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"Wraiths of the Broken Land"
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“Nobody had expected this rescue to become so dangerous or so complicated.”
With a baby on the way and his hotel investment sitting in limbo as an unfinished husk exposed to the harsh elements of the southwest, Nathanial Stromler accepts a risky job in which he must aid a shady group of men in search of two kidnapped women. Nathaniel must infiltrate the seedy underworld of affluent degenerates in order to find the whereabouts of a mysterious figure named Gris, who purportedly holds the women captive somewhere in Mexico. What ensues is a moral catastrophe in which minds and bodies of both men and women are tested by the “Wraiths of the Broken Land”.
With a baby on the way and his hotel investment sitting in limbo as an unfinished husk exposed to the harsh elements of the southwest, Nathanial Stromler accepts a risky job in which he must aid a shady group of men in search of two kidnapped women. Nathaniel must infiltrate the seedy underworld of affluent degenerates in order to find the whereabouts of a mysterious figure named Gris, who purportedly holds the women captive somewhere in Mexico. What ensues is a moral catastrophe in which minds and bodies of both men and women are tested by the “Wraiths of the Broken Land”.
Readability
The prose may take a little getting used to, because of the frequent use of Spanish in the dialogue (that goes unexplained/untranslated) and also the sophisticated vocab (“five-dollar words”) which may be cause for pause to understand what is being conveyed. That’s not necessarily bad, because learning new words while reading can feel rewarding, but usually when done sparingly. Effective storytelling requires more than just dressing up one’s prose with a bunch of fancy words, which feels like an ironic observation to make considering the fact that there’s literally a character in this story that uses an outfit in order to appear rich.
The first three chapters made it clear, based upon the story structure, that this novel would be a character driven narrative. The very first line of each chapter introduces a character who is presumably central to the plot, and then focuses on providing an introspective look into that character from a close third-person point of view.
I bring this up, because it’s interesting to note how stories will sometimes kick off with an event or by exploring the setting in which the narrative takes place (think “Brave New World”), and then introduces characterization as the plot unfolds (making those story structures more of a plot-driven narrative). I have noticed that high concept fiction (which is most write-to-market/genre fiction) has a tendency to focus on plot.
Do not let the character-focused narrative and all the fancy language fool you, because at its core, “Wraiths of the Broken Land” is nothing more than a self-indulgent horror novel. It’s just one of those genre novels that tries really hard to convince the reader that it’s more than what it is, and in doing so, ends up sending mixed messages. Kind of reminds me of those HWA authors who consider their work to be “Elevated Horror”, just because they shoehorned some identity politics and social commentary into their generic shit-mix of mindless grotesque violence (but I digress). In this novel’s case, as far as the tone being off key, I mostly chalk it up to clumsy execution (pun not intended).
Creativity
I found the character development to be the most impressive aspect about the story, because the author took the time to create a variety of motivations, beliefs, personality types, and even kinky behaviors that almost made up for the book’s lackluster plot development (but not quite).
- Nathaniel Stromler: an aspiring hotelier who accepts an odd job to realize his dream
- Kathleen O’Corley: Nathanial’s pregnant fiancée and primary motivation
- John Lawrence Plugford: the big bad patriarch who calls his daughters “angels”
- Brent Plugford (a.k.a. “the cowboy”): big brother and wrangler
- Stevie Plugford: the baby brother, patsy, and punching bag of the search party
- Yvette Plugford: also referred to as “Reina” during her stint as a drug-addled whore
- Samuel C. Upfield IV: the pathetic excuse for all the insanity that transpires
- Dolores Plugford: the older sister who had her foot blown off by an angry John
- Patch Up (a.k.a. “the negro”): ex-slave turned family friend who continues to serve the Plugfords… because what else is the black man going to do in the year 1902?
