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Starving Zoe
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.
148 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 11, 2020
20 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
March 27, 2021
Starving Zoe (book five in the Splatter Westerns series) is a very different book from the others in the series, both in terms of its content and execution and while this entry will no doubt polarise readers unlike any of the previous books, it ultimately rewards with a challenging and unique read.
Robert Jack has survived the Civil War but can he also survive what awaits him on his return home?
After days travelling back to his wife, Zoe, what Robert finds upon his return changes both of their lives and unleashes an unstoppable supernatural evil that won’t rest until Robert has suffered the same terrible violence he has bestowed on others.
The story of Starving Zoe is relayed to the reader in the first person by one of the most unlikeable, downright unpleasant narrators I have ever read. Robert Jack is racist, sexist, violent and selfish and just generally a deplorable human being and your mileage with this book will largely depend on how much time you are willing, or able, to spend in his company. I personally appreciated the fact that the story was told from the point of view of someone I actively disliked and I thought it made for an interesting juxtaposition whereby the reader is constantly torn between wanting Robert to escape his fate and needing him to get his comeuppance.
It is a very contentious book in a lot of other regards as well. There is all the blood and violence you have come to expect from the Splatter Western series, but it feels less over the top and gleeful than usual in Starving Zoe, and more grounded, maybe even a little mean spirited. There are some memorably depraved sections that are played fairly straight. It is Robert’s reactions to the events of the book that bring out the humour. This is a funny book, easily the most overtly comedic of the series to date, and it is jarring to find humour in awful things that transpire in Starving Zoe.
I’m conscious that it may be coming across that I didn’t like this book and while ‘like’ may be a poor choice of words, I do think this is one of my favourites of the Splatter Western series, because it tests the reader's limits and, beneath the veneer of sex references and penis jokes, there is a very real and ultimately melancholy story about forgiveness and the book has a lot of heart at its core. It is such a lean book with such a tight focus (Robert and titular Zoe being almost the only characters throughout) which is a refreshing change of pace from the big scale, big concept Splatter Westerns to date.
Starving Zoe may be the most messed up love story I have ever read. It may make you uncomfortable, you may hate yourself for laughing, and you may be appalled at some of the content but one thing you won’t do is forget reading it.
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...
I also promote indie horror via Twitter and Instagram - @RickReadsHorror
Robert Jack has survived the Civil War but can he also survive what awaits him on his return home?
After days travelling back to his wife, Zoe, what Robert finds upon his return changes both of their lives and unleashes an unstoppable supernatural evil that won’t rest until Robert has suffered the same terrible violence he has bestowed on others.
The story of Starving Zoe is relayed to the reader in the first person by one of the most unlikeable, downright unpleasant narrators I have ever read. Robert Jack is racist, sexist, violent and selfish and just generally a deplorable human being and your mileage with this book will largely depend on how much time you are willing, or able, to spend in his company. I personally appreciated the fact that the story was told from the point of view of someone I actively disliked and I thought it made for an interesting juxtaposition whereby the reader is constantly torn between wanting Robert to escape his fate and needing him to get his comeuppance.
It is a very contentious book in a lot of other regards as well. There is all the blood and violence you have come to expect from the Splatter Western series, but it feels less over the top and gleeful than usual in Starving Zoe, and more grounded, maybe even a little mean spirited. There are some memorably depraved sections that are played fairly straight. It is Robert’s reactions to the events of the book that bring out the humour. This is a funny book, easily the most overtly comedic of the series to date, and it is jarring to find humour in awful things that transpire in Starving Zoe.
I’m conscious that it may be coming across that I didn’t like this book and while ‘like’ may be a poor choice of words, I do think this is one of my favourites of the Splatter Western series, because it tests the reader's limits and, beneath the veneer of sex references and penis jokes, there is a very real and ultimately melancholy story about forgiveness and the book has a lot of heart at its core. It is such a lean book with such a tight focus (Robert and titular Zoe being almost the only characters throughout) which is a refreshing change of pace from the big scale, big concept Splatter Westerns to date.
