Book Review: Noose by Brennan LaFaro
Title: Noose
Author: Brennan LaFaro
Release date: Originally released September 1st, 2022, re-released August 24th, 2024
*Thanks to Brennan for sending me a digital copy of this one!*
Horror Western’s have been such a fun subgenre to be reading over the last five or so years, haven’t they? We had the surge in Splatter-Westerns and the return with Horror-Westerns, which ushered in the age of paranormal/supernatural plots and narratives. It made it far more impactful, for me at least, that it wasn’t purely the good guys trying to catch the bad guys who robbed the train car.
When this book was first released, I was swamped in books, swamped in getting digital copies sent from Andrew – former head honcho of DarkLit – and it simply didn’t get read. With the collapse of DarkLit and the return of a number of these books to the world, I wanted to try and read these and help support/get the word out, about the books that might never recover or die a death they didn’t deserve. Brennan kindly sent me a digital copy of this one – and the new publisher, Brigids Gate, approved me for book two on Netgalley – so, I was set to gallop into this world and get dirty and dusty. I loved Brennan’s previous trilogy, the wonderful Slattery Falls books, which made me confident that this story wouldn’t be a surface level point-and-shoot Western.
What I liked: Ironically, this book starts off with some bad guys attacking a train car! Ha. Well, moving past that tidbit, we open with young Rory, riding the car with his parents. It’s then attacked by the nefarious Noose Holcomb, who kills Rory’s parents and flees with everyone’s riches.
Solid set up, Batman-esque truthfully.
Fast-forward fifteen years and Brennan re-introduces the Holcomb gang into Rory’s world and, as one would expect, vengeance is the main dish on the menu. Though often, Westerns get bogged down in the ‘vengeance-will-be-mine’ plot, LaFaro does a wonderful job of showing why it throws Rory’s world into chaos and why we want to root for Rory.
And, as expected, the emotional aspect runs high throughout, and Brennan then infuses the story with a nod to the supernatural. We get a unique twist, one that gives Noose an advantage and makes the stakes even higher for Rory and makes it paramount that Rory must overcome. Now, obviously some things are left unfinished – there is a sequel after all – but what LaFaro does so will within, is gives the readers hope and closure, something that – in a book like this at least – is needed.
What I didn’t like: I kind of went back and forth between wishing this was a one and done and wishing LaFaro had left more of a massive cliffhanger to set up book two. It’s an odd conundrum, and one that speaks to the solidity of characters and story progression.
Why you should buy this: Not a typical Splatter-Western, but still one that gets its hands dirty, LaFaro has skated that fine line of brutality for story versus brutality for brutality a few times in here, and by doing so, I think it opens the doors up for every reader of Horror-Westerns to want to jump on this one, especially with a second book arriving and a collection of stories set within the world to come as well.
5/5
