Book Review: Hell Came With Her by Channing Cornwall

"Just fuckin do it, ye cowardly bitch!" He spat, staring up at his angel of death. 
The last bullet burrowed into his gut.

To start this review I want to be upfront about my bias for this book. It is written by one of my best friend's Channing Cornwall. He is an incredible person and his passion and commitment to writing are inspiring. He has written four novels, at least one play, a collection of poetry and a collection of short stories. That being said this is my favorite piece of his writing yet.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the short chapters and lack of over-explaining fluff. It is a quick read and dispenses with extraneous details. It gets to the grit and grime of the story without wasting time.

Another aspect I love about this book is the intense, realistic and unflinching violence. This book does not shy away from illuminating the worst of humanity in the old west and the brutal nature of terrorism and revenge. It is graphic with brains strewn about and some sexual violence that took me aback while reading. But I am glad the violence is not glossed over or dumbed down.

I have two main criticisms. First, the old-fashioned language was hit or miss for me. I think that the use of "ye" was sometimes confusing and possibly used too much. It is a difficult task to take on accents in writing and I appreciated the effort. I did enjoy the use of idioms and terms from back then and the effort to remain authentic to the time period was not unnoticed.

Second, is the lack of character evolution. This book is a straight forward revenge story but other than the immediate change in the main character Sadie the characters do not change in meaningful ways. This is not a particularly egregious charge but it is something I noticed and a little more character development might have helped me feel more sympathy for the characters.  

In conclusion, this is an action-packed western that I would recommend to anyone who wants a fun romp through a gritty world full of gunslingers, outlaws, and a relentless heroine. I'll admit I am not much of a reader and it took a bit to get into it but by the end, I was fully wrapped up in this vengeful tale.

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