious relics for various saints are housed, in the hopes of being healed of their many afflictions, while others are deemed heretics and appear to be "saint touched", demonstrating an ability to do strange and miraclous things.

Told in three parts, we follow a young girl named Magdala over the span of many years, beginning when she first convinces her father to allow her to make the pilgramage to the holy city in an attempt to cure her clubfoot, through all of her trials and tribulations, to all the weird and wonderous people and places she encounters. It's deliciously dark and bleak and eerie and was just what the doctor ordered!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Desert Creatures is a story about Magdala, a girl born in a post-apocalyptic Sonoran desert. The book takes us through three periods of Magdala's life, culminating in a return to her past. Her growth over the course of the story is fascinating.

The prose soars when describing the landscape. It's bleak. It's hot, and there are miles to go. I wish there was more description of the desert creatures themselves; the plant-human hybrids seem to be the result of whatever caused the collapse of society, but maybe they're just part of the magic in this world.

The third act is where this story shines, and I definitely think it's worth getting to, even if the first act is a bit slow.

Thanks to Erewhon Books and NetGalley for providing this advance copy for reading and review.

Starting with the stunning cover right through to the end of the novel this impressed me.

The blurb likens it to Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' and I'd agree with that but I'd also say that the bleakness and brutality that's present throughout brings to mind McCarthy's masterpiece 'Blood Meridian' - there's not much good left in this world that Kay Chronister creates and every character appears to be deeply flawed.

There are also shades of Stephen King's 'The Stand' with Las Vegas becoming the centerpiece of all that's left in a post-apocalyptic landscape. In King's case the evil of Vegas was balanced by the good of Boulder, Colorado - in this universe, there seems to be no real good left at all to balance the bad.

Finally, in terms of influences, I'd say the hijacking of religion in a dry and devastated world brought to mind Walter M. Miller Jr.'s 'A Canticle for Leibowitz.'

Putting all those influences aside, though, the most original and frightening aspect of 'Desert Creatures' are the 'stuffed men' - these bizarre hybrids of human, plant, and animal that have emerged as a result of some untold apocalypse and which inhabit the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of The Remainder. They're a new creation, to my experience, and help this novel really stand out.

Congratulations to the author, a really good book.

DNF after 100 pages. Tried to get into it but couldn’t really. felt dense, and I couldn’t bring myself to care or invest in any of the characters.


Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for my review.

This book was such an interesting combination of things. To me, it was an interesting blend of Annihilation and religious fanaticism. The story takes place over three periods of time in Magdala’s life as she fights to survive in hostile and eerie desert climates full of dangerous plants and humans alike.

The setting of this book was in a future version of the southwestern United States. The descriptions of the desert climates and creatures within were very atmospheric and often disturbing, and I will say the setting was the most interesting part for me and I wanted more of those descriptions! When the writing is focused on the setting and not the characters, that’s where it really shined the most for me, and I really struggled through the first two sections of this book that were more heavily focused on the development of the characters.

What this book is missing for me is the “why” of it all. There isn’t a ton of explanation as to why the world has become this way and I felt I was missing some explanations of why and how the society came to function this way. Other than Magdala, the motivations of the characters felt a little flimsy and I again wanted more of what made each of these characters the way they were. I also am really not sure how I personally vibe with Magdala’s journey in the first two out of three parts. The sole focus was on her taking a pilgrimage to heal her clubfoot, and that was a specific focus for a majority of the book. The entire first part of the book felt completely extraneous and I really struggled to get through it and I found it to be confusing at multiple points.

The third act of this book was the best part for me and I wish more of it had been this oldest version of Magdala. At this point, she has abandoned her quest of healing and has found a new way to live and adapt with her disability, which has undergone a pretty significant change. *spoiler warning for the next sentence* Magdala’s clubfoot has been since been amputated and she now uses a prosthetic limb. In this section of the book she is now in dubious employment and the other parts of the book come full circle, but I still wanted more of this part. She really comes into her own and I loved her growth in her choices and how she interacts with people differently now.

