Make Me No Grave

by Hayley Stone

Marshal Apostle Richardson faces off against bloodthirsty outlaws, flesh witches, ruthless vigilantes, and more in this gritty, magical re-imagining of the Old West.

Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has done plenty to warrant the noose, but U.S. Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn’t decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice—and receives a bullet for his trouble. Almena spares him through the use of dangerous flesh magic but escapes soon after saving him.

Weeks later, Apostle fears the outlaw queen has returned to her old ways when she’s spotted terrorizing Kansas with a new gang in tow. When cornered, however, Almena makes a convincing case for her innocence and proposes a plan to take the real bandits down.

Working with a known killer opens Apostle up to all sorts of trouble, not the least being his own growing attraction toward the roguish woman. Turning Almena away from vengeance may be out of the question, but if he doesn’t try, she’ll wind up right where the law wants her: at the end of a rope.

And if Apostle isn’t careful, he’ll end up joining her.

If you like Red Dead Redemption and Lila Bowen's Wake of Vultures, you'll love this gun-blazing weird western.

Genres: Fantasy, Westerns, Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Weird West, Fiction, Historical

328 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2018

About the author

Hayley Stone is the author of the weird western, MAKE ME NO GRAVE, a finalist for the Laramie Book Awards, and the Last Resistance sci-fi series.

She has lived her entire life in sunny California, where the weather is usually perfect and nothing as exciting as a robot apocalypse ever happens. When not reading or writing, she freelances as an editor, plays the ocarina, and analyzes buildings for velociraptor entry points. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in German from California State University, Sacramento.

Reviews

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marketed as “Weird West” this takes a page from Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series with an alternate history West with magic.

Hayley Stone’s 2018 publication keeps the magic on the down low and delivers a minimalistic tale of western themes, romance, and revenge.

I was first struck by her talent. Stone is good writer and her ability shines through in every page, she knows how to describe a scene and turn a phrase. Told from the first person narrative of Marshall “Apostle” Richardson, this follows Richardson’s pursuit and later friendship with noted outlaw Almena Guillory, the Grizzly Queen of the West, who also has some magic up her sleeve. Guillory also has some secrets in her past and she’s not as bad as we would first believe.

Stone sets the tone and conveys an entertaining western fantasy.

***  A free copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review

[Meenaz Lodhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised…” “Proverbs 31.”
I admit I haven’t read much westerns, movies yes, but this book has been an atypical western and magic laced story worth reading! The first person is superbly managed. The characters are very well described and realistic. The protagonist-Apostle- a down to earth Marshall with his own personal demons. An alleged criminal, The Grissly Queen with strange powers. A cross country ride, full of intrigue, bank robbers, criminals, I could hear the typical western music in the background whilst reading! The writing is an excellent prose, easy to read. And yet, it holds a wealth of profoundness in its simplicity. The eternal internal debate of good versus bad, moments of faith and morality taken to its very limits. A unique concept of the Wild West merged with gifted powers seen from a religious point of view. This story has both, the thought provoking situations and moments, and a fun action/adventure. Gritty and tension filled scenes, I was hooked from the beginning!
I received an early version of this book from the publisher and my review is entirely voluntary.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make Me No Grave by Harley Stone and narrated by Oliver Wyman is a western with a bit of supernatural added to it. A strong female lead as the bad guy and a true good sheriff in a land where even that is unique. The story is about how they end up riding together despite there differences and each growing emotional while together. She also has a special gift.
Very action packed and made me feel like I was in the dusty, crude Midwest in a very lawless time.
The narration was performed brilliantly!

[Hayley Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book. I had a lot of fun with this story, and hope you enjoy it, too!

[TJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn this was good!!!



This right here is the book I never knew I needed

Ever have a book call to you? Especially a book that is so far out of your comfort zone that you're thrown into a loop. Well this book wasn't just calling to me it was screaming "READ ME!" and the truth is I still don't why. Because me and westerns usually don't happen, but damn I glad I listened! I was entirely engrossed! This is the type of book that makes you impatient to see what happens next! Because it just keeps getting better and better! What also makes this book so great is the characters.

First off Apostle Richardson



Cowboys are so not my type but Apostle won my heart! So damn charming I just can't...

As for Almena


I loved her to pieces!

This is so not a romance but oh and how I shipped those two I kept telling myself

and when I got "THAT MOMENT" well let's just say nobody could wipe the stupid smile off my face.

