Okay so I was excited for this book. A witch hunt that takes place in Kansas.
Well it was I can definitely say it’s so good and definitely worth the read. Perfect for spooky season.
I enjoyed this one.

Red Rabbit while interesting never truly lives up to the western/horror mashup that Alex Grecian wants it to be. I never truly felt that the world, characters or overall story meet the expectations set by the synopsis. Unlike Lone Women by Victor Lavelle, Red Rabbit never matches the strengths of other horror or western tales.

I have no idea what I just read, but I throughly enjoyed the ride.
This was a very interesting read, there’s witches and demons and cowboys and maybe werewolf creature. Oh also cannibalism which was unexpected and really threw me for a loop there.
There are A LOT of characters in the book and it can be hard to keep track of them all and who’s who and where they came from and why they’re mad at whom or whose wife is dead for what reason, it’s a lot to keep up with.
However, the story is great. I find many of the characters very likable I had a hard time putting the book dawn because I just wanted to get to the next chapter. I also really enjoyed that it was broken down in parts, but it also kind of gave away that some other crazy BS was about to happen to them again as well.

I am not even sure how to give this book the correct genre. It starts out like a classic western,.... and it keeps that feel all the way through the novel - add in a witch - some misfit cowboys, witch hunters, ghosts and spells and you have a book that reads so vividly it is like watching a movie. I had zero idea what I was getting into with this one, but I love love loved it! Remember the era that this is set in before you get upset about what you are reading. People were very prejudiced then against women, witches, slaves etc... so expect some of that to happen. Also, there are a lot of triggers, suicide and gore, but this was a fresh new story line for me and I would read it again.

What a great surprise this read was. The character builds were perfect which could not have been easy considering the number of mc’s and side characters. I found the cool western vibe refreshing and a lot of fun. I’ll definitely be recommending this novel to friends!

This book felt way longer than it should have. If you like rambling types of epics, it wont feel so harsh but i dont read those types of stories that much. At its heart, Red Rabbit is an odyssey of an odd group, flung together by circumstances to find the witch Sadie Grace. However, they all have different reasons for seeking her out, while most just prefer the reward. Told froma bunch of perspectives, including Sadie and even some ghosts, she is aware of the group approaching her farm in Burden County. Was kind of a crazy genre with horror western set after the Civil War. Probably better for someone who likes more supernatural leanings than other types of horror elements. Was ok but felt kind of choppy and flat to me. Thanks Netgalley for letting me read this one early.

A supernatural western that follows quite the misfit band of witchhunters, ghosts, outlaws, and other characters. Told from multiple points of view but not confusing, we get the story of the witch, Sadie Grace, and everyone who is either out to kill her or on her side. More unsettling than jump scary, this horror is quite unlike anything you've read before.

A motley crew of misfits - so motley that not all of them are alive - fall in together, mostly by happenstance. One of them is sure he's killed a witch, and he's headed north to collect the reward being offered. Everyone else decides to accompany him because . . . I'm guessing 'cause TV hadn't been invented yet.

And so, they're off to see the witch and check out whether she's dead or not. The road they travel is not yellow brick, but filled with danger and horrors that make visiting a witch seem tame by comparison.

I LOVED this fun and creepy tale. 'Twas one of my favorite books of the year, and the best horror read so far this Spooktober.

One warning - BAD THINGS happen to animals in this book. (Well, to people, too, but that never seems to upset us as much . . . )

TW: Language, drinking, smoking, rape, torture, gory scenes, suicide, racism, sexism, blasphemy, cheating, death of children

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed school teacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.
Release Date: September 19th, 2023
Genre: Western Folk Horror
Pages: 464
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What I Liked:
1. Loving how the book is written
2. Audiobook narration is great

What I Didn't Like:
1. It ended too soon - can't it just go on forever 💀

Overall Thoughts:
Oh my God I loved every aspect of this book. I loved that it was a western. I loved that there was magic to it. I loved that there were witches and there were ghouls and there was heart to it. The writing was so enthralling that I was along with them.

Every character in this book added to the story. Not one character felt like they should have been left out or they were not needed. From the second I started reading this book I had to know where it was going.

