The Ruby Demon: A Western Horror by Oscar O’Rourke is Western story in which Jack, a teenager, is on the trail with his contemptible family when a series of events lead to Jack branching out on his own. He befriends Jasper, a rich traveler from New York, who travels with a valuable parcel that cannot be opened, yet it does not stop making knocking sounds from inside the wagon. Jack is quickly haunted by this sound, and as his travels continue to go wrong, he finds that this sound is inescapable and becomes stronger when things are appalling. The sound drives him to murder more than once.
There is no real plot to this story other than Jack meandering through the trail with no true destination. There is no purpose to his actions and his merciless deeds would appear to be motivated by his feeling of being haunted, or perhaps not, as Jack’s feelings or what the source of his desperation is are never fully described or delved into. Scenes that are meant to be tense are unfinished. For instance, how would one go to sleep in the middle of a noisy haunting episode? It seems as if some scenes are cut short just when it is seeming to become horror. This is anti-climactic, and the supposed horror of this horror novel is never demonstrated or felt. Some things, like a secondary character’s death, are not well described so it is never fully understood what is happening. The reader is left questioning and frustrated. The book also showcases needless animal abuse and death, which despite its historical Western setting, seems shocking.
The writing is unique. It most notoriously employs eye dialect that takes some getting used to. The dialogue is overcome by its style—it seems to be unfocused and it sometimes appears nonsensical. There are some grammar and proofreading errors, particularly in the first chapter of the book. Sometimes the writing focuses too long on details that are not entirely relevant to the progress of the story, such as reading a diary or having a dream. The pacing is too fast for its own good—events are over before they have even been described.
The strongest points of this story are the relationships which are formed between Jack and other people. The narrative is reflective and takes time to shortly develop friendship that is affectionate, particularly in contrast to Jack’s earlier relationship with his despicable family. At times, when Jack becomes somewhat possessed or deranged, the nature of Jack’s friendship is unpredictable, which adds a twist to the story, but also adds instability to an already unclear plot.
This book is categorized as a western horror, but the only horror to be found in this novel is the cruelty and unpredictability of characters. Jack is haunted by a sound which later takes shape, a shape which is never described, and his feeling of being haunted is mainly told through his actions of cruelty rather than showcasing his feelings of fear or dread. This book is not a horror novel in the slightest, but it is certainly a Western. This novel is closer to being a literary fiction work due to its focus on developing relationships and lack of a clear plot line.
To conclude, this book could do with a firmer story structure and taking more time to describe events in full. The animal cruelty is gratuitous. This novel is a pass if it is to be read as a horror novel. For those who wish to read about friendly and romantic relationships on the open trail in a Western setting, this is the book for you.

At around 200 pages, I read this in one sitting. The first chapter hooked me from the start and had the shock factor you'd see in most horror novels. It set the tone for what I had hoped the rest of the book was going to be. Unfortunately, it fell flat and rushed. I can definitely see the author's vision, however, I wouldn't label this book as horror, as it made me feel more bleak than scared or creeped out, unless that's what the author was going for.
The characters weren't memorable although I enjoyed the dialogue. Prose wasn't as lyrical as expected, and while it took a while to get used to the style of writing, it matched the story and characters. It was paced well and I hope to read more from this author soon!

The main character in "The Ruby Demon" was quite compelling to me; I really liked how Jack carried his memories with him in the form of names with Johnny Horse, Maggie Girl, and his later alias. I enjoyed the relationships Jack had with both Jasper and Luke, and I would've liked seeing more of their conversations.

Overall, though, this book wasn't really for me. It felt a bit unpolished in my opinion, but perhaps others would like it a bit more than I did stylistically. I felt like I kept seeing the word "and" over and over again and it just wasn't vibing with me. I also really felt like it built up a bit but I never got that "horror element" that I wanted. I never really figured it out. A major horror element was that story had a lot more animal death than I realized I signed up for, which just isn't personally my cup of tea and made me a bit sad rather than scared and intrigued.

For me, this book is not on my reread list, but I'm really interested to see both what other reviewers will think of the piece and what other works the author will produce. This is a deeply personal work to them, and I hate to be critical of it, but I hope that it will connect better for others than it did for myself.

The Ruby Demon by Oscar O'Rourke.
This was a good read. I did like the cover and blurb of this book. I had to get used to the writing style. A little slow at times but I got into it. It was different to what I usually read. I wasn't sure how I felt about the characters. I didn't have any favourites. I did like the snail and the horse poem. I wasn't sure about the ending.