All and all if you're looking for a great read look no further than Make Me No Grave

[♥Rachel♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Nathan or "Apostle" as he's nicknamed is the U.S. Marshall tasked with apprehending Almena "The Grizzly Queen". Liked the slow friendship, and romance formed between these two, bringing out the unexpected in each other. I'd love more, but it ended in a great place, too. Enjoyed the bit of supernatural element.

Oliver Wyman's narration was excellent, made me feel like I was watching an old Western!

[Michael Mammay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book you didn't know you needed. But you do. You really do.

I came to this book in an interesting way. The publisher is new and I was looking at their page, kind of checking them out and saw this book and thought to myself that it wasn't my normal thing, but that it looked interesting. I reached out to see if they'd give me an early copy so I could check it out. They did.

I put the short version of what I thought into a blurb: Combines the best elements of western and fantasy for a thrilling ride that won't let you go.

The longer version is this:
You probably aren't sitting there thinking 'Hey, I need a fantasy-western mashup.' And that's what this is. Calling it a flintlock fantasy isn't really accurate, because it doesn't feel like a fantasy. It feels like a western. Except there's a super-cool, original magic element to it. But even that isn't enough to explain what makes it so good.

This is an exceptional story. The characters are superbly drawn, well rounded, and make you want to follow them. It's very well written. The pace is outstanding and the prose crisp. And there's a depth and themes to the writing that you might not expect from what, on the surface, looks like a pulpy, fun romp. The book delves into religion and how it drives a man (The main character is a religious man, and how he deals with that in conjunction with the difficult things he has to do is fascinating), attraction, love, and a lot of other things that will make you think. Or, alternately, you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the careening ride. I love books that work in multiple ways like this one does.

If you're a fan of westerns, if you're a fan of fantasy, or if you're just a fan of great writing and superb story, I strongly recommend you check this book out. It's a small press book and it's very reasonably priced on kindle.

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy of the audiobook version and I'm counting myself lucky because Makes Me No Grave was superb. It's primarily a western with some supernatural and alternate history mixed in. All of this falls outside of what I would normally read but Stone does a great job of balancing each element and making the story feel authentic. To add to that, Oliver Wyman absolutely nailed it as the voice narration on the audiobook, sounding exactly what I think a gritty and worn lawman would be like. From what I understand, the publisher, Aethon Books, is a brand new publisher of sci fi and this is their first offering. Based on the story here and the quality of the audiobook, they have a new fan.

[Erin Tidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised and delighted by Hayley's previous hard SF novels. I jumped at a chance to get my hands on a review copy of Make Me No Grave. To be honest, I haven't read that many true Westerns in my life--the only one I can recall was in middle school, for English class. But I enjoy a good fantasy and a good trip through Westworld, so why NOT enjoy a fantasy set in the Wild West?

Deep, well-written characters are the beating heart of this novel, as they are in all the best stories. This is an adventure tale about the strongest idealist in the West, and a hard-riding criminal who knows that everything isn't always as ideal as it seems. The biggest outlaw in the West has a heart and the best of reasons for what she does, they don't always align neatly with black and white defintions of good and evil defined by law and religion. Add in some bank robbers, steam engines, and frontier-style justice, and you're going to be in for a really good adventure.

Well-paced and well-written, with an original magic system, this is the fresh fantasy novel you don't know you've been waiting for.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm DNF'ing this at 52% but still rounding up from 2.5 to 3 stars. It's not a bad read, and the audio is great, it's just not my cup of tea. I was expecting something less Western-y I think, which was dumb, coz, you know what? It's a Western. With a (tiny) bit of a supernatural twist.

[Anne ✨ Finds Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A western with elements of romance, supernatural, and alternate history too. I picked this up on Audible's Daily Deal, not knowing anything about it, and I'm so glad I did! Wow! It's an action-filled story with lots of heart, and an amazing cast of characters that will keep you turning pages. The story focuses on lawman Apostle Richardson, and his encounters with 'notorious female outlaw' Almena Guillory, whose actions eventually lead him to question his moral code of justice and right and wrong.

This western has all the action and adventure you'd expect, but it's sweetened with charm, wit, and attraction of the two MC's, Apostle and Alamena. Their characters have a lot of depth and background to them, and although they start out on opposite sides of the law, the lines are quickly blurred, and you'll soon be rooting for them both!