All in all, the third part saved the rest of the book for me and really made me feel it was worth it to push through the beginning. I loved the setting especially, and would be curious to read more by Chronister. I would rate this book a 3.5⭐️ and would recommend if you like more slow paced and atmospheric books. That being said, definitely check trigger warnings.

Unique characters find themselves in a unique place. This is a difficult one to rate and review. It bounced between genres--scifi, fantasy, horror. There was a lot of purple prose. Some of it was appreciated while others not so much. If I had to pin this down, I think the only comparable thing would be that it's a mix of Directors Garland and Guillermo. Everything about this book is completely unexpected.

“You wanna live with me, you better be ready to hurt. You will get sick and you will get broken, but you will know you are alive.” (Desert Creatures p.114, ebook version)

Thank you Erewhon Books and NetGalley for the ARC and opportunity to review!

Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister is a really unique book. The genre is hard to pin down; sometimes it feels like horror, other times science fiction, and often it feels like a folk tale. The prose is poetic without being overwrought. Disturbing story elements create tension and increase the stakes as the narrative progresses, and I personally love it when an author isn’t afraid to get a little gross.

This story follows a young girl named Magdala on her pilgrimage through the post-apocalyptic southwest United States (now called The Remainder) in search of a miracle that will heal her disability. Her journey is fraught with violence and danger from human and supernatural forces, as well as the environment itself. In this world, toxic pollution and drought have killed most plant and animal life. People who spend too long out in the wilds develop desert sickness and slowly go mad, driven to wander the desolate expanse to their death. Human corpses bloom with cacti, fuse with other animal and human remains, and walk the desert insensate and hungry.

This unforgiving landscape surrounds a story about violence, survival, and redemption. Religion plays a central and complex role in this story. Magdala spends much of the narrative single-mindedly trying to reach the holy city of Las Vegas to visit the shrine of a saint rumored to be able to heal physical ailments. When she arrives at her destination, having suffered, sacrificed, and bloodied her hands in pursuit of her only goal, things are not as they seem. Chronister explores hypocrisy, corruption, and religious control, balancing this harsh and cynical reality with the presence of genuine human-generated miracles. It critiques the American fusion of Christianity and right wing capitalism while maintaining a delicate hope in the goodness of people and our ability to save each other. Desert Creatures explores humankind’s capacity for violence and for miracles equally. It is especially concerned with what survival does to us and the choices we make in untenable circumstances.

This was a 4 star read for me. I loved the prose and the setting, and the supernatural elements really elevated the story for me. I also really enjoyed the blended genre elements. The ending felt a little underdeveloped and maybe a bit rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the book, which is why it didn’t quite make 5 stars for me. Overall, if you like books that are weird, unsettling, and complex, this one is a great choice for your next read.

"Desert Creatures" is grim but beautiful, slightly familiar yet still creative. Chronister writes both poetically and skillfully; the book does not have any of the hallmarks of a good (but still maturing) writer. Instead, the writing is fluid, and the plot is well-paced. It's reminiscent of both "Parable of the Sower" and "Annihilation," but the story unfolds in unexpected ways. I was never sure where it was taking me. I highly recommend it, particularly for those who enjoy weird or dystopian fiction (i.e., Jeff VanderMeer or Octavia Butler).

The book seems well-written and well-thought-out. Unfortunately, I can't connect it and started to feel like forcing myself to finish it. I decided to DNF it for now, but I want to emphasize it's the case of "It's me, not you" DNF :)

Thanks to the publisher for giving me the possibility to try it. I may give it another try soon.

Are you ready for a brutal pilgrimage through the desert, in a world that has descended into rack and ruin? Seriously though, Kay Chronister’s debut novel is brutal and unforgiving; you need to be sure before you open the pages.