Starving Zoe may be the most messed up love story I have ever read. It may make you uncomfortable, you may hate yourself for laughing, and you may be appalled at some of the content but one thing you won’t do is forget reading it.
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...
I also promote indie horror via Twitter and Instagram - @RickReadsHorror
Read
October 13, 2020I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get into this book. I love the splatter western series and have no problem with vulgarity, but there has to be some kind of point to it and it has to be done well. This one, for me, was pointless. We're stuck in the head of the narrator and we can't get out. He's incredibly misogynistic, sexist, a little racist, and just all around awful. I don't know if we ever escape his disgusting mind-prison because I DNF'd the book around 30% in. Like I said there's a right way to do crude and a wrong way. For me this one was way wrong.
April 30, 2023
A mean-spirited brutal splatter western with one of the most unlikeable heroes of his own story. Jacker is a total dick, but a damn funny one lol. Really enjoyed.
September 14, 2020
Hated it
Not impressed. Guy is very whiny. Did not like how he went on about the poor horse, Poon. Did not like him talking about bashing a cats head in. Overkill on letting us know he wasn't a pedophile. So much repetition. So many yes and no sirs starting sentences. Very crude speech that just gets irritating after awhile. Women are referred to as bitches and whores continually. Narcissistic personality. I swear... Every other sentence is crudely about sex. SMH. It's like a horny, narcissistic, racist teenager wrote this book. Sorry. Just didn't like this book.
Bitch 80
Whore 29
Yes sir 40
No sir 48
Puss(y) 17
Coot 14
Dick 43
Cock 24
Not impressed. Guy is very whiny. Did not like how he went on about the poor horse, Poon. Did not like him talking about bashing a cats head in. Overkill on letting us know he wasn't a pedophile. So much repetition. So many yes and no sirs starting sentences. Very crude speech that just gets irritating after awhile. Women are referred to as bitches and whores continually. Narcissistic personality. I swear... Every other sentence is crudely about sex. SMH. It's like a horny, narcissistic, racist teenager wrote this book. Sorry. Just didn't like this book.
Bitch 80
Whore 29
Yes sir 40
No sir 48
Puss(y) 17
Coot 14
Dick 43
Cock 24
Read
September 15, 2020DNF at 35% ... Like #4 in this series, I couldn't get through this one. With #4, it was just a matter of the writing style not appealing to me. But this one was a matter of content; too many things were being sexualized needlessly, and I have a personal disgust of babies being thrown down wells to be eaten. I found myself having to skip around too often to keep reading this book.
May 29, 2023
Love his work!
April 7, 2021
April Review #1: Starving Zoe (Splatter Western #5) by C. Derick Miller
Robert "The Jacker" Jack is having none of it; after being forced to fight in the Civil war, he comes home to find that the love of his life, Zoe, has a child albeit without his doing. In a fit of jealous rage, he dumps the baby in a well before torturing Zoe and leaving her body among the thorns of a mesquite tree. But Jack doesn't know that Zoe's Native American mother-in-law has a knack for curses, and she turns Zoe into a thing bent on relentless and bloody vengeance.
C. Derick Miller mentions that this book was a result of reading Edward Lee, Hunter S. Thompson, and J.D Salinger in the same week. If I may infer, I add Antonia Bird's Ravenous (with its superb blend of horror, black comedy, and pathos) and your choice of disgusting Hong Kong black magic revenge horror flick to the list. The results are extraordinary: if you're not laughing your ass off at the Joe Lansdale-like exaggerations ("She was flowing like synchronized menstruation at the saloon whorehouse"), you are cringing at the gory violence on full display. (your groin will hurt reading a particular scene)
But Miller's book is not all about mutilation, infanticide, and gory sexual violence. As the novel is told from the perspective of Robert Jack, we get to know how he ended up the way he is, and why he reacts the way he does. Miller doesn't justify his abhorrent acts, but we get to see how years of nothing but violence, death, and degradation will transform a man into something less of, uh, a man. Miller posits that Robert Jack DOES deserve what happens to him, but he would have been a different person if he had never experienced an extremely harsh and brutal childhood.
