I LOVED THIS! I couldn’t stop reading!! What an action packed adventure full of killing and monster hunting!
A weird ass sci-fi western with enjoyable characters of all sorts.

The mutated monsters were creepy and a delightful twist on what we normally consider monsters. I would be terrified and grossed out by a life size scorpion or spider oozing toxic mucus 😂

The fight scenes are great too! Totally realistic and not trying too hard.

And what a cliff hanger

I came here for some pulp, and pulp was what I got for better or worse. Melinda West, occasionally and I assume purposefully, called Melinda Gunfighter in the text, is just that - Western style gunslinger who goes around shooting monsters. The setting is some sort of Wild West style prairie, but a discrete world with an edge that Melinda and her partner have happily been shooting monsters out of. But they want to retire, so cue the worst case of her life that will take her across the Edge Of The World and to the very edge of death as she fights and generally loses to monsters and demons. Its pacy, pulpy stuff but I never found the world-building all that convincing, and Melinda - beyond feeling bad about her partner and annoyed by the baddie - never really got together a proper personality for me. And because of that it was never the throwaway snack I thought it would be.

Loved the female characters. Wild West with a supernatural bent. I found the dialogue a little wooden and didn’t quite connect with the characters. Maybe more of a YA target audience. Thank you to the author. Thank you to # NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This book had so much potential. The concept of gunslingers fighting monsters was really intriguing, but the execution didn’t quite live up to it. The lack of description made it hard to fully immerse myself in the world, and I struggled to connect with the characters since their relationships weren’t deeply developed. I would have loved more focus on the journey and character dynamics rather than just the conflict.

Review: This cover and story line is eerily simliar to V.S. McGrath's "The Devil's Revolver" series.

Where this novel and McGrath's series walks in tandem, is the fantasy western theme that deals in artifacts, monsters and powerful scorcerer types. It should also be noted that the MC's are almost identical in presentation (tough, tall, female, dead-eye shooters etc.). They both happen to be bound by magical artifacts as well.

While Hettie Alabama carries a possessed revolver that takes years off her life, Melinda West has been infected by a magical artifact and bitten by a dream bug. They are both following magic trails to save their respective family members and have hunky cowboys as their sidekicks. The world building is eerily similar as well.

This feels like a rip-off but the character development is divergent enough for a stand alone work.

On a side note, the Publishers Description says "When they accidentally release a demon, they must track a dangerous outlaw......." I must be missing something as there was nothing like that in the story line. A spider steals a family members soul, and they set about tracking it down to restore their Uncle/Friend. Yet "they" meaning Mellie and cowhunk, were not the instigators.

I received this ARC for an honest review.