Top Weird West Books of 2023
2023 was a banner year for weird west fiction, particularly horror westerns. This genre–which blends fantasy, horror and/or sci-fi elements in a western story–has been gaining steam for the last few years. It was an honor to have my debut supernatural western book, Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger, join a truly epic list of 2023 weird western books.
These are a few of my favorite new releases, as well as ones high on my to-be-read list. There are many new weird westerns beyond this shortlist; check out some of the profiles of amazing authors at Weird West Fiction for additional recommendations.
Lone Women by Victor LaValle (One World)
Book Description: Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.
The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.
Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.
Book Description: Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.
On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.
Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.
Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbitis an epic adventure of luck and misfortune.
Book Description: Gunslingers. Lawmen. Snake-oil Salesmen. Cowboys. Mad Scientists. And a few monsters. The Old West has never been wilder! THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNCANNY presents sixteen original and never-before-published adventures by some of today’ s most visionary writers who have spun wildly offbeat tales of gunmen, lawmen, magic, and weird science. Saddle up with Josh Malerman, Scott Sigler, Keith DeCandido, Cullen Bunn, R.S. Belcher, Greg Cox, Jeffrey Mariotte, Laura Anne Gilman, Aaron Rosenberg, Maurice Broaddus, John G. Hartness, Carrie Harris, James A. Moore, Marguerite Reed, C. Edward Sellner, Carrie Harris, and Jennifer Brody! These tales twist the American West into a place of darkness, shadows, sudden death, terror in the night, bold heroism, devious magic, and shocking violence. Each story blazes a new trail through very strange territory – discovering weird science, ancient evil, mythic creatures, and lightning-fast action.
Title: Hungers as Old as This Land by Zachary Rosenberg (Brigids Gate Press)
Book Description: The settlement of Grey’s Bluffs is a prosperous town. An independent community dwelling in the shadows of the mountains known only as The Hungers.
Esther Foxman and Siobhan O’Clery have grown up in Grey’s Bluffs, thriving out on the western territories in the aftermath of the Civil War. Devoted to one another and their home, the two set out to complete a regular pact at the Hungers to ensure that Grey’s Bluffs continues to prosper.
Cyril Redstone is a man who knows death well. Becoming a mercenary after the Civil War, Cyril leads the marauding Blackhawks from one slaughter to the next. Hired to destroy Grey’s Bluffs, Cyril cares little for morality, nor that he owes its founder his life.
Esther and Siobhan are left to defend the only home they have ever known from the Blackhawks, their confrontation driving them deep into the mountains.
Where the darkest secrets of the Hungers await them.
Book Description: New Mexico Territory, 1882: She comes to the Klein ranch at sunset, a strange naked pregnant woman dragging a cavalry saber. Annette Klein and her husband have built peace between their marriage and secret relations beyond, but their serenity dies in bloodshed tonight through a cannibalistic demon and a mad preacher. Annette barely escapes the bloodbath to the nearby town of Low’ s Bend, where she might find safety with a shotgun-toting barkeep, two no-nonsense boarding room ladies, and the gunslinging bounty hunter who’s captured Annette’ s heart. But hell is at her heels. If she’ s going to survive until dawn, she’ ll have to forget everything she knows about peace and mercy, and face a hollow malevolence more ancient and ruthless than she’ s ever imagined.
Fae Planes Drifter: Otherworld Outlaws 4 (a Weird West Celtic Mythology Adventure) by Tammy Salyer
Book Description: Back from the dead and armed to the teeth, Lula is about to unleash some fae-fueled fury in a frontier free-for-all!
Book 4 in the Otherworld Outlaws series, an action-packed romp through the Wild West, loaded with living myths, dark magic, and bloodthirsty monsters aplenty.
After narrowly escaping the unbearable lich Brother Havóq and flirting with death herself, Lula finally gets her mitts on the Sleg of Assal. At long last, the key to busting her dad out of supernatural jail! But who would’ve guessed it would be a dirt-loathing, murder-happy weapon with an attitude sharper than its pointy end? As if that wasn’t bad enough, three shady hobgoblins are now hot on her tail, itching to grab the infamous weapon for their unsavory troll of a boss, Motherlode Mankiller.
Meanwhile, Hattie’s in a pickle of her own. A smooth-talking conman and horse thief named Knox has his greedy peepers on her ranch, and there’s a little problem with the deed—namely, there isn’t one. Desperate for some otherworldly help, Hattie discovers the answer to her problem is in Tír Na nÓg. And now that she has the spear, Lula won’t let anything, not even common sense, get in her way from springing her dad from his mystical cell. Ignoring everyone’s warnings, these two stubborn gals gallop headfirst into the Otherworld.
But getting there is a cakewalk compared to the horror show that’s waiting for them. To face a creature too ghastly to imagine (or even get anyone to spill the beans about), Lula and Hattie have to dig deep for their courage and moxie. Can Lula find her father before the Morrígan—or something way worse—catches up with them? And can Hattie snatch the magic she needs to save her ranch from Knox’s sticky fingers? In this potion-slinging weird west Celtic fantasy, the stakes have never been higher, and the chuckles never louder. So grab your hats, grimoires, and six-shooters, and buckle up for one hilariously hair-raising journey through the Otherworld!
Triptych: Three Tales of Frontier Horror by Richard Beauchamp
Book Description: An Outcast Warrior turned bounty hunter has his wits and reflexes tested when escorting a most unusual prisoner across the Mojave…
The Courier is revered and sought after for his reliability and impeccable track record, but when a sordid stranger hires him to deliver a strange artifact to a well known practitioner of the occult, his life changes forever…
Hell hath no fury like a redheaded, pistol toting woman scorned as Maylene Baker navigates a world blighted by a parasitic scourge in an effort to find her husband…This ain’t the west you read about in history books. In Richard Beauchamp’s twisted vision of the pioneer country, the arroyos house abominations.