My only gripe, believe it or not, is that there should have been more crazy and gory set-pieces. More detailed black magic mythology also wouldn't hurt. But this is still a violent and gory work.
For those complaining about the violence, what were you expecting from a book from DEATH'S HEAD PRESS coming from their SPLATTER WESTERN line? It's like you rented HOSTEL expecting PRETTY IN PINK.
I can't wait to read more from Miller!
Robert "The Jacker" Jack is having none of it; after being forced to fight in the Civil war, he comes home to find that the love of his life, Zoe, has a child albeit without his doing. In a fit of jealous rage, he dumps the baby in a well before torturing Zoe and leaving her body among the thorns of a mesquite tree. But Jack doesn't know that Zoe's Native American mother-in-law has a knack for curses, and she turns Zoe into a thing bent on relentless and bloody vengeance.
C. Derick Miller mentions that this book was a result of reading Edward Lee, Hunter S. Thompson, and J.D Salinger in the same week. If I may infer, I add Antonia Bird's Ravenous (with its superb blend of horror, black comedy, and pathos) and your choice of disgusting Hong Kong black magic revenge horror flick to the list. The results are extraordinary: if you're not laughing your ass off at the Joe Lansdale-like exaggerations ("She was flowing like synchronized menstruation at the saloon whorehouse"), you are cringing at the gory violence on full display. (your groin will hurt reading a particular scene)
But Miller's book is not all about mutilation, infanticide, and gory sexual violence. As the novel is told from the perspective of Robert Jack, we get to know how he ended up the way he is, and why he reacts the way he does. Miller doesn't justify his abhorrent acts, but we get to see how years of nothing but violence, death, and degradation will transform a man into something less of, uh, a man. Miller posits that Robert Jack DOES deserve what happens to him, but he would have been a different person if he had never experienced an extremely harsh and brutal childhood.
My only gripe, believe it or not, is that there should have been more crazy and gory set-pieces. More detailed black magic mythology also wouldn't hurt. But this is still a violent and gory work.
For those complaining about the violence, what were you expecting from a book from DEATH'S HEAD PRESS coming from their SPLATTER WESTERN line? It's like you rented HOSTEL expecting PRETTY IN PINK.
I can't wait to read more from Miller!
September 15, 2020
Starving Zoe by C Derick Miller is Book 5 in the Splatter Western series from Death’s Head Press. It’s a Splatter Western. Splatter. Western. You need to know that going in. You need to understand it. Because trashing a splatter western for having horror elements is bad form. So, Splatter Western.
On that note …
I seriously almost puked on page 4.
I almost threw the book across the room when I came upon the horrors at page 23.
A few pages later, I stepped away for a moment to re-evaluate my boundaries in horror fiction. It wasn’t about graphic gore or even content. It was the realism. The horrifying, mind-violating realism of the content and horrors rising from the pages. Intellectually, I knew this spoke to Miller’s superior storytelling, but part of my mind said, “Dude, I don’t like you right now.”
The biggest horror for me? The dark, irreverent, inexcusable humor throughout the story got at least a smirk (and often an outright laugh) from me in spite of how horrified I was by the events in the story. Every time. Every single time. Snake balls. ☹
Starving Zoe is told in first person by the main character, Robert Jack. Much like a real-life friend, Robert is telling you things he himself clearly does not grasp the significance of, inspiring evocative moments of you wanting to say, “Dude, did you even hear what you just said?” out loud. (maybe I did, maybe I didn’t)
Evocative. Yes. Starving Zoe is a shockingly evocative tale. It evokes your gag reflex. It evokes outrage. It evokes horror and frustration both with and at the narrator. It evokes sadness.
