One the best creepypastas posted. Everything is so strange and and weird; it'll leave you never wanting to go to the woods again. I love there's no explanation for the incidents, that you don't need what your imagination would already fill in for you.

I loved this book; horror westerns are incredible and this one fits right in with all of the others. The atmosphere of loneliness and creeping dread, the abundance of mutated, freakish animals, and the possibility of something worse out in the forest had me on edge the whole novel.

While I'm not usually a fan of kids as main characters, I really liked Charlie. She was tough and braver than half the men in the book. Her loneliness and longing for something better made my heart hurt. I truly felt for this girl stuck in the this empty land with a father that could be so much better to her. I also enjoy Theodore, I always like the weirdo characters with a heart of gold and he had plenty of both between his oddities, background, and actions to look after Charlie. I do wish Patton had more connections with the rest, though it was understandable considering his circumstances, but his determination and dedication were admirable for someone deemed an outsider by society.

I have not read of a monster more upsetting and unsettling than this one in a while. This creature was wholly something I wouldn't want to see in my worst nightmares and the more they encountered it the worse it got. Between it and the crazy mutated animals, it was hard to imagine myself in Charlie's shoes going after her father. I know I would have turned tail and run for the hills.

The only real downsides to this book were that Charlie reads older than she is described, but that may just lean into her having to grow up faster since she is partly raising herself, and the pacing is a big issue; there were quite a few slow spots that could have used a bit more of a boost to keep up the intensity of the narrative.

But overall, I highly recommend this book to any horror or western fans, this is a great use of both genres.

Thank you NetGalley for lending me an early copy!

A slow, sprawling read about a reverend recounting his eternal life as a monster while handling the unexpected visit from a woman with his last name. This novel tackles the interesting side to vampirism and eternal life that I find more compelling than the usual escapades vampires get up to. With the the monsterous mysticism comes the downside of having to live every day unchanging, unable to age or grow. Seeing how Tillinghast is handling it is how I imagine it would end up eventually, unfeeling and barely able to expend the energy to care beyond feeding yourself. It's close to a vampiric depression in a way. It's also interesting to see how he responds to having his rolling, unbroken days interrupted by this woman showing up practically on his doorstep.

This novel feels like the weather where I live, slow, hot, and languid. It has stilted, older language that ages the novel, like it actually was written by someone from 150 years ago and helps you connect more with Tillinghast himself.

Sarah herself, the mysterious woman, is fascinating on her own as well with how she is handling everything thrown at her. I would love to see even more of her than this novel, I really enjoyed her and her thoughts.

Thank you NetGalley for this early copy!

Found this collection just for Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner and it did not disappoint. Wagner was able to distill the creeping horror to a simple concept that leaves you with this pit of dread; that even though it was simple and strange, there is the implication of something bigger and more horrifying lying just underneath. That this one small place in the woods can open you up to a whole other terrifying world if you just dig beneath the surface.

That is pretty much the basic concept to the majority of these stories, that there is something dwelling just outside our tiny universe, waiting to swallow us whole. I just wanted to highlight the one story as it has sat with me for the longest. I absolutely recommend the rest of the stories!