William Ray reviewed The Massacre at Yellow Hill by C. S Humble
Review of 'The Massacre at Yellow Hill' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A solid read, and an entertaining story about monsters hunters in the old west. A 3.5, at least.
The feel of the story reminds me of Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot. It has a nice western twang to it, feeling like an honest cowboy story, but haunted by terrors from beyond. The characters are well-drawn, and the towns visited feel grounded and real. The action moves quickly, and the author deftly weaves between the feeling of expansive emptiness the hardscrabble setting presents and the sensation that something lurks beyond corners we don't yet see. Humble balances the moods of both western and horror to successfully merge the genres.
Unfortunately, a few other nagging doubts pull me down from a higher score here. The old west narrative employs a lot of folksy seeming similes that feel right but don't convey a lot of meaning. A group of men march to a …
A solid read, and an entertaining story about monsters hunters in the old west. A 3.5, at least.
The feel of the story reminds me of Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot. It has a nice western twang to it, feeling like an honest cowboy story, but haunted by terrors from beyond. The characters are well-drawn, and the towns visited feel grounded and real. The action moves quickly, and the author deftly weaves between the feeling of expansive emptiness the hardscrabble setting presents and the sensation that something lurks beyond corners we don't yet see. Humble balances the moods of both western and horror to successfully merge the genres.
Unfortunately, a few other nagging doubts pull me down from a higher score here. The old west narrative employs a lot of folksy seeming similes that feel right but don't convey a lot of meaning. A group of men march to a funeral like 'ants with salt', and a creature has muscles 'the size of rocks'. Such phrases fit the theme, poetically, but often I just couldn't figure out what they literally meant, and it threw me out of the story's reverie.
The other drawback is that the plot is somewhat scattered. It starts with a mining town, then skips two towns over to a vampire hunt, where a villain swears revenge but never returns and everything moves back to the mining town. The plot weaves into the backstory of the characters, making this almost feel like a second book in a series of prolonged adventures. In some ways that works, it creates an illusion of a drama that sustains well beyond the pages, which is an aspect I like... but it felt a bit rough around the edges, and it leaned just a bit further towards that roughness than expansiveness.
It would be overwrought to focus on those negatives, however, because as I opened with, it's still an enjoyable bit of writing. The characters are sharp, the dusty trail palpable, the monsters fearsome, and the gunslingers heroic. If you read it just to sink into that feeling you can easily let your mind skim past the less polished elements and you'll find a book well worth your time.