The audio narration by Oliver Wyman was brilliant, most especially for Apostle, with his gritty western drawl, but for all the other characters too! I highly recommend this book on audio for the full western experience.

[Mike Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, this was the story of Federal Marshal Apostle Richardson's journey from moral certainty and scrupulous rule-following to a world-view that accommodates moral ambiguity and the need to act in accordance with his conscience even if that means not following the law to the letter.

Two things drive this journey. The first is his encounter with a notorious outlaw who turns out not to be who he expected her to be. The second is his recognition that his rigid rule-following is partly attributable to his determination not to be like his violent and often drunken father. He begins to wonder if he follows the rules not because he believes in them but because he worries that if he stops his true nature will emerge and he will become his father.

I know, I know. This is a Weird West story, filled with outlaws, bank robberies, lynchings, lawless towns, vengeful posses, gunfights, knife fights, murders, attacks on stagecoaches and locomotives and the occasional miraculous healing, and I'm making it sound very dry. It's not that dry, but it's not a wild tale of derring-do either. This is, at its heart, a morality tale.

I had a good time with it. Apostle Richardson is an easy man to travel with. He's passionate and action-oriented but he punctuates that with moments of reflection. He has a likely-to-be-fatal need to be heroic and stand up for what's right even in the face of overwhelming odds but at least he recognises that compulsion as an aberration worthy of analysis.

The outlaw Almena Guillory is nicely-drawn and cliché-free. Accepting her miraculous power to heal other people's wounds by taking them onto herself and or passing them on to others is no more of a stretch than being asked to accept the reality of vampires or werewolves in an Urban Fantasy novel. I had to work a little harder to suspend my disbelief enough to accept that she passed as a male officer in the Union Arm, saw combat in the War Between The States and that she was part of Abraham Lincoln's entourage.

What I had no difficulty in believing was the way in which she dealt with Richardson. She saw him clearly and knew exactly which buttons to press. The relationship between the two of them is not a romance so much as a continuous reassessment of each other and themselves.

There were a couple of times when what seem to me to be anachronisms jarred me out of the story: the use by both Guillory and Richardson of twenty-first-century gender pronouns when describing someone who didn't self-identify as male or female seemed unlikely in Kansas in the late nineteenth-century (especially given the ongoing hostility to trans people in modern day Kansas); and having one of the few female characters explain to Guillory that she wanted to 'change the narrative' around the opportunities open to women felt totally out of place.

Still, the plot was clever. It propelled the action forward and kept me guessing at the outcome and made the whole story more entertaining. I found the resolution quite pleasing, partly because it side-stepped convention and remained true to the natures of Richardson and Guillory.

[Bon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, round this up to 4.5 stars. I never expect anything I get recommended for free on Bookbub to be, well, decent, but this was a marvelous surprise, a western (which I love) fused with some lite!fantasy and magic elements, WRITTEN BY A WOMEN. Now the latter is essential to note, because everything you might regret about typical westerns (if you're me at least) is the horrible treatment of women and minorities, most often in the form of sexual assault or outright violence. Nah, this book turns all that on its head.

The protagonist, a blonde white guy who nevertheless manages some good, open-minded thinking and acting that would never, EVER fly in a real western, really takes the backseat to Almena Guillory, the Lady Outlaw/HBIC/sorta witch he's supposed to arrest in the beginning. The final showdown is between her and another lady, which was very cool too. I found myself highlighting several great lines by the protagonist, but again, some of it almost felt shoe-horned in because the typical dude-in-a-western is a misogynist, arrogant prick who loves bloodletting shootouts. Not Apostle Richardson, which even if implausible, I enjoyed immensely.

A few random notes. One, this book has a HILARIOUS preoccupation with the evacuation of one's bladder immediately post-mortem. There were at least three cases where the author went out of her way to mention a "dark stain that wasn't blood" spreading beneath dying victims, and I dunno, my mind clung to these things. LOL.

Two, the unique magic in this book. I am always on the lookout for unique magic forms, and Almena's fleshmagic is super cool.

Three, the diverse range of characters we come across/the sort of mental reparations & apolgoies Apostle tries to make for his fellow white countrymen. Almena, badass lady villain that she supposedly is, has a cool scene where she's using her magic to heal Osage tribe members who were attacked by white settlers. She also has an Asian nonbinary friend they need help from at one point, and crossdressed herself, pretending to be a man in the Civil War.

