About ‘Starving Zoe’ by C. Derick Miller::
Genre: ‘Splatter Western;’ Horror; Western; Historical Fiction; Supernatural
To most, 1865 was an eye-opening year. The American Civil War was officially over and the soldiers fortunate enough to survive the bloody conflict returned home to collect the pieces of their former lives. To young Arizonan, Robert Jack, the fateful desert homecoming marked the end to all he once knew. Forgiveness is overrated. Death is final. Revenge, however, dances between the fine lines of mortality and eternity.Love always finds a way.
My introduction to ‘Starving Zoe’ came in the form of an interesting tale from a friend of the author about how it had gained popularity thanks to a hater’s post going viral. Hearing more about the story itself told me I had to check it out. In the genre of Horror Western, it follows the experience of Robert, a man about as rough as they come; Zoe, his equally intimidating wife; and the incredibly horrific turns their relationship takes.
After his Irish parents are sold into slavery, a ten year old Robert winds up thrust onto the unforgiving streets of 1800s US, where he must do everything he can to survive including skinning cats for food and murdering adults who won’t leave him be. Eventually he gains a frightening reputation, becomes an assassin, and meets the sweet young Zoe who is every bit the viper he is. When fate separates them by forcing Robert to fight in the Civil War is where the story really begins. Coming home to an “unfaithful” wife whose excuse for bearing another man’s child in his absence is the belief that it had been so long, she had come to assume her husband was dead.
Unsatisfied with this answer, Robert sets his sights on her and her baby for quick revenge. Little did he know how the tables would turn once he’d thought his justice had been dealt. From here the book is a disturbing supernatural battle between husband and wife that fully tests the boundaries of their wills, foundations, and desires.
The author goes into graphic detail from the start, never shying away from the brutality dealt upon the couple as children roaming the streets, to Robert’s uncouth career, all the way to every step of their struggle to come out superior in the end. His ability to to incorporate every sense into the writing of this horror experience (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) is impressive and that’s coming from a person (me) who often has trouble visualizing. The book is very immersive.
Robert’s character is interesting even outside of his background. With a personality you’d find in a quirky adventure melded with the evil thoughts of a psychopath, it’s both unsettling and entertaining to hear the way his mind works and the way he speaks. I won’t lie, I was mildly disappointed that he had “redeeming qualities” regardless of how few they were and how in light of everything else he’s done, could be argued not to be redeeming at all. But don’t you worry; his tenuous grasp at any sort of morality is shed by the end.
Final thing I’d like to say is the conclusion took me by surprise. I couldn’t think of a more perfect ending.
[personal notes: My great grandfather was an orphan from Ireland as well. He and my great grandmother (also Irish to a degree) worked the cotton fields. I heard complaint about things this book supposedly supports and wish to point out that these people obviously missed, for one, that the narrating character is evil.]
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~Sahreth ‘Baphy’ Bowden
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