This was unlike anything I've read before. A sort of creature feature western with passionate characters and lots of blood and gore. For me, anything set in a time period before the 1980s is considered 'historical fiction' and usually I would avoid it at all costs. I'm glad I took a chance on this action packed novella.
Whilst short, it certainly packed a lot into its mere 100 pages. When bad men come to a good place looking for trouble, Esther and Siobhan must make a decision that will save themselves and the entire town of Grey's Bluffs. This would make a great full length novel, or even a tv series.

Rosenberg's debut novella and first(?) foray into the town of Grey's Bluffs delivers every aspect a reader could want in a horror western. Compelling characterization, revenge, immensely easy-to-hate villains, and utterly terrifying creatures that live in the mountains. It didn't take long to realize I would follow Esther and Siobhan to the ends of the earth. Rosenberg endears the women who make up the beating heart of the story within pages, and even with the strong supporting characters and lightning-fast pacing, their relationship and characteristics ensure the reader will keep turning the pages. Hungers as Old as This Land gets to the root of greed, hate, and love, reveling in gory business when it needs to and dialing back when it serves the story.

This strange horror western was a fast read - almost too fast for the author to develop every idea he put in this novella - the greedy mercenaries that shaped the Wild West, the Jewish settlers in America and antisemitism, the lesbian romance, the ancient monsters who feast on human flesh.

The story starts with two Civil War comrades - Abraham Foxman saves Cyril Redstone's life during a battle. Two decades later, Cyril - now a merciless hitman leading a band of killers - is hired by an unscrupulous businessman to wipe out a prosperous Jewish settlement Abraham has founded on the western frontier. Abraham's daughter Esther and her lover, Siobhan, get caught in that bloody attack. But Cyril doesn't know that Abraham has made an eerie pact with the monsters who live in the mountains surrounding the town. Greedy to discover the treasure in the mines, he will be led by Esther and her friends into a bloody trap.

The pace is brisk and there are no big twists - it left me wishing for more. Rosenberg has created an interesting world and I hope he will return to it because I would like to know more about the monsters he created and their hunger.

HUNGERS AS OLD AS THIS LAND was a really good read!

I would have liked a little less predictability with the end of the story, and would have enjoyed spending more time with each of the main characters (but that's what happens with a good novella-leave them wanting more).

Rosenberg's gore moments were perfect, his dialog was just right.

Overall, a really strong novella! I look forward to his Dark Lit Press novel.

With Hungers as Old as this Land, Zachary accomplishes a ton in 100pgs, it’s equal parts a story told and a world built. He presents a lush, dusty, landscape and populates it with well rendered personalities. Personalities that stand out from one another. He's not just relying on the presentation of information, but also using the way a character acts and the dialog they speak to add depth and dimension.

I am a dialog guy, and the dialog in HaOatL is superb. It is interesting, it has thought, and it has feeling. The dialog feels like real-world conversations. Far too often authors have their constructs blathering at one another only when they need to in order to progress to the juicy bits. Zachary uses it to connect the characters, and thus connect to me, ie: the reader. It becomes an anchor to add weight and anxiety when the narrative starts to bear down, and also becomes a pedestal to allow the juicy bits shine.

So yeah, I really enjoyed, Hungers as Old as this Land, it's a rich engaging read that feels like it could branch off in a number of different ways. If it doesn't then, cool, I had a great time. But if it does, I am all in.

I’ll be honest, I was drawn to this for Jewish lesbians, but also the premise of ancient beings making bargains with community is an intriguing premise. This was a super quick novella and it had great pacing, especially for a novella. I didn’t find this especially creepy or horror-like, though I do feel like it showed (like many good horror stories) that the real monsters aren’t the creatures of the dark but humans. This was interesting and had really good world building.

On the one hand, Hungers as Old as This Land, Zachary Rosenberg's debut novella, is a good and really solid horror western that feels like a complete meal. On the other hand, I also felt like I was given too small a portion to truly satisfy and wondered at how much it might be improved with some extra ingredients or a little bit more seasoning. That's not to say that Rosenberg's work is bad -- far from it, in my estimation, and I think the author has plenty of room to grow (his debut novel is due out soon from Darklit Press, and I'm quite compelled to give that a read based on this novella alone) -- but I did find myself wanting more. It didn't quite fill me up, but I was certainly happy to have had it and would suggest that you try it, too.

We're introduced to Abraham Foxman and Cyril Redstone as the two compatriots fight for their lives at the battle of Antietam during the Civil War, where Abraham saves Cyril's life. Flash forward 20 years to the American West, where Abraham has established a settlement for his fellow Jewish folk, which includes his half-Muscogee daughter, Esther, and her lover, Siobhan. Cyril is an ex-Pinkerton turned hired gun for a rich businessman, used to break up burgeoning unions and murder rabble-rousers looking for better and fairer working conditions. It's obvious right from the outset that Cyril and the clearly much more progressive Abraham are due for some violent conflict, and that Esther and Siobhan will be caught in the middle. This, of course, comes to pass when Cyril is hired to do the bloody bidding of his wealthy master and wipe out Foxman's settlement, which sits on a piece of very lucrative land. Oh, and there's a mountain full of bloodthirsty, inhuman monsters, too.