- Long Clay (a.k.a. the gunfighter): psychopathic partner of J.L. from his days as an outlaw
- Deep Lakes: a Native American outcast abandoned by his tribe who consumes raw brain matter and eyeballs from birds
- Gris: the one-eyed villain who runs a brothel out of a place called “Catacumbas” (essentially a sex dungeon for wealthy sickos) and has a thing for watching small creatures (baby turtles & scorpions to be precise) getting shoved into the orifices of strangers.
These are the main characters that the narrative revolves around, but there are also some notable side characters like “Ubaldo”, whose prosthetic nose is made from wood, and also a balladeer by the name of Humberto Calles (a.k.a. Ojos). The latter actually plays a critical role that is integral to the plot early on in the story, and the amount of attention the author gives this character made me believe he was going to be more significant than he turned out to be.
Delivery
The story is a slow burn and suffers from numerous unnecessary asides in the form of character focused vignettes that contribute very little (if anything at all) to the actual plot. Humberto Calles is a side character that gets multiple chapters in which his character is shown singing Mexican folk songs and behaving like a loving family man, but the only role he plays in the actual plot is to be “the guy who knows a couple guys who may be able to help”. All the investment in developing his character is in vain, because Humberto gets randomly killed off by the gunfighter, even though his character was inconsequential in regard to the Plugford’s plight (leaving me to wonder, “What was the point?”).
Usually if a story is character focused then there are typically some themes that are explored within the narrative, and the one thing that kept recurring throughout “Wraiths of the Broken Land” was the treatment of women. It’s the only thing that explains why so much time was invested in Umberto’s character, because he was a faithful husband and loving father who had done no one wrong to anyone in particular. His character was in stark contrast to literally all the other male characters in this book, which were depicted as a shady “wraith” of sorts. Another example of this theme is with the little boy who Nathanial catches sneaking a peek of his woman. At first Nathanial doesn’t do anything, but after his adventure, he berates the child as if he is afraid the boy will grow up to become like one of the degenerates he had literally been battling against. However, this is just my speculation. The novel reads as if it was written off the cuff and over a period of time, because there are disjointed moments in the plot that hinge upon unlikely conveniences that weren’t set up or foreshadowed ahead of time.
The reasoning behind the kidnapping is actually humorously absurd, and the treatment of Dolores and Yvette doesn’t make any sense within the context of the story. They’re locked away in rooms deep within the Catacombs and fed soup that is pumped through pig intestine. I feel like the author was so hell-bent on incorporating this horror element to the story that it results in the tone getting hammed up and takes away from the sentimental aspects of the character development.
FFS, after one hundred thirty pages of slow burn character work, the rescue mission ends in a flash with Long Clay’s character whipping out grenades and hurling them at horses and stagecoaches. The story goes from being a character driven rescue mission to a “Wild Bunch” (1969) style bloody massacre between the Plugfords and friends versus Gris and a whole army of wealthy men (like over a hundred strong with guns). For a group of ranchers who allegedly had no idea the rescue mission would become so dangerous, they sure were prepared with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, grenades, fucking “land torpedoes”, and other tools to aid them in making a final stand against a man who allegedly will stop at nothing to collect a gambling debt (even if it costs him his own life and the lives of his sons and more). If you take a step back from all the distracting minutiae of the novel (to put it all into perspective), the premise is just so ridiculously contrived and the result is an unbelievable amount of havoc over nothing more than a couple of whores.
I had already checked out by the time one the captive men gets an iron rod shoved into his anus. I just couldn’t take any of the characters seriously once they had reached the fort. It doesn’t matter what their justification was during the standoff, they were doing too damn much given the scope of the plot. It really wasn’t that deep to begin with as far as what was at stake. I was under the impression that if the Plugfords had crashed the party at the Catacombs without setting off grenades and killing innocent bystanders indiscriminately, then Gris most likely would have surrendered the sisters without fuss or a fight.
I laughed when Upfield was all like, “Listen, my sister-in-law’s in town, so how about I toss her ass into the pot and we go double or nothing?” …Or something along those lines.
