Red Rabbit
Author: Alex Grecian
“There are worse things in these woods than wolves, and some of them walk on two legs.”
Review
If you ever wondered what would happen if you threw Lonesome Dove into a crucible with dark American folklore and unsparing witchcraft, Red Rabbit is the chilling, wildly entertaining answer. Set across a blood-soaked Kansas territory in the late 19th century, the story tracks an unlikely posse—an aging wanderer named Old Man Ned, a greenhorn schoolteacher named John Charles Cook, a mute little boy named Rabbit who communicates with spirits, and a captured witch named Sadie Grace—on a trek toward the town of Belfry to collect a bounty.
What makes this journey so gripping is Grecian’s brilliant use of shifting, unconventional perspectives—jumping effortlessly between the weary posse, the grotesque villains, and even the eerie observations of passing ghosts and wild animals witnessing the violence unfold. When the clashes hit, they are shockingly sudden and vicious, trading clean Hollywood shootouts for chaotic, bone-splintering, mud-and-gore skirmishes. Between haunted homesteads, the looming threat of the skin-stealing cannibal witch Rose, and things lurking just outside the lantern glow, the dread tightens with every desolate campfire. It is bloody, strange, relentlessly atmospheric, and a masterclass in modern Weird West storytelling that earns an unquestioned place in our archives.
Curator’s Notes
Atmosphere: Sun-bleached prairie grass, the sulfur tang of black powder, dying campfire embers, and whispered witchcraft across desolate Kansas plains.
The Verdict: A gritty, spine-chilling frontier pilgrimage that balances eerie folk dread with a remarkable, oddly touching ensemble.