My kid picked this book out for me. I was browsing the horror shelves, one of my favorite pastimes, and she asked “if I pick a book will you read it?” Yes, of course. Pick anything and I will totally read it. So she handed me Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian. I do not regret saying yes to a random horror novel. Red Rabbit was a delightful book.
It reads very much like a fairy tale or folk tale, with lightly sketched characters guided by fate on an epic quest, but with a distinctly pioneer American flavor. We’re mostly following a posse of folk on a quest to kill a witch up in Kansas. There’s a pretty large reward for anyone who can take her out. Everyone in the posse has their own agenda, and only one old man, Tom Goggins, really cares about killing the witch. Because he is a self-taught witch hunter looking to make a name for himself. Best friends Moses Burke (Civil War army surgeon) and Ned Hemingway (well dressed cowboy) are just along for the ride, Rose Nettles has recently lost (killed?) her husband and can’t run their homestead alone, and Benito Cortez is running for his life after an ill-advised affair with a lawman’s wife. It seems fate has brought them together, along with the silent orphan they all just call Rabbit.
While this posse is traveling north into Kansas, having some weird and dangerous adventures along the way, the witch they’re hunting is tracking them along with everyone else trying to get at her. Sadie Grace is her name and she doesn’t seem particularly evil but she sure does have magic powers. She’s not worried too much about who’s coming to kill her, not even this posse seemingly thrown together by fate. She can handle whatever’s coming at her. She’s not too thrilled about the two so-called U.S. marshalls headed her way, though. One of them seems pure evil and pretty powerful. Him, well, she’ll have to be prepared for his arrival.
Despite its charming folk tale style, this book has a lot of dark and gory bits. That demonic U.S. “marshall” does some incredibly cruel and gruesome stuff, and our posse of heroes meets ghosts and cannibals and more on their journey. This book has an exciting blend of charm and horror, blending threads of American and Mexican folk magic with some old world European tropes my pioneer ancestors could have brought with them across the ocean. It was a fun read.
It also looks like Moses Burke gets his own separate novel after this quest is done. There’s a free snippet of Rose of Jericho at the end, featuring him. I’ll have to pick it up next time I go book shopping. If it’s anything like Red Rabbit it will be a great story.
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