Outlaw Blood is an adventurous fantasy western, featuring Clye Galler–outlaw, of the fearsome Yeller gang. But he’s tired of this life of crime and hardships. He’s seen too much death, too much blood spilled in the sand, too many kives like him hanging from blood-red gallows. So he sets off to clear his name, armed with only his conscience and his bad habits to guide him. And a whispered, old prayer… “Sandwalker, guard my name…”

This is Noah J. Matthews’ debut novel, just released March 3rd, and I must say, I did enjoy the journey of reading this. I’ve read maybe… one other western in my life? (Does The Alchemist count?) So this was completely out of my reading zone, but still–this was good.

Matthews paints such beautiful imagery here, using a healthy dose of analogies and detailed descriptions. The worldbuilding of Outlaw Blood was honestly my favorite part–desert fantasies always lend themselves to some beautiful pictures, and Matthews does not disappoint. The sand here is deadly, and seductive. Let it touch your feet, and you’ll dry up faster than you can blink. Inhaling it is basically a drug–there’s quite a few characters, Clye included, that use the sand as a substance, heightening their senses and in some cases, rendering themselves useless from the addiction. Sand as a drug isn’t a concept I’ve ever since before, and honestly I love the idea, and would love to see more of it somewhere. And then we have the even deeper idea that the sand itself can be a weapon…

“The dark-skinned outlaw paused, boots scraping to a stop on the dry sand. The flickering moonlight inched down at him, glinting off the revolver at his hip. He inhaled the parched desert air.

That sent him into a coughing fit.” – Outlaw Blood, Chapter 1, pp. 1

Of course, I have to talk about the cast of characters. Though there’s a fun and feisty cast in the novel, we don’t see many of them until about halfway through the book. So, I’ll simply speak about our fierce main character, Clye Galler. As I mentioned before, he’s just a man–a sinner–wanting to be washed clean. I really enjoyed this goal of his. It was his driving force, his passion, his aspiration. Every time he made a mistake, or fell back into old habits–which we see on quite a few occasions–he comes back to this goal, and uses it to pick himself back up. To get back on the right track.

It’s an analogy I’m sure many are familiar with. Wanting to stay in the right, even as you feel those little grains of sin whipping at your being. It’s a deep struggle, one that’s explored in this book. Ultimately, Clye seeks to find who can really cleanse him–and I won’t spoil, but I will say, it’s not his gun that heals him.

As the above quote mentions, Clye Galler is… dark-skinned? And also, blue eyed. I’m guessing this is a delicate manner of saying Black. But I’m not sure if this is Black or just tanned. Or something else entirely–this is a fantasy world. Several times within the story, we’re told that other characters are even darker skinned then Clye. A different type of description, I suppose. And then we have the correlation between darker-skinned people and hanging… it’s quite the dark history, and I’m not sure how much of that knowledge was thought about in the novel.

Overall, Clye’s goal was my favorite part about him. I couldn’t find myself connecting with him. Perhaps because this isn’t my genre. Maybe because there were a couple of his crimes that struck a wrong chord with me. It could also be the fact that this novel is third person, and I can’t usually relate to third person novels.

But he was intriguing, and did drive the story, so I’ll give him that.

“Somehow he’d redeem his name. The name of Clye Galler would be a name of honor, a name to live on in family and crimson embroidery. The name of Lyle Yeller would be buried forever–under the hot and secret sands.” – Outlaw Blood, Chapter Two, pp. 16

The plot for Outlaw Blood is largely character-driven. Throughout the story, Clye is trying to clear his name, and that leads us on a wild series of adventure, whirlwind battles, and right into the hands of conniving characters.

The story was interesting, and I love so many of the concepts brought up. Trying to clear a record, the sand drug thing (I have to keep coming back to this!). We’re constantly giving this image of the waiting, red noose–through analogies, a scene with a hanging, rotting corpse, and Clye passing the noose many times in town. It’s jarring, and a great trick for tension.

Clye goes through a series of chases to clear his name, and while I enjoyed the concept, the story felt quick to me. Granted, the novel is 164 pages. But I don’t think we were given quite enough time to settle on the whirlwind of events that happened. Once things got started, they happened quickly, were over, and moved onto the next thing. During each battle, I kept holding off, thinking it was building into something bigger or it was just a quick victory before a plot twist, but… it just ended up being the end. Which was a little disappointing. I was left with so many more questions than answers–one of my pet peeves in books–and it left me wanting.

I was also disappointed in the ending for this book. There was a point near the end where I was satisfied–it felt like the story was coming to a close, it was leading up to a nice parallel–and then the story continued and left me empty. I was left wanting–and maybe it was needed. For us to feel that wanting Clye has. But… I don’t know.

On another note, I need some space to briefly rant more about the epic worldbuilding here, specifically two things: the hat culture in Outlaw Blood and the curse words.

The hat culture in here is stunning. I’ve never seen a book that had so much detail in something like that, and it was a lot of fun. Miner’s have little metal hats, with light-up, poisonous mushroom light. Blacksmith’s have snappy fedoras. Bartenders have cute little bowlers. Cowboys have wide cowboy hats, naturally. It’s so intriguing, and I wanted to know so much more about it!

And the cursing–fantasy curses are so fun. The words here–kive, hona, etc–allowed for us to see the roughness of the characters, without actually exposing readers to harsh language. I appreciated the creativity and thoughtfulness in that, and they were fun to read.

Content Warnings

There were quite a few content warnings in this book. We have mentions of rape and murder. There’s a good amount of gore–a detailed, hanging corpse, bodies, and blood. Plenty of death, shooting, and fantasy cursing. (I find fantasy cursing less of a content warning, but I figured I’d mention it anyways. The curses in this book were so interesting!) Drug use, due to the sand. Some alcohol and drunkenness, in a bar. Hanging, and nooses.

Conclusion

Overall, I don’t think this was the book for me. There are so many intriguing concepts, characters, and ideas presented, but I don’t think they were pursued in a satisfying manner for me, and it left me wanting. But there’s a lot of potential here–I look forward to seeing Noah J. Matthew’s climb into the literary world.

I rate Outlaw Blood two out of five stars; I loved the worldbuilding and the concepts, but the main character and the pacing fell flat for me. I recommend to readers 13+, and for anyone who enjoys desert fantasies and quick cowboy novels.