It is a twisted masterwork of human authenticity with a supernatural flair, compelling, evocative, brutal. It is ultimately a story about love and all the dark and awful thoughts and emotions that go with it. It stays with you long after you finish it (I read it four days ago). It is also a Splatter Western and not for those with sensitive constitutions.
Fans of the Splatter Western series will love Starving Zoe. Fans of extreme horror in general will love it too.
On that note …
I seriously almost puked on page 4.
I almost threw the book across the room when I came upon the horrors at page 23.
A few pages later, I stepped away for a moment to re-evaluate my boundaries in horror fiction. It wasn’t about graphic gore or even content. It was the realism. The horrifying, mind-violating realism of the content and horrors rising from the pages. Intellectually, I knew this spoke to Miller’s superior storytelling, but part of my mind said, “Dude, I don’t like you right now.”
The biggest horror for me? The dark, irreverent, inexcusable humor throughout the story got at least a smirk (and often an outright laugh) from me in spite of how horrified I was by the events in the story. Every time. Every single time. Snake balls. ☹
Starving Zoe is told in first person by the main character, Robert Jack. Much like a real-life friend, Robert is telling you things he himself clearly does not grasp the significance of, inspiring evocative moments of you wanting to say, “Dude, did you even hear what you just said?” out loud. (maybe I did, maybe I didn’t)
Evocative. Yes. Starving Zoe is a shockingly evocative tale. It evokes your gag reflex. It evokes outrage. It evokes horror and frustration both with and at the narrator. It evokes sadness.
It is a twisted masterwork of human authenticity with a supernatural flair, compelling, evocative, brutal. It is ultimately a story about love and all the dark and awful thoughts and emotions that go with it. It stays with you long after you finish it (I read it four days ago). It is also a Splatter Western and not for those with sensitive constitutions.
Fans of the Splatter Western series will love Starving Zoe. Fans of extreme horror in general will love it too.
August 31, 2021
I am slowly making my way through all of the splatter Western books. So far, this one is my absolute favorite. Mr Miller is a genius at making the book both horrifying and hilarious at the same time. The main character is very hard to like, he is pretty arrogant, misogynistic, and super racist. But, for some reason I still wanted him to win and I enjoyed watching him proceed through the book. I'm definitely going to make my way through every book Derek Miller has written. I bought this as an ebook, but will be buying it in hard copy because it's something I would love to own due to the cover art and my desire to read it again.
August 14, 2021
I very much enjoyed the rambling quality of this book and that ending was weird.
July 26, 2021
Dude needs to quit going on about the smell of underage vaginas for fuck sake. Once was too much.
I've liked the stories in this series up until this one and if I wasn't such a stickler for not finishing books I might not have stuck it out to the end.
I've liked the stories in this series up until this one and if I wasn't such a stickler for not finishing books I might not have stuck it out to the end.
Read
October 30, 2020Set in 1865 Arizona territory Robert Jack has a bad reputation & has not had life easy. Then Robert meets his literal 'Partner in crime' Zoe and despite the age gap they become inseparable that is until the American Civil War breaks and he is sent to serve for four years.
All correspondence during this time had suddenly stopped and Robert decides to surprise his Wife by just turning up at their home. He might have survived one bloody conflict but is he walking in to another?.
I enjoyed the story and found it funny in parts, poor Poon!. And in other parts I was horrifically repulsed.
It is completely twisted and at times the repetition of words and points got a bit too much for a short book but still I would recommend this to a splatter western fan who likes gore.
All correspondence during this time had suddenly stopped and Robert decides to surprise his Wife by just turning up at their home. He might have survived one bloody conflict but is he walking in to another?.
I enjoyed the story and found it funny in parts, poor Poon!. And in other parts I was horrifically repulsed.
It is completely twisted and at times the repetition of words and points got a bit too much for a short book but still I would recommend this to a splatter western fan who likes gore.
October 7, 2020
The 5th splatterpunk western in the series.