Best keep that trigger finger limber.
Hell comes at high noon.
Book Description: As always, Floyd Betts rides into town alone. He arrives for his father’s funeral, but he is returning to Galveston, Texas, with two orphaned siblings he has rescued. Nellie, who is descended from a long line of witches, has visions from other people’s minds. Hank, her impulsive younger brother, just wants to break out his outsized revolver.
Along the way home, Floyd, Nellie, and Hank encounter a dubious traveling salesman, Professor Finn, and his henchman, Kentucky Jim. They are struggling to capture a fish-man in order to put him on cruel display. When Nellie taps into the peril of the gentle Charlie Fish, Floyd’s makeshift family expands to include the lost, two-legged amphibian.
With the circus charlatans in pursuit, ominous winds are picking up from an impending hurricane. Meanwhile, all Charlie Fish wants is to return to his home at sea.
Book Description: When George Miller is killed in the mines of Yellow Hill, his wife and children are left to try and piece their lives back together. Tabitha Miller, George’s widow, is thrown into deeper chaos when she discovers that George’s death had nothing to do with the cave’s collapse, but was caused by some terrible predator deep within the earth. His death covered up by the mine’s Proprietor-Jeremiah Hart.
In nearby Big Spring, freed slave-turned-occult bounty hunter Gilbert Ptolemy arrives with his adopted son in search of a murderous vampire. New revelations in Yellow Hill draw the duo toward the struggling Miller family, the strange mine, and the horrors lurking within.
The Miller and Ptolemy families are pitted against mundane and supernatural forces in this Weird West adventure. Family struggles, heart-stopping gunfights, and nightmare creatures from dark realms abound in this award-winning novel from C.S. Humble
Book 2: A Red Winter in the West; Book 3: The Light of a Black Star
Along Harrowed Trails edited by C.R. Langille (Timber Ghost Press)
Book Description: The Old West was a time of lawlessness, violence, and danger. Threat of death could come in the form of bandits, outlaws, and even the very land itself. But what if there was something else? Something that lurked in the shadows waiting to strike when the stars were right?
In this anthology, over 30 authors and poets explore the weird and visceral side of the Wild West with stories of demons, ghosts, and creatures from myth and legend. From haunted towns to mysterious mountaintops, these tales will take you to the heart of darkness.
In the tradition of Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, and Louis L’Amour, this collection of stories and poems brings the Old West to life in all its bloody, gory, glory. So saddle up and hold on tight, because you’re in for a wild ride.
Book Description: Pinkerton Evelyn Horn has seen her fair share of the weird and dark. But when she arrives in the Utah Territories to investigate the disappearance of fellow a Pinkerton and friend, she finds herself facing something even more sinister.
Strange occult rites, crazed cultists, and ancient prophecies all point to something dark and malevolent lurking in the shadows. Evelyn must use all her skills and experience to survive the horrors that await her in the mountains.
A gritty, action-packed, and bloody horror story, Branches and Bones is a must-read for fans of the genre.
Book Description: Welcome to the Wild West, a time of exploration, independence, and countless opportunities…
for death.
You’ve been to Placerita Town often to sell your father’s ironworks, but never have you experienced a day like this. Jumpin’ John and his gang of outlaws are tearing apart the town, and the Sheriff’s doing nothing to stop them.
You’ll have to steer clear of the gang and brave the dangers of the desert if you’re going to survive in this interactive novel. Watch your back, choose wisely, and be careful who you trust. It’s wits versus might as you try to stay alive in the Wild West!
Book Description: Desperados and yellow-bellies be warned: These ain’ t your typical westerns … Herein find legendary masters of anomalous Western and Horror stories— along with a posse of budding word-slingers— who all bring you an electrifying and frightening collection of extraordinary tales set in the Old West and beyond…Within these pages, the improbable is made real: cowboys encounter a chimeric critter of the night; dinosaurs return as massive poltergeists; Chinese railroad workers are haunted by invisible frights; outlaws experience Cronenbergian body-horror; fallen-light stalks mother and daughter upon a wintry prairie; a headless horseman roams the badlands; otherworldly creatures hunt within our domain; screaming spectral birds nest within the damned; and gunslinging women with murderous skills annihilate foolish notions of a man’ s world. These are just a handful of the offerings in this body of macabre lore.So, mount your saddle-horse and join this gang of rogue authors for a ride down dark trails of terror and unsettling thoroughfares that lead deep into strange, nightmarish territory. Here you gallop through places where law has no dominion and Death constantly deals a grim hand— and where the iron is red-hot and the blood drips ice-cold.
Bad Memories of Buzzard Hill: 8 Tales of the Macabre in the Weird West by C.B. Andrews
Book Description: Recently widowed and alone, Elwood Andcor sits at his Appalachian Mountain homestead remembering his past in the Arizona ghost town of Buzzard Hill. Over thirty years later and the memories of cannibals, werewolves, vampires, the undead, and a nefarious false prophet known as Father Morgan Acheron continue to haunt Elwood.
Seeking catharsis from the nightmares of Buzzard Hill, Elwood begins to pen his story and the stories of others from that long abandoned wicked settlement. As he records these terrifying tales he may find out that the past is never too far behind.
This list is just a sampling of weird western releases that joined MELINDA WEST: MONSTER GUNSLINGER in 2023! Check out Weird West Fiction for more recommendations and author profiles.
