Almena’s experience of not only being a woman in a nontraditional role, but one with magic specifically addresses feminist issues such as the persecution of the nonfeminine and the frequent unease surrounding female power. In much of Western fiction, there is the theme of civilization (i.e. Throughout the novel, as more of Almena’s background comes to light, we see in her personal friendships and associations that she feels most comfortable among those likewise considered to be “outsiders” in society.

Is this intersectionality deliberate in the novel, and if so what other axes does it work on? TFF: It strikes me that the trope of Almena in Make Me No Grave brings together seventeenth century witch-hunts with modern lynchings, especially of minorities. If you like Red Dead Redemption and Lila Bowen’s Wake of Vultures, you'll love this gun-blazing weird western. Turning Almena away from vengeance may be out of the question, but if he doesn’t try, she’ll wind up right where the law wants her: at the end of a rope.Īnd if Apostle isn’t careful, he’ll end up joining her. Working with a known killer opens Apostle up to all sorts of trouble, not the least being his own growing attraction toward the roguish woman. When cornered, however, Almena makes a convincing case for her innocence and proposes a plan to take the real bandits down.

Weeks later, Apostle fears the outlaw queen has returned to her old ways when she’s spotted terrorizing Kansas with a new gang in tow. Almena spares him through the use of dangerous flesh magic but escapes soon after saving him. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice-and receives a bullet for his trouble. Marshal Apostle Richardson faces off against bloodthirsty outlaws, flesh witches, ruthless vigilantes, and more in this gritty, magical re-imagining of the Old West.Īlmena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has done plenty to warrant the noose, but US Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn’t decide it.

Counterpart by Hayley Stone