I finished Starving Zoe but first can we talk about this amazing cover. I’m really loving the artwork on these splatterpunk westerns by Justin Coons. These covers have been beautiful
Review of Starving Zoe by C. Derek Miller
It’s the civil war time and Robert Jack is coming home from war after serving for 4 years which was basically his prison time. Sentence well paid to the military because Robert jack is a bad man with a bit of a reputation.
“𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙. 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡. 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚, 𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧, 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙮.“
Right off the bat I was digging the beginning, I felt curiosity and dread scratching my brain. Robert has his little harlequin and they are off doing villainy things. It’s all vulgar because Robert is a bad man who does bad things, right? It’s much to be expected. I’m head nodding and following his story with a scene that had my jaw dropping. Then the middle kinda lost me. It was very repetitive and monotonous. It was his inner thoughts I didn’t like and would have loved to have another POV of view because this character thinks about sex a lot, and his inner monologue is racist and misogynistic.. so yea I’d like to get away for a bit and see another POV cause that was exhausting. I just needed to get out of his head a little bit. It came around for the ending which I was like, okay, alright that was pretty good. With the middle of the book being much of the same recounting of events that happened and me only really enjoying the beginning and end of this book, I had to give this one 2 ⭐️s. You should definitely check out more reviews.
I finished Starving Zoe but first can we talk about this amazing cover. I’m really loving the artwork on these splatterpunk westerns by Justin Coons. These covers have been beautiful
Review of Starving Zoe by C. Derek Miller
It’s the civil war time and Robert Jack is coming home from war after serving for 4 years which was basically his prison time. Sentence well paid to the military because Robert jack is a bad man with a bit of a reputation.
“𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙. 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡. 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚, 𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧, 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙮.“
Right off the bat I was digging the beginning, I felt curiosity and dread scratching my brain. Robert has his little harlequin and they are off doing villainy things. It’s all vulgar because Robert is a bad man who does bad things, right? It’s much to be expected. I’m head nodding and following his story with a scene that had my jaw dropping. Then the middle kinda lost me. It was very repetitive and monotonous. It was his inner thoughts I didn’t like and would have loved to have another POV of view because this character thinks about sex a lot, and his inner monologue is racist and misogynistic.. so yea I’d like to get away for a bit and see another POV cause that was exhausting. I just needed to get out of his head a little bit. It came around for the ending which I was like, okay, alright that was pretty good. With the middle of the book being much of the same recounting of events that happened and me only really enjoying the beginning and end of this book, I had to give this one 2 ⭐️s. You should definitely check out more reviews.
April 28, 2023
I bought this to support the author after finding out he was fired from his job at a Six Flags theme park for having written it.
Workers need more rights. They need protections from situations like this, as freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution. But since corporations have so much clout, they can basically fire anyone for any reason they choose right now, and this is not fair to the citizens of our nation.
Anyway, I read the book. It was pretty good. Standard horror western, if you ask me, I don't really see what all the fuss was over with that story. Yeah, the main character's narrative is told in first person, and he admits he loves a 14 year old girl, but he won't let himself touch her for quite some time until she's older. Since the story is set in the Old West, that's pretty much how it was back then. Anyway, the only sex scene is with a zombie. There's some graphic gore and what not. But nothing that makes the reader stand up and shout.
I was anything BUT offended by this book. I hope the author sues Six Flags and gets so set for life he never has to work again.
Workers need more rights. They need protections from situations like this, as freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution. But since corporations have so much clout, they can basically fire anyone for any reason they choose right now, and this is not fair to the citizens of our nation.
Anyway, I read the book. It was pretty good. Standard horror western, if you ask me, I don't really see what all the fuss was over with that story. Yeah, the main character's narrative is told in first person, and he admits he loves a 14 year old girl, but he won't let himself touch her for quite some time until she's older. Since the story is set in the Old West, that's pretty much how it was back then. Anyway, the only sex scene is with a zombie. There's some graphic gore and what not. But nothing that makes the reader stand up and shout.
