Billed as The Quick and the Dead meets Carmilla, The Longest Thirst by Roxie Voorhees is a stirring and dark tale of vengeance, oppression, liberation, and violence in the old west. Living in Calico is hard enough for Lilian, but when a mysterious stranger arrives, things will grow all the more difficult.

Voorhees is a remarkably skilled writer, opening Lillian’s story as a self-made orphan with an Indigenous woman named Wyanet at her side, attempting to flee their harmful pasts and find a measure of peace. The book goes at a breakneck pace without sanitizing the Old West or attempting to cushion the resulting horrors.

What sets Voorhees’ writing apart is the beauty in the resulting brutality. This is a positively blood-drenched book, with savage violence abound. Voorhes intends to examine systems of oppression and how many can contribute to the systemic pain of others even without their intent. It is a bold message and one that is seldom explored in these types of stories.

The author sprinkles bits of lore throughout the book, enough to keep a reader on the edge of their seat with the nightmarish fever dreams and bloody retributions that continue apace. The Longest Thirst is a solid effort from Voorhees and a bloody good read.