The prose may take a little getting used to, because of the frequent use of Spanish in the dialogue (that goes unexplained/untranslated) and also the sophisticated vocab (“five-dollar words”) which may be cause for pause to understand what is being conveyed. That’s not necessarily bad, because learning new words while reading can feel rewarding, but usually when done sparingly. Effective storytelling requires more than just dressing up one’s prose with a bunch of fancy words, which feels like an ironic observation to make considering the fact that there’s literally a character in this story that uses an outfit in order to appear rich.
The first three chapters made it clear, based upon the story structure, that this novel would be a character driven narrative. The very first line of each chapter introduces a character who is presumably central to the plot, and then focuses on providing an introspective look into that character from a close third-person point of view.
I bring this up, because it’s interesting to note how stories will sometimes kick off with an event or by exploring the setting in which the narrative takes place (think “Brave New World”), and then introduces characterization as the plot unfolds (making those story structures more of a plot-driven narrative). I have noticed that high concept fiction (which is most write-to-market/genre fiction) has a tendency to focus on plot.
Do not let the character-focused narrative and all the fancy language fool you, because at its core, “Wraiths of the Broken Land” is nothing more than a self-indulgent horror novel. It’s just one of those genre novels that tries really hard to convince the reader that it’s more than what it is, and in doing so, ends up sending mixed messages. Kind of reminds me of those HWA authors who consider their work to be “Elevated Horror”, just because they shoehorned some identity politics and social commentary into their generic shit-mix of mindless grotesque violence (but I digress). In this novel’s case, as far as the tone being off key, I mostly chalk it up to clumsy execution (pun not intended).
Creativity
I found the character development to be the most impressive aspect about the story, because the author took the time to create a variety of motivations, beliefs, personality types, and even kinky behaviors that almost made up for the book’s lackluster plot development (but not quite).
- Nathaniel Stromler: an aspiring hotelier who accepts an odd job to realize his dream
- Kathleen O’Corley: Nathanial’s pregnant fiancée and primary motivation
- John Lawrence Plugford: the big bad patriarch who calls his daughters “angels”
- Brent Plugford (a.k.a. “the cowboy”): big brother and wrangler
- Stevie Plugford: the baby brother, patsy, and punching bag of the search party
- Yvette Plugford: also referred to as “Reina” during her stint as a drug-addled whore
- Samuel C. Upfield IV: the pathetic excuse for all the insanity that transpires
- Dolores Plugford: the older sister who had her foot blown off by an angry John
- Patch Up (a.k.a. “the negro”): ex-slave turned family friend who continues to serve the Plugfords… because what else is the black man going to do in the year 1902?
- Long Clay (a.k.a. the gunfighter): psychopathic partner of J.L. from his days as an outlaw
- Deep Lakes: a Native American outcast abandoned by his tribe who consumes raw brain matter and eyeballs from birds
- Gris: the one-eyed villain who runs a brothel out of a place called “Catacumbas” (essentially a sex dungeon for wealthy sickos) and has a thing for watching small creatures (baby turtles & scorpions to be precise) getting shoved into the orifices of strangers.
These are the main characters that the narrative revolves around, but there are also some notable side characters like “Ubaldo”, whose prosthetic nose is made from wood, and also a balladeer by the name of Humberto Calles (a.k.a. Ojos). The latter actually plays a critical role that is integral to the plot early on in the story, and the amount of attention the author gives this character made me believe he was going to be more significant than he turned out to be.
Delivery
The story is a slow burn and suffers from numerous unnecessary asides in the form of character focused vignettes that contribute very little (if anything at all) to the actual plot. Humberto Calles is a side character that gets multiple chapters in which his character is shown singing Mexican folk songs and behaving like a loving family man, but the only role he plays in the actual plot is to be “the guy who knows a couple guys who may be able to help”. All the investment in developing his character is in vain, because Humberto gets randomly killed off by the gunfighter, even though his character was inconsequential in regard to the Plugford’s plight (leaving me to wonder, “What was the point?”).