We join young exile Magdala, who is seeking refuge in the Arizona desert with her father. They face not only the horrors of heat, thirst, and violence, but also strange half-man, half-cactus creatures. Magdala has a club foot, and when one of her fellow outcasts tells her of a relic in Las Vegas that could possibly heal her, Magdala begins her trek. And boy howdy, it is not easy.

I don’t quite know how Chronister has managed it, but she has brought beauty and poetry into her account of a desolate and horrifying landscape. When the content turns nightmarish, as it often does, the break from the hypnotic lyricism has extra impact.

Our protagonist Magdala could be the spiritual sister to Lauren in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. She is incredibly resilient, smart, and determined. In the face of unspeakable horrors, she adapts, and thrives. Her journey from girl to woman throughout the novel is wonderful.

There isn’t much more I can say that will do this gorgeous novel justice. It is unlike anything I have read before.

A strangely disjointed horror story, Desert Creatures was interesting, but I also felt like I was missing quite a lot - in part because the book jumps so oddly, but also because the building of this apocalyptic world was a bit underdeveloped. I don’t think you need to know everything about a world to appreciate it, and I think the setting of a desert and the focus on religion are interesting, but it didn’t come together for me.

Magdala has a clubfoot. She wants nothing more to be healed, and after she and her father are driven from their home when she’s nine, she embarks on a lengthy journey to get that healing. As a young girl, they join a rough community nearby, after they set out and find their survival skills lacking. Ultimately Magdala joins a group of pilgrims to go to a saint’s bones and receive her healing, but they never make it, everyone dying and leaving Magdala alone. Nine years later, she’s done unspeakable things and taken up a life of violence - and she’s not waiting for her miracle anymore. So she kidnaps a heretic priest and sets out on her journey.

This is a tense story, but like I said, didn’t work for me.

A beautifully written saga set in post apocalyptic times. I enjoyed my journey through Magdala’s story.

I can't remember the last time I was so stressed out while reading. Every second of this made me want to die, but I couldn't stop reading! Desert Creatures is a constant stream of anxiety and despair, but not so much that you have to put it down. This is a hard line to toe, and Chronister does it masterfully -- I hated every second of this, but loved it so intensely. This is a difficult read, but beyond worth it.

Kay Chronister has managed to write a book that feels both epic and intimate, set in a world that is strange and yet familiar. Magdala and her father set off on a journey through the post apocalyptic American west, past nightmare creatures born of the desert and people even more sinister than the landscape. Chronister's descriptions of the desert are so evocative that you can practically smell the creosote and feel the grit of the dirt on your skin. The folklore and religious beliefs of the people are so clearly a product of the desert, it's natural forces, threats and it's gifts. I loved the echoes of Catholic mysticism, especially in the tales told to Magdala in the first third of the book. If I were to have any complaint it is that I really didn't develop and emotional connection with any of the characters, so while their stories were interesting they lacked impact for me. Overall, it was a beautiful read that I can confidently recommend.

DNF - I adored the premise of this book but there is a great deal of editing to be done before this story can reach its full height & that is the primary reason for which I am not finishing my read.

There is little, if any, context given to the reader to set the scene of where & when this story takes place. This is not something that innately needs to be done but, it certainly eases the flow of such topics as cannibalism, decomposition, disability, murder, sexual abuse, sexual violence against minors, etc...to have dedicated phrases set to explain some of the settings that are not to be gleaned by the abrupt introduction we are given to the story. I did enjoy the way that the story is presented to the reader; I am not a fan of prologues. However, Magdala acts too naively for someone who was privy to so much terror. There is little follow-through with her surroundings & she is not presented as a character who is without complex understandings. I am certainly not saying that I expected her to be able to read the cues of sexual violence that were taking place however, it made little sense to me that she would go off with a gruff, adult man when she had spent the majority of her life afraid of the actions of others.