Overall, much more and much BETTER than I expected from a free book!

[L. McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
I love fantasy and I love westerns. I expected to be more into this.
Don’t get me wrong, there is stuff I liked. Almena is a very interesting character, the narrative is well written, there are some emotional bits and it has an interesting tone overall.
Unfortunately it is slower paced than I would have liked, it’s a bit predictable and I wasn’t really able to get into the story and I didn’t care for the ending.
That being said I wasn’t sure whether or not to give this 2 or 3 stars. I decided 3 because I wouldn’t consider it bad and things got a little more intense at the end.
That being said, would I recommend it? No. Would I read a sequel? Nah. Would I say it’s bad though? Nope. Does this author have potential? Yeah.

3/5

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apostle Richardson is the quintessential good guy, who thinks right and wrong is generally a straightforward distinction. But when he encounters Almena Guillory, a notorious yet beguiling outlaw who saves his life with flesh magic despite knowing he intends to arrest her, his moral code is thrown for a loop. When she escapes his custody and goes on the run, Richardson’s pursuit of her becomes all-consuming—and not just because he wants to catch a wanted criminal. There’s a lot to love here, but my favorite part was the setting—southeast Kansas, where much of my husband’s family is from. It was a hoot to hear familiar names like Cherryvale, Coffeyville, and Baxter Springs called out. I listened to the audio version, and narrator Oliver Wyman is fantastic—he nails Richardson’s gravelly twang.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I’m being generous with three stars here. Maybe more like 2 ½ stars. Don’t get me wrong, there’s much to like about this book. The idea is kind of cool and there’s some fine writing, but the characters are a bit on the shallow side and the plot is poorly executed and that’s disappointing. This could've been so much better and Haley Stone seems like a talented writer.

I did like Apostle and Almena, they had a lot of potential but I felt like I had their measure at the end of the first chapter and the rest was filling in the details and waiting for them to fall into each other’s arms. Maybe this would make a good script for a movie, but it kind of falls a little flat for me as a book. I honestly think this book had the makings of a masterpiece if the author had spent more time polishing it. I wish she had.

Many of the plot twists were telegraphed and kind of clichéd. Also, there were events missing from the story early on that were referred to later, making me wonder if they had been edited out. One thing that annoyed me was that after Almena heals Apostle from a gunshot wound, she says she single-handedly drove off the group of armed men that wanted to hang her but never explains how on earth she did that. I kept waiting for an explanation that never came.

Another thing that bugged me was when Apostle agreed to rob a bank. This was so out of character that it almost stopped me right there.

There were some anachronisms in this book that bugged me. I guess I can’t prove that the expression “body count” wasn’t in use in 1873, but I doubt it. I think it’s theoretically possible that you could have found a man in that time period who is accepting of a gender-neutral person, but what I really have a problem with is that anyone back then would refer to such a person in the plural. That’s not 1873. It’s barely 2019. I guess since this is a parallel world with magic, it’s not technically our past. Still, things like that yank me out of the story.

All in all, the most disappointing thing about this book is that I liked the main characters and I thought the concept was great but the execution wasn’t so good. I suspect the author is capable of doing better. There is a setup for a sequel here. I’m not sure if I would be interested.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a powerful western about a rigidly proper lawman and a lady bandit known as the bloodthirsty “Grizzly Queen”. The story opens with the lawman having captured the bandit queen and having troubles with a local sheriff and his mob who want to lynch her rather than bringing her to trial. Matters get bloody and the lawman’s life is saved by his prisoner, embarking the reader on a strange journey in which I rarely had any idea where the story was going, but still found totally compelling.

So there’s a little magic, a dead president, an assassins, murdered civilians, violent posses, native peoples in need of help, and rival gangs. Through it all, this strange relationship between the lawman and the most notorious woman in the west where moral lines continue to become blurred as we try to figure out if this a tale of justice or a tale of redemption or something else entirely. Whatever it ultimately is (and we do find out by the end of the novel) it’s a tremendously interesting novel.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Amanda Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite my personal rating of this book, I can see it garnering a strong base of fans: namely those who enjoyed the Netflix show Godless and did not notice (or were unbothered by) its philosophical anachronisms. In fact, if you enjoyed that show, you ought to snatch this book up immediately, because you'll love it. The irreparable break between my enjoyment and this intriguing "Weird Western" is the same break that happened when I watched Godless. I couldn't stop cringing at how far outside history everyone was behaving. So if, like me, you expect characters in a Western not to think and act like citizens of the 21st century, then I suggest you pass on this book.