I was anything BUT offended by this book. I hope the author sues Six Flags and gets so set for life he never has to work again.
October 4, 2020
Great Book. Not for everyone. This isn't a young adult novel, It's not a feel good story, and it isn't the easiest book I have ever read. This is an exploration of the mind of a man that grew up in a very different time under extreme stress. The horror and viciousness of the story play out at a good tempo and in between the action we are shown into the mind of the main character through first person narration. This is a horror book in a "splatter western" series. The violence and gore cross all the right lines, but be forewarned, this isn't just about cheap thrills. This story will make you contemplate life and viewpoints of people from our past. C. Derick Miller has somehow opened a door into the thought processes of a man that has very little in common with most people today. I finished the novel with a lot of unsettling images running through my mind that weren't from the gore and horror. This is one of my favorite things I have ever read. I didn't feel good at the end, but all art shouldn't.
April 2, 2022
Embodying everything that the sub-genre of Western Horror is supposed to be, the novella "Starving Zoe" is a sex-crazed, profanity-strewn SplatterWestern masterpiece of pure ecstasy. From its blood-soaked beginning to its gory end, this tale of pornographic terror is filled with copious amounts of mindless sexual torture as an anthropomorphic undead demoniac named Zoe seemingly strives to drown her husband/murder in a pool of vaginal discharge while grinding away atop him unmercifully via cowgirl style on a bed of human excrement. BE ADVISED: If you cannot appreciate this book to some degree, then you're unfit to critique anything deemed as Western Horror, SplatterWestern, Dark Western, and so forth.
September 17, 2020
Another good entry in the splatter western series
Sadly, I have to say this has been the weakest entry in the series. Based mostly off of how short it was. Still recommend, just not a good starting point for the series.
Sadly, I have to say this has been the weakest entry in the series. Based mostly off of how short it was. Still recommend, just not a good starting point for the series.
October 12, 2020
What starts as a truly interesting idea soon plods seemingly endlessly in in the most juvenile of tangents and an obsession with semen and genitalia humor. As if that weren't enough, both major characters' arcs inexplicably change in what seems to be a lost effort at a deep and meaningful ending.
December 19, 2020
I didn’t enjoy much about this book. All the perverse sexual stuff? Who cares. All the gore? Who cares. I just didn’t enjoy the book, the story, the characters. It was boring if I’m being honest. This book just wasn’t for me.
September 7, 2024
This book was like being at a terribly boring party and getting cornered by a foul mouthed repetitive dull slob that won't let you out. This story should have been two pages if that. If this is the way this series is going, count me out.
September 7, 2022
It's weird to be rooting for a protagonist you hate, but here I am. I enjoyed this book with a thoroughly loathesome person fighting against the fate he made for himself.
December 20, 2020
For the record, I didn't receive an ARC of this like most of the other (negative) reviewers. I have purchased every edition of the splatter western series in a normal customer-seller exchange, because I BELIEVE in supporting authors. With that being said, the people who complained of animal cruelty in this, there's a passing mention of a cat having its brains bashed in so the main character Robert Jack and his girlfriend could survive in the streets and not go hungry. Other than that and RJ having harsh words for his horse named Poon, that's really all there is to it.
This story was crazy. The relentless pursuit of Robert Jack by Zoe, the girl on the cover, is stark and fear inducing if you picture that face pursuing you across a red western wasteland. This is the first splatter western I've finished and I intend to read the rest in the next two months. There are people who seem to not want Death's Head Press' Splatter Western series to continue at all, but I'm here as a paying customer with absolutely zero political or social intimidation, hoping that my wallet is enough to save it. Imagine that. Customers having more say than spoiled influencers with an axe to grind with anything male.
For those interested, I may do a gift giveaway of kindle edition splatter westerns. Tune into my show tomorrow night at 7 pm eastern on youtube to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEJR...
