My thanks to Flame Tree Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Stoker’s Wilde West’ by Steve Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi in exchange for an honest review.

This is the sequel to their delightful 2019 ‘Stoker’s Wilde’ and again is an epistolary novel in the same vein as Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. As the title suggests the majority of the story takes place in the American West.

After their monster hunting exploits as chronicled in ‘Stoker’s Wilde’ are concluded Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde look forward to returning to their mundane lives. Yet when they are contacted by their ally Robert Roosevelt and his nephew Teddy about the alarming spread of vampires Stateside, they are again pulled into the world of the supernatural.

Once more the archivists of the White Worm Society set the scene: “This collection pertains mostly to the California Incident of 1882. The exhibits here are for the most part in chronological order, with needless passages and multiple entries on the same subject removed. Most items were legally acquired or given freely to the White Worm Society in aid of our efforts to contain the supernatural forces that threaten our world. However, in some cases we resorted to more underhanded methods of acquisition.”

This again was a full-on romp, a penny dreadful Gothic horror with plenty of action, sharp dialogue and deadpan humour alongside horror, gore, magical creatures, and a touch of science fiction, with a tip of the hat to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

It also features appearances by a number of other historical figures including Calamity Jane and Bass Reeves, the famous lawman who was a former slave and widely considered the inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

I continue to be impressed by the depth of Hopstaken’s and Prusi’s research and their skills in capturing the voices of their characters. Florence Stoker especially emerges as a strong presence. I felt that they successfully recreated the Old West setting with gunslingers, train robberies, frontier settlements, and spectacular landscapes.

I also appreciated that their mention at the opening of spelling conventions, only using American spellings with American narrators. It’s a small matter but indicates a close attention to detail.

I loved this novel as much as I did the original. It’s really a must read for supernatural horror fans who enjoy humour alongside chills.

There’s also a teaser in the final pages that there could be more exploits for this delightful team of adventurers. If so, I can hardly wait!

I expect that once published that I will be adding this and its audiobook, if eventually produced, to my personal library.

Very highly recommended.

I loved the first book in this series, Stoker's Wilde...so of course I had to read this new book. Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde and the Roosevelts fighting vampires in the Old West. Yee Haw! Wouldn't miss that sort of epic combination for any reason!

The bare basics: A group of vampire outlaws rob a train. Bad things happen, dragging the guys into trouble again. The group finds themselves pursued by an undead bounty hunter. The story has the same vibe as the first novel -- action, humor and monster hunting craziness.....all told through letters and diary/journal entries.

Awesomely, fun read! I'm not going to say anything more about the plot, as it's more fun to go into it without any knowledge above basic events. The humor is wonderful. The characters are incredibly entertaining. The action is over-the-top fun. And, it's a great homage to Dracula.

Full stars from me again!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Flame Tree Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I could not finish this book. I’ve read Dracula and I thought it was good. This felt like a rip off in someways which is alright I can handle it but then to go and completely take all the characters past experiences away from Dracula. That when I couldn’t read any longer. I was not happy with this part and I could not continue with it. I am sorry.

Stoker´s Wilde, wild West: Stoker's Wilde West by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi

Ye gods! Our heroes ride out, again! Take one bluff, buff Irishman, Abraham (Bram) Stoker, (yeah, the dude that wrote Dracula), and another aesthete, Anglicised, Irishman, Oscar Wilde (he of The Picture of Dorian Grey), stir, send them to the American West, mix in the scions of House Roosevelt and a very nasty baddie who wishes to ascend to another world and his gun slinging vampire sidekick and you will have some idea of what Stoker's Wilde West has to offer...

Like its predecessor, also reviewed by yours truly (https://clarianabhc.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-wild-spook-chase-stokers-wilde-by.html), this is a fun, literate read. Just the thing to take your mind off the plague, gah...

[All thanks to Flametree Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this text prior to publication].

Another epistolary tour de force that had me chuckling through most pages as Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and their collection of friends and acquaintances abandon late Victorian London for monster hunting in the western US. Wild, indeed, and way too much fun to fit between 2 covers. This sequel to "Stoker's Wilde" is just as wonderful as the 1st episode.

Stoker's Wilde West was a wild ride and a big adventure. One of the most fun parts was the cramming in of lots of historical figures from America's old West. Some make walk-ons, like Buffalo Bill Cody, and others are major characters such as Calamity Jane and Bass Reese, the first African-American US marshal who arrested more than 3,000 felons. It's clear authors Prusi and Hopstaken did their research but made it fun instead of being an info dump. Only one thing they got wrong: The book says Roosevelt's friends called him Teddy. Yikes! He hated being called Teddy. His friends and relatives called him TR.