If that had been my only point of contention, I'd have given the book three stars for being "good but not my thing." The fantasy element of "flesh magic," downplayed as it is (this is a Western first and a fantasy second), really intrigued me. I wanted to like Almena Guillory; or more accurately, I wanted to understand her better in order to like her. But I can't round up my 2.5 star rating for three reasons.

One, the writing jarred me entirely out of the story. That sounds as if Ms. Stone isn't a good writer. She is. Her wordsmithing is excellent. The problem is unfettered wordsmithing, specifically similes. Oh. My. Word. So many similes. If I had a nickel for every like and as in this book, I could buy my entire Amazon wishlist. Individually they're great, but in every paragraph they're maddening. And yes, they are in every paragraph. I was exhausted with them well before the halfway point in the book and just wanted Marshal Richardson to stop painting pictures with his every thought.

Which brings me to the second reason I can't round this up to 3 stars. Marshal Apostle Richardson at no time convinces me he's male. I would not be shocked to discover this book was originally supposed to be about the blossoming relationship between a female marshal and a female outlaw, but the publisher decided to go a bit more mainstream and asked the author to make her marshal a guy. . . . without making any actual changes to the character.

The third reason: wobbly character motivations. I loved the contrast between the two protagonists' driving principles, but then said principles seem to fizzle without explanation and I looked back to realize a lot of things they'd been doing lately didn't make complete sense. I tried to stay in the story anyway until Apostle agrees to help Almena rob a bank. . . what? Why? This came out of nowhere, and after that I was pretty much done with him.

Another review states this feels like an early draft rather than a fully crafted, finished work, and I agree. Slaying some (most) of the similes, hammering out more consistency and logic in character motivations, and reworking Apostle so he rings true as a man of the West--any or all of these probably would have caused me to up this rating at least a whole star despite the fact I'm not into postmodern Westerns like this and Godless. I wanted to love a fantasy/Western mashup because I love the genres individually, and maybe there are some out there I'll love when I discover them, but this one isn't for me.

[Lisa Reads & Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

From beginning to end, Apostle, the main character struck me as female. Too chatty or reflective in a way that didn't sound male, much less a western he-man gun-slinging type of guy. Made me wonder why. Can't men be chatty and self-reflective? They can certainly have a moral code, like the John Wayne type character. Westerns are famous for the guys who don't want to kill, but will do so when the killing is called for. The outward characteristics weren't telling, it must have been something about the voice. For me, every scene, despite the author writing otherwise, Apostle, a Federal Marshall, sounded like a woman. Weird.

Could it be that the cool cover featuring a woman set expectations for a female hero? Maybe.

The story would have been more interesting, I think, if it were about two woman on opposite sides of the law. The romance part was unnecessary. Issues of friendship, compassion, respect and morality would have been strong enough to carry the tale. That would have been a turn on the man-bro buddy films. I'm not a romantic so that part doesn't interest me.

My last nits are about the "weird" and alternative history parts. They seemed tacked on, not cohesive with any theme. Not that such things are absolutely necessary, but their irrelevance to the story stood out. They were attention seeking fringes tacked on for no good reason.

I don't mean to make the book sound bad. I had no problem finishing it. Some of the dialogue was witty. The writing was good, and in some places quite good. Could be a good start for a series.

[AJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make Me No Grave engages on every level - in Stone's atmospheric descriptions, constantly moving plotlines, and pitch-perfect character voices. A lightly enchanted tale of the Old West, it has everything its setting demands: outlaws, gunfire, frontier country. Supernaturally tinged though it is, though, the story is also refreshing in its realism, with a cast of characters as diverse as humanity always has been, especially as free from the trappings of polite society as in this novel. Well-paced and expertly written, Make Me No Grave is definitely the kind of book that makes you stay up past midnight so that you can read "just one more chapter" until the very end. I speak from very firsthand experience.

[Lukasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird West, a hint of magic, dangerous romance. Reasonably good, just not as gripping as I hoped it to be.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Kindle bargain book that turned out not bad. A quick light read. A western gal and a Federal Marshal. The gal has "a gift." A little fantasy tossed into the U. S. wild west.

