A dark young adult Western fantasy about a teen in a remote settlement full of monsters and secrets.
"In this eerie, blood-splashed Western, Lish McBride invokes a frontier that is harsh, cruel, and practical...A damned enjoyable novel." βKendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns
Faolan Kellyβs grandfather is dead. Sheβs alone in the world and suddenly homeless, all because the local powers that be donβt think a young man of sixteen is mature enough to take over his grandfatherβs homesteadβ¦and thatβs with them thinking Faolan is a young man. If she revealed that her grandfather had been disguising her for years, they would marry her off at the first opportunity.
The mayor finds a solution that serves everyone but Faolan: He hires a gunslinger to ship her off to the Settlement, a remote fort where social outcasts live under the leadership of His Benevolence Gideon Dillard. It's a place rife with mystery, kept afloat by suspicious wealth. Dillard's absolute command over his staff just doesn't seem right. And neither do the strange noises that keep Faolan up at night.
When Faolan finds the body of a Settlement boarder, mangled by something that canβt possibly be human, itβs clear something vicious is stalking the palisades. And as Settlement boarders continue to drop like flies, Faolan knows she must escape to evade the creatureβs wrath.