I have one small complaint that can be fixed by the authors or the copy editor. There were so many passive verbs that they got to be annoying. Things like "They were watching from the hill," instead of "They watched from the hill." Sometimes a writer has to use passive verbs, but most of the time they don't. I wanted to say "tighten up," while reading it.

It takes a lot of guts to write words for a famous wit like Oscar Wilde. For the most part the authors do justice by him. They give him a nice wardrobe, too. An amusing and rollicking read, but read the first book, Stoker's Wilde, because the backstory from it makes the sequel more understandible.

Thank you to Netgalley and Flame Tree Press for this advance readers edition in return for an honest review.

The team of Stephen Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi have done it once again with their next instalment of the brilliant anticipated novel Stoker Wilde West.

Continuing on from where the previous book left off, we are treated with another book that chronicles Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde’s alter reality as they find themselves in the Wild West. Told using a device that Bram Stoker used for his infamous novel, Dracula, the reader is host to letters, diary entries , etc to tell a fascinating story as the Stokers and Wilde find themselves on two different paths convening to one. The plot is very well paced and although the story is very well managed and heftily written, this becomes an asset rather than a liability to the story telling mechanisms. Hopstaken and Prusi mastermind a plot that is rich with details and is a definite page turner. Every nuance and word is to be cherished and it is really hard to put down.

The characters are richly woven and the use of real life characters of this time is a wondrous sight to behold and read. The interaction between the characters works very well and I love how we get a look into the minds of each of the characters. The characters come alive which is an incredible feat considering the framework used to telling the story.

Overall, this is a richly woven tapestry that paints a wonderful tale into the lives of Stoker, Wilde and company. Fantastic detail drips from each of the pages and gives a fantastic page turner that keeps given more and more. This is a great addition to one of my favourite books last year, Stoker Wilde and hope there are so many more to come. This is top rated fiction at its best.

Another fun romp through horror and alternate history with Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde. The narrative flows remarkably well through letters, journal entries, telegrams and the like. It gets perhaps a bit too bizarre in places, but it is wonderfully entertaining.

I loved the first book, Stoker's Wilde; if you haven't read it, you need to read it before this one in my humble opinion. "Stoker's Wilde" was one of the most entertaining books I read last year. This time around, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde have travelled across the pond to America for more adventures. The same supernatural action mystery-solving, and hilarious humour is present in this volume as well, so fans of the first book will like this one as well. I liked the exploration of journal entries and archival matter this time as well. Ultimately, this is an enjoyable sequel with more famous faces of history showing up. The first book is the most excellent for me but this sequel is also good.

Stoker's Wilde West by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi is the sequel to Stoker's Wilde. In Stoker's Wilde, we were introduced to Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde as monster hunters. After being saved from death by drinking vampire's blood at age 7, Stoker has certain supernatural abilities that make him a useful monster hunter. In the first book, Stoker and Wilde successfully deal with vampires and werewolves in London. In this book, they are now headed to America. They have received a letter from Teddy Roosevelt that there is a nest of vampires wreaking havoc in the wild west. I found it very interesting that the US government was keeping vampire attacks secret by blaming the deaths on Native American attacks, smallpox epidemics, and even cannibal attacks. It's little touches like these that make this tale seem more realistic. So, our monster hunters go to help in America and discover a plot of Biblical proportions and again our literary heroes find themselves entangled in another large scale monster hunt. There are also some appearances by Calamity Jane, Mark Twain, and Buffalo Bill Cody. The story is again told through reports, letters, and journal entries so the reader gets multiple points of view of the action. There appears to be a set up for a Book 3 of this series, so I look forward to reading about further adventures.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked it a wee bit better than the first but both were great. Looking forward to more by this author. Keep up the great work.

People are often considered to be creatures of habit. We have our morning routines, our favourite spots for lunch, even our preferred spot on the sofa. These habits and routines provide us with a sense of familiarity that offers comfort and security. No doubt we can all think of several things that we do on a daily or weekly basis from which we take great pleasure in and would be disappointed to lose that sense of familiarity were things to change. That desire for familiarity can also be seen manifested in how we react to films, music, and books; bands whose latest albums are perfectly good but I’ll never listen to them because they differ too much from what I liked about them in the first place, Star Wars movies that are lambasted (rightly or wrongly) for not having that same ‘Star Wars’ quality to them as the original trilogy, or even book series that end up veering too far from what made them successful in the first place. It’s a fine line.

When I learned of Stoker’s Wilde West, my thought immediately turned to the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” What had made its predecessor, Stoker’s Wilde, so successful was its epistolary form and fictionalised versions of real people, and I loved it (You can read the review here). I was excited at the prospect of a sequel but also concerned that what I loved about the original might not be there. Fortunately, my concerns were unfounded.