At only a 100 or so pages, Hungers as Old as This Land feels like a race to the finish almost entirely from the get-go. Rosenberg's work is a brisk and snappily-paced one, but I found myself wishing that it were longer and afforded us more time to explore and gave us more details to study. His creatures are an interesting sort, and are largely hidden from both the characters and the readers, somewhat like Jaws where we don't really get to see them until the third act. Even then descriptions are lacking, but we certainly get an eyeful of all they are capable of. I have no issue with not being able to "see" these horrors clearly and appreciate the air of mystery and gravitas Rosenberg gives them. I found myself more concerned with how and why this peculiar species, which we are told predates not only America but mankind itself, is able to converse in English and couldn't help but wonder how they learned that tongue or who taught them. Is there an ESL course for horror monsters? Wouldn't it have made more sense for them speak the language of the Muscogee Creek, whose presence in the area would have surely been more significant than the Johnny-come-lately white man, and which Esther is fluent in? It's a niggling detail, one that feels just a little too convenient, and one that confounded me. Abraham has cut a deal with these creatures to keep Grey's Bluffs safe and it's another story beat that I wish we'd gotten to learn more about. I'm genuinely curious to know what those negotiations looked like, what kind of concessions were made, and how it was all brokered, especially since these horrors seem more like the "kill first" kind of horror monster.

I'll admit, too, that was I hoping for a more extended revenge tale with Esther and Siobhan exacting bloody vengeance through the mountains, hunting Cyril and his coldblooded compatriots. What we get is good and all, but like several other areas of this book, I just wanted more from it and more of it. Much of this desire breaks down to one simple thing -- this is a neat group of people and I really wanted more time with them. Siobhan is a frisky, red-haired fighter, and her girlfriend is the more calming influence on her life. They're a great couple, both are proud and steadfast, and I believed their love was one for the ages. Cyril is as smarmy a bad guy as they come, the type of villain Walton Goggins has made a career out of on TV and the silver screen in all his lanky, big-toothed glory. Cyril cares not a whit for anything but money, and when offered the chance to betray the man who he owes his very life to and to commit an entire town's worth of mass murder his only concern is how much cash it'll earn him and then to ask for double because he knows the settlement's founder. There's still an odd charm about him, though, which is what you want in a really good bad guy.

What really helps separate Hungers as Old as This Land from the sudden wellspring of western-horrors that has found a resurgence in the last few years is its focus on Jewishness and the tenets of Judaism our heroes live by. There's a constant undercurrent of racism at play throughout the story, and the Jewish settlement of Grey's Bluffs coming under attack by those tasked with not just expelling the Jews from their land but slaughtering them wholesale echoes the very long history of similar past conflicts for Jewish peoples across the centuries and up through the modern-day. That this work comes at a time when antisemitic hate crimes are continually rising in the US, stoked by years of Trump and GOP rhetoric involving George Soros and more explicit antisemitic language, which has only grown worse since the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, makes Hungers as Old as This Land not just timely but vital. We need more stories like this to help combat the rising tide of hate and to, maybe, just maybe, help push it back.

Frankly, for as much as I wanted more pages to live in with Hungers as Old as This Land, I want even more works from Rosenberg himself. His voice, and his injection of Otherness, as displayed here, into a field where Christianity is still so often the default, is not just important but necessary to help expand the breadth and depth of horrordom. I certainly wouldn't say no to catching up again with Esther and Siobhan sometime soon, further down the trail. I think these two have more stories to tell, and I'm all ears.

Very fun read and quick to boot. I typically don't like the western time setting but this did a really good job of keeping my interest throughout the entire read time.

Absolutely a PHENOMENAL story! The author really did a fantastic job of immersing me in the story. It felt like I was actually there. I’m really impressed with the author’s voice and characterization. I hope he does more like this, I will absolutely be adding him to my TBR author list!

Huge thanks to Brigids Gate Press and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Thank you to NetGalley and Zachary Rosenberg for the chance to review an ARC of the latter’s novella ‘Hungers as Old as This Land’! This was a fantastic read. Unlike most horror westerns published previously, this one starts right in the middle of things, accepts no excuses, and goes straight to the point, showing how much potential the genre has. There’s no time wasted on social graces or profound explanations (even the dates of the events are put at the end of each chapter): this is a Western, after all, full of gritty realism, and, most significant of all, pervaded by an atmosphere of horror, charged with bloody menace, and twisted by sinister betrayals. Still, there’s the chemistry between the protagonists, the banter, the deep characterization in such a short tale, bringing some balance to Esther and Siobhan’s adventure. Overall, a fascinating story that’s not to be missed!