As a huge fan of westerns I feel like this book did something that I haven't really seen in movies or other books. It's hard to have a book that is a historical fiction not feel weighed down with just details and not feel boring. But somehow this book managed to keep your interest while still feeling for the characters. The fact that Sadie is painted as this terrible evil witch but then we come to find out that really she is the mother to Rabbit is just a twist I did not anticipate or see coming. Maybe that's a little naive but I think that's great storytelling because I wasn't even thinking about the end I was just enjoying the book as I was going.

Loved the part about the cannibalism. I had a moment where I stopped reading and said ew.

Final Thoughts:
Cool just leave me here in tears with that ending. Oh my what an amazing story. If I could I'd give a million stars.

Reading this book did kind of remind me of The Wizard of Oz but not in a bad way. It just made this book have heart.

Recommend For:
• Westerns
• Witches
• Magical books

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Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Tor Publishing for this advanced copy of the book & audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but the premise sounded interesting and I've never read a western before. I really loved it! We follow a rag tag band of characters who embark on a journey to Riddle, Kansas in pursuit of a witch with a bounty on her head. There is plenty of adventure and obstacles along the way as the group aren't the only ones in search of a witch. The action begins pretty early on and doesn't really stop until the end of the story.

Red Rabbit was way heavier on the supernatural elements than I was anticipating - there was truly something for everyone as along the way we encounter ghosts, ghouls, witches and shapeshifters. Oh, and cannibals. Can't forget about them! I thought the author did a great job of combining the historical/western elements of his story with these more supernatural ones. Each of the characters we meet (even the ghosts) have their own, interesting backstory and felt like an integral part of the story. There were also a few twists here and there that I didn't see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for a review copy. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

From the publisher:
A ragtag posse must hunt down a witch through a wild west beset by demons and ghosts—where death is always just around the bend—in this new supernatural horror by bestselling author Alex Grecian.

Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.

Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbit is an epic adventure of luck and misfortune.

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian is expected out September 19th 2023 from Tor Nightfire.

My Thoughts:

I gave Red Rabbit 5 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed reading it. If weird westerns is your thing, then this would be a good book for you. Also if you enjoy horror that just happens to be set in the old west, you would probably enjoy this book as well.

Old Tom and his mute ward Rabbit are on their way to catch a witch. The group grows first by 2 cowboys, then the recently widowed woman, and a ghost that none of them seem to know is there. So, you have a large group of characters going on a trip in this book, not to mention the witch herself.The group encounters horrors along the way - obstacles in their paths on the way to the witch. I liked the little group that tagged along with Old Tom basically because they had nothing better to do. I especially liked the widow woman and that the men she traveled with treated her well.

This book seemed pretty much to be a quest story. Generally, it's well-paced. Everyone had their reasons for being part of the group. And when their first goal seemed to fall through, they find another goal and keep going.

It's a well-written horror/adventure story. The way it ends leaves it open to sequels without being a cliffhanger. I definitely recommend this book if you like weird westerns or horror quest stories.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion.

Holy wow! This book just blew me away. It is a story I will be ticking about for a long time to come.
Although this is definitely horror, I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful mixture of elements that culminated to craft this story. Witchy stuff? Check. Old west vibes? Check. Historical fiction? Check check.
The characters would fully fleshed and vibrant.
I also really loved that the chapters were short. It made the book feel crisp and fast paced.

Red Rabbit is a raucous, rabble-rousing, road trip from hell and I am here for it. This is another one of those novels that you just can’t quite pin down. It’s a little horror, a little fantasy, a little western…forgive me for being rather obvious, but it’s rather like a witch’s brew: throw a pinch of this, a scoop of that, and a sliver of something-something in the cauldron before stirring it all up and then out comes Red Rabbit, which is epic in scale, cinematic in composition, and a very vivid read.

This is close to 500 pages in hardcover format, but thankfully this book is carefully crafted and edited so that those pages are worth it. It may seem like it’s a long book, but the pacing is kept up so well that those pages pass at a brilliant clip with no filler material. By the same turn, the book isn’t rushed, either: there are natural lulls in the narrative and action that are necessary for the reader to take a breath and to allow the characters to organically catch up with themselves and the situations around them, too.