Stoker’s Wilde West brings the series protagonists to fight an assortment of monsters on the American frontier. Once again, the story is told in an epistolary fashion that allows for both plot progression as well as character development. Indeed, much more of this novel is told from sources ‘written’ by secondary characters, providing readers with a deeper and greater insight into this alternate history. The extra attention afforded to these secondary characters, Florence Stoker and Henry Irving in particular, was especially welcome. Combined with what we learned about them from the original novel, these characters have added dimensions that allow focus to be shifted away from Stoker and Wilde, much to Stoker’s Wilde West’s benefit.

Where the antagonists of the original novel were, if anything, its biggest flaw, in Stoker’s Wilde West they complement the protagonists excellently. The ‘Pale Horseman’ is kept shrouded in mystery so as to create a sense of mythology and foreboding whenever he appears (or indeed is even mentioned by another character). The fact that he is one of the few main characters not to author any of the documents used to tell the story certainly adds to his seemingly enigmatic nature.

In Stoker’s Wilde, we got our first taste of a fantastical alternate history and its peculiar characters. With Stoker’s Wilde West, Hopstaken & Prusi have taken this and developed it into a world that is vivid, encapsulating, and thoroughly enjoyable. With the ending written to set up a third book in the series, I look forward to their future adventures.

Bonkers book.Well written, the author obviously thinks outside of the box, in fact I don't think they even have a box.It made me laugh and was really unique.

Henry Irving and Bram Stoker have taken the Lyceum theatre group on a tour of America. Unbeknownst to them a Vampire from their past is stalking them with plans of revenge.
Florence fears for the life of Bram and son Noel, and as Henry has gone searching for a cure to his Vampirism, asks Oscar Wilde for help.
This is the follow up to Stoker's Wilde. The setting for this book takes the reader to the wild west, and just like the first book, is written in the epistolary style and full of horror and humour.
I loved these books and hope there will be more.
Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the ARC.

I want to go monster hunting with Bram Stoker, Henry Irving and Oscar Wilde.

This story is just as bloody and wonderfully detailed and creepy as the first book was. I so love the way this story was put together: journal entries, letters, status reports and they make up a full and great story.

Most of the time when a book has this many characters and POVs it can get confusing, but somehow Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi pulled it off. I enjoyed exploring the story through their eyes.

I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

WOW!! What a Wilde ride!! The series is SO unique and not like anything else I've ever read before! I love being a reader to what is basically a totally new genre! A mix of sci-fi and horror! Toss in the Wild West and it's a heckuva a fun read! Following the journey of Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Florence Stoker, Calamity Jane, etc... I like how the story unfolds in journal entries! It's like someone has gathered together all of the journals and is finally revealing, "The REST of the story"!

I'd love to know a little more about the Pale Rider. OMG. That guy was freaky scary! And, the fact that they brought back to life a dead horse by use of a demon. Dayum!!! That enhanced the story in so many ways! The Vampyre thrall!! Oh yea!!

As much as the reader comes to despise the White Worm Society... they also have to be thankful that the Society exists or we'd never know the whole story! lol. You'll have to read the book to know what I'm talking about. I do NOT give out spoilers! I highly recommend starting out with the first book of the series but it’s not necessary as they’re both standalone

This is the sequel to Stoker's Wilde and I can happily report back that this is another great read. Once again the novel is told through a series of letters, journal and diary entries, the epistolary format makes the action more immediate and works really well.

Stoker's Wilde West picks up the action from the previous novel, Hopstaken melds fact with fiction beautifully, the novel is packed with historical figures who inhabit the storyline credibly. And so to the plot, I won't go into much detail as I don't want to spoil the novel.......Henry Irving's theatre company have been invited to America for a tour and so Bram takes his family along to mix work and pleasure, Oscar Wilde has also been in America and the Americans love him. However, they soon find themselves called upon by Robert Roosevelt and his nephew Teddy to help quell a vampire outbreak.

What makes these books a joy to read is the relationship between Oscar and Bram, the witty Wilde bounces off the more dour, refrained Stoker. So settle down and enjoy the ride!

What can I say - a mix of real life characters involved in supernatural shenanigans that actually works. The first book in the series was great, this seems even better - I’m looking forward to the next and hope there’s potential for spin-offs as well! If you’re a fan of urban fantasy with some historical bent then this is a recommended read. Thank you Netgalley and Flame Tree Press!

I absolutely loved this book. So fun and hilarious. I loved that the villain was the president's ancestor. I loved the contrast between Stoker and Wilde's personalities. I loved the diversity of the cast of characters, although I can't speak to how well that was done because I don't belong to those communities. The pacing was also pretty good. My only problems with this book were that sometimes Oscar's passages came off a little naive and that there were a few typos. Also, the ARC was backwards. Overall, though, this book was exactly what I wanted from this premise and I will probably be buying the first book as well! Thank you for the ARC!