Book Review: Melinda West and the Gremlin Queen
Title: Melinda West and the Gremlin Queen
Author: KC Grifant
Release date: May 29th, 2025
*Huge thanks to KC Grifant for a digital ARC of this one!*
Back in December of 2022, I read the first book in this series, ‘Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger.’ If you know me, you’ll know that from the title alone it would be right up my alley, but to add to the joy of reading a book with that title, KC Grifant vibrantly and viciously brought Melinda and the world she occupies to life, making for a truly fun read.
To my sheer excitement, KC emailed me last month to ask if I’d be game to check out part two – and I never even hesitated. Even with diminished reading time and a huge reduction in taking on review requests, I couldn’t say no. KC is a wonderful writer, amazing supporter to so many and the Melinda West character just might be one of the best characters you’ll ever be introduced to. Even better – she has a six-shooter and monsters run amok.
Saying all of that – this is definitely a book you need to have read part one for – though you could get away with not having read it, you’ll definitely feel more connected and in the know if you have.
What I liked: The book picks up a little while after the first one. Melinda and her partner, Lance, have settled down, saying goodbye to the gunslinger/magic days. Content to have a garden and keep adrenaline rushes and gun/magic battles to a minimum.
That all gets thrown out the window when stories make it tp them that something is killing people and as the bodies pile up, soon Melinda can’t push aside the idea of staying out of it. So, her and Lance saddle up and head out.
It should be noted, that from here, the story is pretty straight forward – and I don’t mean that in a negative way – not at all. We get an adventure, cherished characters live, cherished characters die, there are hideous events, action-packed moments and everything leads to a major showdown where we see if good can overcome evil. And it’s perfect. It’s exactly what you want in a book like this. It’s practically why you read it. You want to see just what type of crap Melinda can overcome and how she can successfully save as many people as possible and none of it feels stale or ‘done to death’ because Grifant has done such a magical job (no pun intended… well maybe a dash of pun!) of bringing this world to life and making Melinda West such a powerful and fantastic character. This is the type of character that would this have been an 80’s Saturday morning cartoon instead of a 2020’s novel, people would have Melinda West posters up on all of their walls and the action figures would be flying off the shelves. It’s BraveStarr meets She-Ra the Princess of Power and it works so very very well. And that’s because Grifant takes it seriously.
Judging by how this one ends, I can only assume we’ll be getting a third in the series and I sure hope that happens.
What I didn’t like: I will say, I’m not totally sure if I felt that the Gremlin Queen was as huge of an opponent as I was expecting. Sure, it was horrible, ruthless and violent, but from what I pictured in my mind to what we ended up seeing as Melinda brought things home, it just wasn’t as crushingly brutal as I thought we’d see. Or maybe that’s my issue and I overinflated it? Could very well be!
Why you should buy this: If you loved book one, this is a no-brainer. If you love Grifant’s writing – again no-brainer. But otherwise, if you’re looking for a fun, fast-paced, dusty, western-magic-horror mashup, look no further. Melinda West is a phenomenal character, this world and landscape is perfectly balanced between being accessible and absolutely terrifying and at the end of the day, Grifant writes with such a joyful glee, it’s infectious and you can feel it flowing from the page.
This one’s a winner and so, so much fun.
