Women of the Weird West

Thank you to NetGalley, KC Grifant, and Brigid’s Gate Press for this advance copy for my unbiased review.

I appreciate that editor KC Grifant admitted she was not a fan of westerns growing up because same, and for the same reason; all I saw onscreen were men having adventures, and I wanted to see women doing something other than tending the home or warming a bed. I also had a similar introduction to the weird west which was my gateway to seeing women with the same autonomy; for me, it was through the Deadlands Reloaded TTRPG.

I hope others who don’t think they like westerns for this reason will pick up this anthology. Just look at this lineup of authors, like Cynthia Pelayo, Rebecca Rowland, R.J. Joseph, V. Castro, Eugen Bacon, Nicole Givens Kurtz, the list goes on and on, from a glorious mix of backgrounds and life experiences bringing their weird west tales to life.

And these stories! The pages are filled with strong women surviving the Weird West and all its dangers - natural and supernatural, and it’s not just short stories; mixed in is some poetry and a few drabbles (micro-fiction with 100 words) so format in addition to the variety of styles and content keeps it interesting.

This anthology starts strong with Cynthia Pelayo’s “My Darling Clementine”, an interpretation of the folk song and filled with evocative language like, “Red splattered sunflower heads search for the golden orb in the sky” flowing right into possibly my favorite story of the bunch, “How to Kill a Yaoguai” from Angela Liu and the literal chills I got from the equally evocative but like night to Pelayo’s day: ““I’m so hungry and cold,” the woman said, except the voice sounded like a summer swamp, all insect buzzing and froggish croaking.”

There are vampires and fae and demons - and that’s not even counting the “bad guys”. Hope is a common theme, magic comes from the mundane like in another favorite story, “The Legend of Granny Needlesong” by Christine Lucas where a knitting granny corrects some would-be bank robbers, and women show up as the great protectors in stories like V. Castro’s Soldaderos where they protect the town from vampires or “Bountiful Harvest” by Mathilda Zeller where a mother’s love leads to a dark deal to save her children.

These stories are filled with humor and heart; some nod to real-life events, others take us to dreamworlds, and even for those who don’t think they are fans of westerns, the human condition is at the core of them, and we can all relate to that.