This story was crazy. The relentless pursuit of Robert Jack by Zoe, the girl on the cover, is stark and fear inducing if you picture that face pursuing you across a red western wasteland. This is the first splatter western I've finished and I intend to read the rest in the next two months. There are people who seem to not want Death's Head Press' Splatter Western series to continue at all, but I'm here as a paying customer with absolutely zero political or social intimidation, hoping that my wallet is enough to save it. Imagine that. Customers having more say than spoiled influencers with an axe to grind with anything male.
For those interested, I may do a gift giveaway of kindle edition splatter westerns. Tune into my show tomorrow night at 7 pm eastern on youtube to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEJR...
May 26, 2021
Seeing as this is one of my first Splatter Western novels that I have ever read I was completely unprepared of the understandably goriness I was partaking in. Much like many other reviews and the author him self stated this novel is not for the faint of heart. As a horror fanatic, I was taken aback on some of the graphic descriptions of the scenery especially that in the beginning of the book.
Although it was a first for me it definitely sparked an interest into short novels in the splatter western genre. There were at times it was a bit hard for me to read due to the crudeness of it but after small breaks I did finish it and I am glad to have read it.
Again if you cannot handle crude humor and an unconventional personal horror story of a killer turned soldier then turned into prey from his equally ferocious killer of a wife. I warn you to stay away however if you love gore and personal blights then I highly recommend this to you. But be warned.
Although it was a first for me it definitely sparked an interest into short novels in the splatter western genre. There were at times it was a bit hard for me to read due to the crudeness of it but after small breaks I did finish it and I am glad to have read it.
Again if you cannot handle crude humor and an unconventional personal horror story of a killer turned soldier then turned into prey from his equally ferocious killer of a wife. I warn you to stay away however if you love gore and personal blights then I highly recommend this to you. But be warned.
August 29, 2021
Violence, viciousness, debauchery, mutilated penises. If you like those types of things, you're going to find some things to like in Starving Zoe. The brutal parts scratched the itch I tend to have when I pick up a book from this series, and the first person narrative worked, at least for a while. The main character does wax poetic, at length, and I found myself waiting for him to stop daydreaming and move the plot along at points. That said, Starving Zoe offers some things we haven't seen before in the Death's Head Press splatter western series, giving readers plowing straight through a breath of fresh air.
April 12, 2021
"Snake vagina? That was easy to comprehend. With my most recent of discoveries, all vaginas had snakes attached to them. We just chose to call them women."
I really don't think there's any denying that, even for an anti-hero, Robert Jack is a pretty bad dude (sexist, racist, spiteful baby-killers usually are), but damn if this book didn't make me laugh.
I really don't think there's any denying that, even for an anti-hero, Robert Jack is a pretty bad dude (sexist, racist, spiteful baby-killers usually are), but damn if this book didn't make me laugh.
June 29, 2021
I was a bit apprehensive about this book given some of the previous reviews but I knew what to expect which lessened some of the shock value. The protagonist is horrendous and his actions are even worse and yet I enjoyed the story and liked Zoe and the Indian medicine woman. I read it in virtually one sitting too which says a lot. Dark, disturbing and yet also enjoyable. A good addition to the series.
August 18, 2025
It started pretty good, actually, until around the first encounter with Zoe. The MC completely fell apart. British English bled into the vocabulary, and thoughts and words a southern, uneducated, confederate soldier in the late 1800's shouldn't/wouldn't know were being used. It pretty much killed my story headspace. I couldn't get back into it.
November 29, 2020
Best little horror !!!
Wow,wow,wow!!!! This author is great . crazy wild funny story. A must read, thanks for this little story... Please read
Wow,wow,wow!!!! This author is great . crazy wild funny story. A must read, thanks for this little story... Please read
December 28, 2020
A skin-walker and an Indian medicine witch seek revenge in the old west. Loved it except the groin torture, just reading that part hurt.
November 7, 2021
This is one of the most hateful love stories I’ve ever read! Didn’t particularly like Robert Jack though.
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