Inspired by The Witcher, Blade Runner and Bloodborne – Witchazel begins the episodic story of Kaleb Slow, a pilgrim for The Temple of the Moon, as he traverses a life of violence, demons and corruption.
“You’re evil. It’s in your blood. It’s festering in your brain. It lingers wherever you go and rots wherever you stay. I’ve got to put you down, Silas. You know that. I just wish you made it easier for yourself.”
“Easier?” the necromancer screamed. “Nothing about this is easy.”
Kaleb Slow is on a religious pilgrimage. Lacking clear direction beyond the destruction of foul things that stalk the night, he has settled into an uncomfortable rhythm of hunting and slaying, living a life somewhere between private investigator and highway ranger.
Author T.C Roberts-Finn lays out an introduction to a world beset by corruption and rot. An evocation of life on the frontier and the justice of vigilantes. It is at once the tale of destruction, passions and vengeance. But is his purpose truly divine? Or will his pilgrimage lead him down an endless road of nightmares and bloodlust?
Dark bleatings, my fantastical tribe! Got a little dark fantasy combined with a bunch of other cool genres and subgenres for you today. As you all know, we almost exclusively review horror here, but we’re willing to dip our hooves into adjacent stories that have a little horror in them.
This dark fantasy is not my usual cup of tea, but I ended up really enjoying it. The words “We’re going on an adventure!” come to mind. The story has twists and turns and the world is very rich – definitely rich enough for the sequels I assume are on the way to many a delighted reader, I’m sure.
My favourite thing about it is the protagonist, for sure. I don’t know why, but grumpy male characters of a certain age, that don’t suffer fools gladly (or at all), are my favourite. They must remind me of people that I love from my real life. Kaleb is all of that and also a monster hunter, so the delight for me came from seeing a character type that I adore in a world that I’ve never seen him in. This dude will slay the monstrous beast that ate your family, but don’t expect him to give you a hug.
I don’t have much more to say about this – not because I didn’t like it but because I did. My lengthier reviews tend to be of the books that I have a lot of critiques on, or the ones I’m obsessed with, and this falls quite solidly in the “it wasn’t perfect for me, but I enjoyed it and gave it 4/5 stars category”. I don’t know if I’d necessarily recommend it to horror fans, but I would recommend it to dark fantasy fans, and horror fans if you also like dark fantasy.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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