Mayhem Sam

This story felt like an infection. A troublesome itch, at first, maybe a little red and swollen, that combination of bliss and pain that comes from scratching a troublesome itch, and it just gets bigger and bigger until there’s nothing left to be done but let it have its way.

The story starts with a scene of death corruption, and the promise of more violence. Then we jump back in time a year, and there are two storylines occurring at slightly different timetables that we jump back and forth, until they intersect at about the halfway point. But from there it isn’t a straight shot out of this desert, instead every once in a while we jump forward a few months to see some sort of horror or destruction, letting the outcomes presage the violence that will unfold as we resume the main timeline. The writing is really smart in this way, moving the reader around, serving as its own foreboding omens. Our protagonist knows little beyond a life of violence and pain, at least from when we meet her, and her flashbacks don’t paint her past as too rosy, either. There is a type of depravity in this story that is what is most poisonous, it infects our protagonist even as it abuses her, and so violence and pleasure become strange bedfellows once she sees the opportunity to take control of her situation. Her story is one of survival and revenge, but also one where there is pleasure in that pain.

The characters are interesting enough, especially our protagonist. She is shaped by her history but not in the ways this type of character might normally be. The supporting and ancillary characters are maybe less well-rounded, and I wouldn’t have minded if a few of them felt a little more fleshed out, less like stereotypes, but they still fit the roles well. Especially because there is an intentional scarcity to the writing, giving enough details to make sure you can follow along but leaving a lot wide open for your imagination to do the rest of the work. This writing style would be at odds with robust character descriptions or explorations of complicated inner lives, so only our protagonist and some in her immediate orbit get inner lives for us to explore, and that’s okay. I would have liked a little more, I think there could have been more reflection without sacrificing the tone, but what we got was enjoyable. The story itself is rather simple, but the writing style and the constant movement between past and present kept it engaging, making it feel like it always had forward momentum even when not a lot technically happened. I do think there was a lot of action that happens in the back 25% of the story and I would have liked some of it spread out a little more. There are set pieces in the earlier parts of the book, but it saves a lot for the end, and it felt a little rushed, at the end. Similarly, the story flirts with the supernatural/occult, or potentially supernatural/occult, and I like where those parts of the story go and would have loved more of it from the beginning. It comes in really small dribs and drabs, just something you see from the corner of your eye, and while I didn’t need this to be a full-on supernatural thriller it would have been nice to have some of that brought a little closer to the foreground earlier on, made it feel like something with stakes and not just some character quirks. There is a whole vast well of horrific possibilities that were left mostly untouched in this regard, which is a shame. Still, what we get is unexpected and employed well.

This violent little story is more western than supernatural, though, and it does that well. The writing and pacing are compelling, the characters interesting, and while the overall conceit of the story (revenge, stolen gold, outlaw gangs, etc.,) is not wildly original for this genre it plays with those time-tested plotlines in fun ways. The juxtaposition of the unexpected determination and brutality of our protagonist with this sparse, constantly moving story makes it a ride that is definitely worth taking.

(Rounded up from 3.5)

I want to thank the author, the publisher Dead Sky Publishing, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.