The Stranger by Kathryn Hore

Posted by Ms K on January 29, 2023 in All | Leave a comment

Giddy up Readheads, we’ve got a feminist western to review.

This one is another beauty to kick start the new year because who doesn’t want more feisty heroines in our lives, right. Bring. Them. On. 2023.

Let’s head to dystopian Darkwater, the remote, isolated virus induced apocolyptic wasteland where women are reduced to – well, basically, not much. Our narrator Chelsea however is a little bit luckier than most. When her parents died she was taken as the town’s feared leader’s lover which meant – apart from the harrowing obvious – she at least had a home, food and water, something others in Darkwater did not. The well had dried up and the convoy of food between outposts had slowed meaning the town was a dark, desperate, violent place.

And then one day, a stranger rides into town …. and this gun and whip toting horse rider is a woman. Darkwater goes ballistic especially as the rumors that this woman is the very one the hideous men of Darkwater believed they had tortured, killed and buried just outside the towns walls. This was the fate of anyone – especially a woman – who showed any chutzpah or resistance.

Chelsea could not stay away from her.

The stranger is there to bring news that the outside world is not as chaotic and dangerous as the ‘all hat, no cattle‘ men of the town profess. She’s also there for vengeance or justice – call it what you will but when it reigns down, few are left in doubt of the fury and power of the stranger and the fact the woman they thought they’d executed, is very much alive.

Like any western there’s the good guys, the bad guys, shootouts and a worn, old saloon where most of the fighting starts or finishes. The recipe for such tales always works and it certainly does here too and you’ll be cheering on the stranger and Chelsea as they beat the men at their own games, bloodied may they be.

Grab it – it’s a great read which you can gallop into while you wait for the next episodes of Yellowstone and 1923 to drop. Yee Haw Readheads.

But that is just my 2 cents worth.