Thought I'd try another short read by the same author. Price is right. I'm sort of in a 'what's next' reading mood. No decisions yet.

On to Machinations. Oops! Amazon says not until September 8th. Hmmmmmmm......

[Norma · Rating 5 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"All my ghosts travel with me."
Marshal Apostle Richardson's reputation precedes him: he is a man with his own clear moral code. Yes, he's killed and will kill again, but only if there is no alternative. His is not the right to say who should live and who should die. So when a lynch posse tries to take away his prisoner, he will not give her up despite her being a notorious murderous gang leader who claims she can't be killed and is looking for a dead man. She was Almena Guillery, better known as the Grisly Queen of the West, and they save each other's lives. Travelling together later, they grow to know each other's backgrounds and begin to grow closer.

This atmospheric Western is beautifully written and has a charm which belies the shootings, blood and general murderous mayhem, though it's all there and plenty of it. The characterisation is excellent, their backgrounds slowly emerging, the reader growing to know the two main protagonists as they get to know each other. On different sides of the law, both carry touch of mystery which compels a need to find out more. A romance of a gentle and unusual kind, and written from the point of view of Apostle, this is as much an introspective journey as it is an outward search for revenge and justice. And there is humour, too, amidst the gun fire.

As narrator, Oliver Wyman fully fills the persona of Apostle, his slightly gravelly western accent perfectly fitting his subject, the reading well intoned and pace perfect. He also gives excellent individual voicing to all of the other protagonists, especially that of Almena. A fine performance which further brings everything to life.

I am not usually a fan of Westerns, nor of fantasy of it comes to it, but this book is far more than either: it is a peek into souls and choices to be made. So even if most Westerns do not appeal, give it a try. It will surprise and delight you. I do hope that there will be a sequel: it was hard to say goodbye.
Highly recommended.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of The Sisters Brothers with a little bit of magic thrown in. I understand it's called "weird western". It wasn't any weirder than urban fantasy. The only thing supernatural about it was that Almena had a healing power called "bruising".

Oliver Wyman was the perfect narrator for this book. I thoroughly enjoyed his husky voice.

[Thiago d'Evecque · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly weird west. Very light on the weird, heavy on the west. The fantasy aspects are barely there. The story focuses on the romance between a scarred, good-hearted outlaw and a marshal. Not what I expected, but a good read nonetheless.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
This weird Western is more of straight up Western with a touch of the supernatural, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Great characters and pacy plotting.

[Ctgt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid writing but I was hoping for a bit more weirdness.

6/10

[Amy Kuivalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with morally grey characters this story has it all; mistaken identities, bank heists, mayhem and magic. Stone’s storytelling is in turn lean and lush, as this adventure of violence and revenge is played out through the eyes of Apostle, a marshal fighting his demons while trying to be the last decent man in the West. Tough as nails, flesh magic wielding,anti-heroine, Almena, gives Apostle a run for his money as the unlikely pair get thrown together in an attempt to enact their own ideas of justice. Apostle’s moral judgment is challenged every step of the way as he begins to realize that doing what’s right and obeying the law isn’t always the same thing.

Make Me No Grave is a rollicking Wild Weird West adventure perfect for fans of Red Dead Redemption, the Quick and the Dead and Wynonna Earp.

[Federico · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abbandonato a pagina 150.
Partendo dal presupposto che a me le storie western non hanno mai attirato, ho provato a leggere questo libro convinto che avrebbe potuto interessarmi grazie alle "tinte weird e grimdark fantasy" promesse in quarta copertina, ma che non visto nemmeno con un telescopio preso in prestito dalla NASA.
La trama poi assolutamente inesistente e se ancora non è partita a metà libro, mi sa che c'è qualcosa che non va. Anche tutti i personaggi hanno un livello di profondità pari a "pozzanghera", tranne ovviamente i due protagonisti che sono a livello "pozzanghera, ma è piovuto tanto stanotte eh".
Mi spiace, ma non fa per me. Probabilmente a chi piace il western piacerà di sicuro.

[Danielle Schneider · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved the characters and the love story part. Not very exciting for a western, the only page turners were the last 20 pages. Could have used more weird. Hated the Lincoln/booth deal and hated the biblical undertones. I finished it tho so 2 stars.

I’m returning to this review to give it 1 star because it’s been a few months and every time I think of this book I get so annoyed. But it’s fun to joke about at least.