Something I don’t always talk about but is important in books with a large cast of characters traveling together like this is synergy. Grecian seems to have a real knack for writing groups of main characters with a great deal of ease of cooperation in their interactions and chemistry in their interrelations. I’m not talking about romance, because this book is night unto devoid of romance (though it has devotion in a sweet and unexpected way), but in the way the characters see a need, fill that need, and don’t bother with any other bull. Most of them don’t need many words to get their meaning across to one another, because they are not the type of people to indulge in nonsense.

Grecian’s writing style reminds me slightly of Neil Gaiman, even though I know Grecian comes from a graphic novel background. While I was reading this book I was reminded of American Gods just a little, which is another road trip from hell. What both books have in common is what I’ve come to think of as this dark, macabre sense of whimsy. I love whimsy, but so many people think whimsy means light, flighty, floaty, fancy. Whimsical things are meant to be playful, quaint, or fanciful, but I think there can be a dark side to whimsy, where that playful turns into sadistically playful, the quaint turns into something small and a little mean, and the fanciful takes on a darker, more gothic edge. Books like Red Rabbit fit in with that darker whimsy, with ugly cowboys, dancing dead bodies, demon toads, a town full of amputees, demons who can’t stop giggling, and people who f*ck around and find out. Then there are passages in this book that are so artfully and carefully written and arranged that the beauty of them will astound you.

You will want to find a TW/CW list somewhere online for this book if you’re even the least bit squeamish, and be aware this is a western and there are a lot of animals in this book and they don’t always meet with the cleanest end.

I just know I went into this not knowing what to expect and ended up being thrilled to be taken on an unexpected stolen-carriage-road-trip-from-hell that involved a chaotic neutral witch, giggling demons, and a whole lot of fascinating stories within the story. It’s a fantastic book.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Horror Comedy/Historical Fantasy/Horror/Occult Fiction/Paranormal Fiction/Road Trip/Supernatural Fantasy/Western

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't 100% sure what to expect out of this book other than it was a western horror, which is certainly an accurate description, and while I enjoyed it immensely having finished it and taken some time to reflect I'm still not really sure what it was about. The basic plot is that a rag-tag group of people band together to go kill a witch, and while that is what happens there are so many side quests (for lack of a better term) along the way I'm not really sure I would say that's what the book is ABOUT, if that makes any sense. It almost felt like a series of interconnected short stories following the same cast of characters, kind of like a monster-of-the-day type thing. And don't get me wrong, that's not bad by any means, and neither is this book. It actually was a fair bit of fun, and I certainly read it quickly enough considering it's one of the longer titles I've read recently, but in terms of the overarching plot I think that's where this book stumbles just a little. Despite that the characters were a lot of fun and I found myself enjoying pretty much all of them. The world was also really fascinating and if you told me the author was going to write more books (or even just stories) set in this world I would be 100% for it, because I feel like we only just scratched the surface of what could be explored. So overall a little bumpy on the plot but still a really great read that anyone looking for a gory, cowboy-y time should definitely check out. I'll certainly be attempting to hand-sell it to anyone who I think might have an interest in it, and I'll be interested to see what the author comes up with next. Definitely another good acquisition from Tor Nightfire though, they're killing it this year (pun intended).

Western horror isn't usually my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed this one. It felt fresh and fun and interesting.

As someone who isn't big on westerns, I thought this was a very well executed horror-western-fantasy smörgåsbord . The writing was good, the characters were interesting and had compelling arcs and different dynamics with each other, and overall I really loved the atmosphere that was created. I enjoyed the feeling of dread I would get each time the group arrived to a new location because Grecian never failed to surprise and disgust me with where he was planning on going. Surprisingly, I found the ending to be touching and sweet and felt it was a great way to wrap up such a grim, dark novel.

I do wish this book was a little shorter and it did start to get formulaic/repetitive towards the end. I also felt like the overarching plot about Sadie Grace was a little anticlimactic and hastily resolved, but I didn't mind it too much; I understand what the author was going for and I know there has to be some inciting incident to get our gang together and on the road and the story is certainly more about the journey than the destination.

I think this is a wonderful addition to the horror genre this year and would recommend it to anyone who loves atmospheric horror. Definitely read the trigger warnings, but I wouldn't overlook this one!

