Backlog Books
The Pits by Katy L. Wood (2023)
The cover for this is so shiny. I keep looking at it. It has a pearlescent sheen which I may vaguely be in love with. I backed it on Kickstarter, thus the shiny. There are illustrations throughout the book, at least in my version! It’s cool to see the characters as the author imagined them.
This is a weird Western! A genre with a long history. Basically it’s the combination of westerns and fantasy, or horror, or science fiction. In this case, westerns and fantasy. I haven't read many – any? – westerns, so I'm not sure how this holds up in that genre. And there were some word choices which felt jarring in the context – Like "dating" and "boyfriend/girlfriend". That's a low level irritant though.
This is a queer book - as in our modern parlance, not queer as in unusual. Clarabella is looking for help from the only outlaw she knows: her sibling, Royal, who left town in disgrace years ago. Clarabella’s girlfriend Emilia has been taken out of school by her father, and promised in marriage to a duke. Clarabella has some objections to this but no solid plan beyond finding Royal to get their help.
Royal has built a life for themself that they love, surrounded by a group of friends – outlaws who go out and do crime together. Living the dream, honestly. Royal readily agrees to help Clarabella, eager for the chance to reconnect with their sister away from the disapproval of their parents.
After a few gunfights and being chased out of a couple of towns, Clarabella is ready to go off on her own again, not willing to destroy Royal’s life in what may be a fruitless search. And then they figure out where Emilia has gone: The Pits, where folk frequently disappear, or come out changed, where everything has a cost which must be paid, whether with trinkets or blood. But Royal has been studying the Pits for years, hoping to understand their unique magic. So if going in after Emilia is the only option, Royal is prepared – and besides, something in the Pits is calling to Royal.
I liked this, overall. The narration gave me a solid sense of Clarabella, our first-person viewpoint. And I do love a mysterious location with strange creatures and rules. There’s a turn toward horror as their journey takes them deeper and deeper into the undiscovered country of the Pits, with ghost frogs and eight-legged wolves. No one understands the Pits. For those who try, there are consequences.
This is the first book in a duology. You can purchase it directly from the author on her website: https://www.katy-l-wood.com/the-pits