Usually if a story is character focused then there are typically some themes that are explored within the narrative, and the one thing that kept recurring throughout “Wraiths of the Broken Land” was the treatment of women. It’s the only thing that explains why so much time was invested in Umberto’s character, because he was a faithful husband and loving father who had done no one wrong to anyone in particular. His character was in stark contrast to literally all the other male characters in this book, which were depicted as a shady “wraith” of sorts. Another example of this theme is with the little boy who Nathanial catches sneaking a peek of his woman. At first Nathanial doesn’t do anything, but after his adventure, he berates the child as if he is afraid the boy will grow up to become like one of the degenerates he had literally been battling against. However, this is just my speculation. The novel reads as if it was written off the cuff and over a period of time, because there are disjointed moments in the plot that hinge upon unlikely conveniences that weren’t set up or foreshadowed ahead of time.
The reasoning behind the kidnapping is actually humorously absurd, and the treatment of Dolores and Yvette doesn’t make any sense within the context of the story. They’re locked away in rooms deep within the Catacombs and fed soup that is pumped through pig intestine. I feel like the author was so hell-bent on incorporating this horror element to the story that it results in the tone getting hammed up and takes away from the sentimental aspects of the character development.
FFS, after one hundred thirty pages of slow burn character work, the rescue mission ends in a flash with Long Clay’s character whipping out grenades and hurling them at horses and stagecoaches. The story goes from being a character driven rescue mission to a “Wild Bunch” (1969) style bloody massacre between the Plugfords and friends versus Gris and a whole army of wealthy men (like over a hundred strong with guns). For a group of ranchers who allegedly had no idea the rescue mission would become so dangerous, they sure were prepared with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, grenades, fucking “land torpedoes”, and other tools to aid them in making a final stand against a man who allegedly will stop at nothing to collect a gambling debt (even if it costs him his own life and the lives of his sons and more). If you take a step back from all the distracting minutiae of the novel (to put it all into perspective), the premise is just so ridiculously contrived and the result is an unbelievable amount of havoc over nothing more than a couple of whores.
I had already checked out by the time one the captive men gets an iron rod shoved into his anus. I just couldn’t take any of the characters seriously once they had reached the fort. It doesn’t matter what their justification was during the standoff, they were doing too damn much given the scope of the plot. It really wasn’t that deep to begin with as far as what was at stake. I was under the impression that if the Plugfords had crashed the party at the Catacombs without setting off grenades and killing innocent bystanders indiscriminately, then Gris most likely would have surrendered the sisters without fuss or a fight.
I laughed when Upfield was all like, “Listen, my sister-in-law’s in town, so how about I toss her ass into the pot and we go double or nothing?” …Or something along those lines.
#LFLR Indie Rating: 5/10
As far as I’m concerned “Wraiths of the Broken Land” falls into the same traps that I’ve seen from other stories that try to blend horror with sentimental western tropes. It’s basically a western with over-the-top gore and absurd violence for the sake of shock value, which took away from the quality of all the character work that I thought added the most value to the story. The author S. Craig Zahler has written several other novels including “A Congregation of Jackals” which leans more towards crime fiction. Zahler was also the writer and director of the movie “Bone Tomahawk” (2015) starring Kurt Russell.
As far as I’m concerned “Wraiths of the Broken Land” falls into the same traps that I’ve seen from other stories that try to blend horror with sentimental western tropes. It’s basically a western with over-the-top gore and absurd violence for the sake of shock value, which took away from the quality of all the character work that I thought added the most value to the story. The author S. Craig Zahler has written several other novels including “A Congregation of Jackals” which leans more towards crime fiction. Zahler was also the writer and director of the movie “Bone Tomahawk” (2015) starring Kurt Russell.
THIS BREAKDOWN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE #LFLR NETWORK.