Alongside having some further context given to the story as a whole I believe that the dialogue should be reworked to add a more crisp form of speech to the characters. The individuals in this story often bounce from one form of speech to another & stunts the flow of the story. Given that so many scenes involve very gruesome depictions of violence & gore, the written word can be employed very deliberately to ensure that the build-up to these moments is weighty & revelatory. An example of this is when Xavier is consuming the donkey (alive). This scene cuts so close to a minuscule transition scene & so quickly after another death that the impact was lost on me - I was prepared for something horrible to happen as the wording left me no room to doubt that the next scene would simply follow suit & have another destructive sequence take place.

I do not want my comments to be taken to mean that the book should be elongated - quite the contrary. I think that the overall length of the book is fantastic & alongside the actual context of the plot, the author has found their sweet spot. With that being said, there is a way to lead the reader into trusting that the characters are fully-fleshed out human beings without needing to detail their entire life span & Chronishter accomplishes this by introducing the creationist stories which see the characters place themselves within the realities of these imaginings. I adored the inclusion of a storytelling competition & found that this was a brilliant way to deepen the reader's understanding of the world without including a prologue which might have otherwise been used to list the complexities of the circumstances.

In all, I will be seeking this book out again because I truly fell in love with the concept but, Chronishter merits an editor who will diligently help carve out the essence of the story that they have to tell. This book could be fantastic & overwhelming; it is riddled with horror & graphic descriptions that encourage the mind to dwell on those encounters. I want to see this book succeed & I feel that by reworking some of the general flow, the dialogue, the tone, vernacular & speech patterns, as well as constructing Magdala's actions in a more rounded way, would see this book soar.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a beautiful and horrifying book, it felt a little reminiscent of The Road. I absolutly love Chronisters writting style, and her world building. I never really felt like I knew where the story was heading, but each journey connected beautifully to the last. My only small grib was with the editing, I think I would have enjoyed it more with an acknowledgement of the passage of time. I was always a little thrown out of the story everytime we jumped forward in time, with no marker to inform us we were moving forward.

Otherwise this was a fantastic post-apocalyptic story, that seems little to realistic to our future

For a long time I have been craving a book that feels like The Last of Us… and I finally got it.

I could hardly put this book down. The opening scene is intense and drops us right into the strange, scary world. For the first 30 pages or so, I was a little bit frustrated because I didn’t know much about the world. We know they’re wandering the desert in what seems like the post apocalypse and that we are a couple decades into (what seems like) a zombie virus. Magdala and Xavier encounter a not-so-human person who has “become the desert” and has melons growing off them. About to die of thirst, Xavier says Magdala can eat a melon but that it is like cannibalism. I wanted to know what that thing was, how it got that way, and what was the deal with the melons- and even by the end of the book we still don’t get a clear explanation. But I realized my frustration may have sparked because I’ve read so much fantasy and sci-fi lately that info dumps everything you need to know within the first 3 chapters. In Desert Creatures, we get to wander about and discover the world on our own. It feels like a real journey.

Overall, the plot is very good. Elam’s section is a little slow and sometimes redundant, but it quickly picks up again. Every character we meet has a purpose and unique arc, and I was especially impressed by how much Magdala grows. By the end of her first act, I really thought she would have ended up in someone’s clutches and have a tragic story because she was so completely dependent on her father, but that was not the case at all. I would have loved to know what happened to her between losing her father and meeting Elam. For a book that is only 350 pages, we get a broad, dramatic story with lots of characters.

The one thing that did frustrate me was that I had trouble imagining exactly what the desert creatures were. People and animals get sick, and so they somehow absorb into each other, and melons grow off them? They don’t seem super aggressive or fast. How do people get like that? We know that lots of people are desert sick- Magdala was very sick but she never “turned.” The people did not seem very concerned with this creatures or whatever the virus is that made them become like that. And the cactus-sitters, I couldn’t get an image. I pictured people walking around with a cactus literally stuck to them… but I don’t think that’s right.

Thank you for the arc and opportunity to review!