I'm giving this Splatter Western a qualified 4 star review.
A friend of mine recommended this book because of a character I wrote long ago, in a story (that wasn't published) he really enjoyed. That character was similar to Liz, the indomitable, psychopathic young woman depicted in this book. Both the character and the author went places I hadn't considered, or perhaps dared, and Liz was superior to my creation as a result so, bravo! She's a very entertaining, if not sympathetic, character. Above everything else, she was worth the price of admission for me.
The material qualities of the book are FANTASTIC. Cover art, paper quality, font choice an color, typesetting, etc. are all exceptional. If you settle for buying it on Kindle, you are missing out on a significant part of the experience.
The rest of it goes as follows: These things aren't for everyone, and the name "Splatter Western" should provide a clue that this novel is fully NC-17. This is not "just" a conventional western with monsters and gore added to the mix. The idea is apparently to ignore the civilized limits of genre convention, or even the boundaries of good taste, and as a result, the predictability that comes with genre plotting and expectation are removed. It's intended to provoke, titillate, shock, whatever. Cowpunk, if you will. This novel succeeds on those terms.
Gripes:
Often when something of this ilk comes along, plot structure, character development, the denouement, and reader investment suffer in favor of shock value. Expectations are often subverted for the purpose of subversion alone, and genre trappings are discarded wholesale, sometimes rendering it unrecognizable, thus denying the reader the experience that attracted them in the first place.
This novel doesn't entirely avoid those traps, but falls prey to fewer than most. The ending feels rushed, and the monsters aren't well developed. The lack of a single truly sympathetic character keeps the reader in a sufficiently safe remove from the horrific goings-on, diluting the intended effect: It's difficult to be horrified or outraged if you just don't care that much. These issues lend a redundancy to the gallons of blood, fountains of gore, and utter disregard for morality and societal norms, encouraging page-flipping. The brevity of this story, and the gallows humor sprinkled in, do alleviate some of these issues.
However, it's simultaneously a little too lean. The Western setting of A Savage Breed is a little shallow and feels more like a TV episode filmed on a familiar studio backlot, rather than a feature film shot on location.
Gripes aside: I enjoyed it, if that's the correct term, and I would recommend it (with qualifiers) but I feel a little more time in the oven, and a little length to add some depth to the environment would have improved it greatly.
I will definitely read some of the other books in this series.
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![A Savage Breed (Splatter Western Book 6) by [Patrick C. Harrison III]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-II7QacYL._SY346_.jpg)
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Books In This Series (14 Books)
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Customer reviews
“A Savage Breed” by Patrick C. Harrison III was provided to me free by the publisher. Thank you! Unfortunately, I gave this book one star. Let’s talk about why I did not enjoy it. *Trigger warning for rape, bestiality and sodomy*. (That should give you a clue right there).“A Savage Breed” follows three basic storylines. The first, the Tate gang, a band of outlaws and their various exploits. The second, a man named James Haggard, who turned into a serial killer after he found his wife and daughter murdered. The third, a psychotic teenager named Elizabeth- oh excuse me, Liz, who has run away from home to go on a California adventure. All three storylines had their problematic themes, but they all boil down to using cheap shock tactics instead of properly developing characters.The Tate gang spent most of the first half of the book gang raping their prisoner, a Comanche woman named Whispering Wind. They then passed her to be raped by a pastor, etc etc etc. You may ask if this was pertinent to the storyline. It was not. It was simply for shock value, trying to convey how terrible the Tate gang was. Instead, it drew attention to how one-dimensional they all were, including Whispering Wind herself. James Haggard, the grieving widower, spends literally every scene basically carrying out hate crimes. That is the extent of his character development. He predictably catches up with the Tate gang and joins forces. The teenage girl, Liz, is psychotic. I am not sure what her role in the story was, but it seemed as if she may have been intended as comic relief. She, and thankfully, she alone, is the reason for the beastiality and sodomy trigger warnings. Did they have anything to do with the story? Not really. It was just a quick and easy way to make a psychotic girl.You may be asking yourself “WHERE ARE THE CREATURES IN THIS CREATURE FEATURE?!” Well, I will only confirm that there are eventually monsters to contend with. They mostly dwell in the second half of the book. Like the human characters, they are under-developed and one dimensional. Instead of the “Mystical Negro”, we have the “Wise Indian” stereotype, where Whispering Wind just so happens to know all about the creatures in question. Other than being a living sex doll, talking about the creatures was her only role in this story.
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The Book Dad
I do not consent...
Reviewed in Canada on December 16, 2020
The Book Dad
Reviewed in Canada on December 16, 2020
I'm sad to report that 𝘚𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥 is problematic for me. I took issue with the continuous galling rape scenes that added nothing to the story. It was very forced and much like the act itself, I do not consent. In saying that, there were parts of the book I did like whether it be the wild gunfights with terrifying and blood thirsty flying beasts or the amusing ribbing courtesy of Liz Sawyer, the young runaway with calamitous intent. This book, unlike the others in the series was not for me but do not think I am deterred from reading the next book. I anxiously await the next installment in the Splatter Westerns by Kenzie Jennings called 𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.
𝘚𝘈𝘝𝘈𝘎𝘌 𝘉𝘙𝘌𝘌𝘋 by Patrick C. Harrison lll
⭐⭐
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