10 Weird and Wild West Books

Do you ever read a story about a lonesome drifter and a horse and think to yourself, “Gee, I sure hope this character runs into some sort of incomprehensible horror, or inexplicable, oddball occurrence as they inevitably take the law into their own hands?”

Well, do we have some stories for you!

Here are some of the least traditional Westerns found in our collection —full of fiends, magic, mysticism, and nightmares.

the country under heaven by Frederic S. Durbin

Decades after surviving the Civil War, former Union soldier, Ovid Vesper, has been plagued with bewildering visions. Ovid travels the country seeking out those in need and offering himself for odd jobs from general maintenance to monstrous ghouls-- quite the range.

red rabbit by Alex Grecian

American folk horror at its finest. In a weird and wild west, a posse of strangers team up to claim the bounty on a witch. Along the way, they meet all sorts of wicked people, creatures, and monsters. Hopefully the bounty on Sadie Grace is enough to make the trek worth it. It's like a novel-length murder ballad.

lone women by Victor LaValle

Montana, 1915 - Adelaide Henry decides to try her hand at homesteading. She brings with her scant belongings and one enormous steamer trunk locked tight and protected fiercely. Magical, suspenseful, a bit fearful-- Victor Lavalle portrays the brutal landscape in a way that is both haunting and beautiful.

vampires of el norte by Isabel Cañas

Brought together by the throes of war, childhood sweethearts Nena and Néstor are brought together once more. But their reunion is stalked by similar sharp teeth that had hunted them so long ago.

the buffalo hunter hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Chronicling several massacres across the Blackfeet reservation, this horror novel is visceral, poignant, and, for spanning decades of a vampire's lifespan, grounded in reality.

blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Readers are taken on an epic journey across the American frontier following a character known only as "the kid." In it, he talks about his experiences coming across the scalp hunting Glanton gang. Not specifically categorized as Weird, but certainly an unsettling tale, McCarthy's magnum opus remains elusive and difficult to interpret.

the hunger by Alma Katsu

For many in the US, cannibalism is synonymous with the Donner Party. Dark on it's own, Katsu's supernatural take on the event is even more harsh than the winter the characters tried to survive.

a book of tongues by Gemma Files

The summary itself is an ensemble cast-- A Book of Tongues kicks off the Hexslinger series blending fantasy, horror, historical fiction, and Westerns. There's a Pinkerton agent, an outlaw gang, a magician, and a pantheon of gods and monsters along the way.

a book without a name by B. L. Blankenship

Contemporary authors alongside reprints of their predecessors, this anthology has a little bit of everything in it from cosmic to gothic to splatter and more.

sisters of the wild sage: a weird western collection by Nicole Kurtz

Subverting the tropes of the Western and reclaiming the Weird, Kurtz has put together a collection which reflects pieces of lives we only get glimpses of, if any page space at all, in other Westerns. I always recommend reading collections in order-- as they are gathered and organized with as much care as a musical album-- but you could jump around if that suits you.