Content warnings: animal death, violence, murder, gore
Summary [courtesy of Goodreads]: Danielle Cain is a queer punk rock traveller, jaded from a decade on the road. Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious and sudden suicide, she ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa. All is not well in Freedom, however: things went awry after the town’s residents summoned a protector spirit to serve as their judge and executioner. Danielle shows up in time to witness the spirit—a blood-red, three-antlered deer—begin to turn on its summoners. Danielle and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town—or get out alive.
It’s true enough that I read most novellas in one sitting, but this book positively DEMANDED my attention for its all-too-brief duration. From the portentous inverted title to the punk fantasy-horror synopsis, I was primed for greatness, and that’s precisely what I got. Margaret Killjoy can fucking WRITE, and she can build a world quicker than I would have thought possible. By page 5, this world felt lived-in, a place I wanted to go despite its ambient horrors and mid-apocalyptic setting, and Danielle Cain was a character I wanted to follow in as many stories as possible. (I know there’s a sequel, which I now own and plan to read asap, but I would LOVE for this to become a long-running series.)
So, Danielle is a badass, and the anarchist, almost utopian community of Freedom was so well-developed and seemingly idyllic. Of course, once we get a couple of chapters in and fully pull back the veil, everything’s not really as rosy as it seems, and shitty factions are rapidly destroying the place’s shiny veneer.
It doesn’t help that the benevolent demon summoned the previous year to keep moral order has gone rogue, seemingly murdering innocent elders instead of the ‘bad guys’ it was initially invoked to destroy. There’s more to it, obviously, and there are some solid twists, but the core of the story is in its setup and its breathless execution.
Despite the heavy gore and heavier topics, there are plenty of lighter moments peppered throughout that are by turns hilarious and sweet as fuck. And [minor spoilers] as Danielle and her new crew of merry punks ride off into the sunset, as it were (or, really, set up temporary shop at a roadside diner), I’m left breathless for their next adventure. After all, the world needs MUCH MORE queer anarchist gonzo fantasy. Imagine what a better world that would be.