While Red Rabbit nails its atmospheric nature of the harsh brutality in the Wild West, some aspects are left to be desired. Right out of the gate, we are introduced to a plethora of characters at lightning speed which leaves little time to get to know them on a deeper level than just their actions and decisions. If you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know I’m a character-driven kind of gal so this bit of criticism should be a plus for those who prefer plot-focused stories. We learn of Sadie Grace, a supposed witch who has brought death to not only people but crops within Burden County, Kansas. A bounty has been placed on her head which catches the attention of many, most notably Tom Goggins, a witch-master. Accompanying Tom is an injured child by the name of Rabbit whom he claims is a boy, but most recognize as a girl. They gain the assistance of two cowboys, Moses and Ned, to help care for Rabbit’s injuries and aid in their quest. From here, we jump to meet Rose Nettles, a widow who joins this ragtag group because she thinks, why not?

Their journey to put an end to the alleged witch causing trouble up north is filled with many troubling and disturbing perils. If there’s one thing Grecian knocks out of the park, it’s the grotesque adversaries our posse encounters at a frequently high rate. The nucleus of horror within this novel hinges on gross, upsetting imagery and villains lurking around every corner. Given that this novel features characteristics of the Western genre, there are some bleak, dark moments, particularly with cruelty to animals. While I know this is true to the brutality of the times as a means for survival, this was still a tough aspect to read through.

Stylistically, the plot follows the same feelings of a slow, hot day on the Western Front; the pacing of this book is consistent with the feeling of constantly meandering through the dangers that lie in wait. We aren’t given much of a “why” as to the formation of this group until the end of the novel, which even then felt slightly anticlimactic. Many characters are injured or die, yet there is little space even acknowledge their loss among the group.

This novel raised so many interesting facets and details with each character, but the time spent exploring these intricacies was nearly nonexistent. I was particularly interested in both the characters of Sadie Grace and Rose, but minimal details were given as to their personalities and motives. Again, while this is accurate to the time, I wasn’t a fan of the oppressed women narrative in which they are punished for living alone or are forced into marriage given society’s expectations.

Red Rabbit reads a lot like an action movie in the aspect of seeing what you’re getting. Attention and focus are spent building the setting which is truly immersive in its own right. Grecian masterfully builds a harrowing western front filled with dangers only to fill the space with forgettable characters. Despite the disconnect I experienced with the characters, this is still a fun, original concept in which the genres of Western, horror, and fantasy are mashed together. Together they form an interesting world in which the righteous muster the courage to conquer the wicked who wait around every turn.

I really loved this novel. It was such a delight and a very unique tale. It’s carefully crafted and well written. Definitely a favorite of this year. The characters are all great and fleshed out and the plot moves along. This story is dark, somber and melancholic at times. Definitely check it out

Red Rabbit is a lot of fun. It’s fast paced, engaging, and has enough action that you forget it falls under the horror umbrella until something awful sucker-punches you.
This absolutely deliberate and makes the horror more impactful than a lot of books that leave a trail of blood from one cover to the next.

Grecian pulls a lot of threads out and weaves them into a complete narrative but more impressive than that is he actually ties them all back up in the end. I really enjoyed this one and suspect I’ll be going back for a reread to see just how seamlessly this narrative is crafted.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @tornightfire for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Red Rabbit is a western-inflected horror tale that follows a posse of (formerly) complete strangers as they head toward Riddle, Kansas in search of a witch with a bounty on her head. Along the way, they stumble into increasingly chilling scenarios as they run into a multitude of characters, some of whom are hoping to claim the bounty for themselves and some who have… other things in mind.

I really enjoyed Red Rabbit! I’ve never read a Western horror story before and it was super cool to try out a new genre. The story felt very action-packed and episodic, and the setting was so well articulated!

I did find myself struggling to keep track of the wide cast of characters, which seemed to grow almost with every chapter. I wish that I’d had a bit more space to become fully invested in the lives of the more central characters and perhaps grow more emotionally attached to them. I was left with a few questions by the end of the book and I think that a deeper explanation of some of the characters might have led to some answers.

However, there were some very touching moments throughout and I may or may not have teared up a bit at the ending.

Overall, I’m so glad that I got to try something new!