I bought Kay Chronister’s Desert Creatures on a whim. The cover art was cool and the back talked about “neon saints of Las Vegas.” It all promised a unique brand of horror and it certainly delivered. I have mixed feelings about this story but it definitely left an impression on me.

The best part of Desert Creatures is the disturbing setting. The story is set in a nightmare future where most of the world seems dead, and the survivors hang on in “the Remainder,” the deserts of what was once northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. Much of the life that remains here seems poisoned and mutated into monsters. Animals grow tumors so large they can hardly walk. Men sprout flowers and find themselves rooted into the desert. The same desert that sustains you can creep inside your body and poison your mind. This is the monstrous world our heroine, Magdalena, is born into. Surviving it might require some monstrous acts of her own.

This post-apocalyptic desert was well-written and compelling. I found it fascinating and haunting. Since I live in the southwest U.S. and have driven through many of the real places that inspire this world (Las Vegas, west Texas, the Sonoran desert) I might have an easier time picturing it all than some people, but I found the descriptions really effective. Chronister’s deserts blooming with monsters blended of plant, animal and human came alive in my imagination and I liked the way that body horror ran through the whole story.

As for the story, it’s basically a post-apocalyptic hagiography, the making of an outlaw saint. We follow Magdalena from childhood to young adulthood as she takes a series of brutal journeys and faces soul-wrenching problems and choices. Along the way, she meets several “saint-touched” people with mystical powers and her life becomes intertwined with theirs. She finds herself with a growing reputation as a saint and outlaw, bringing hope to the far-flung peoples of the Remainder.

It’s an exciting idea with a sweeping scope, and in parts I found it haunting and quite exciting. The book’s tone often feels sweeping and awestruck, narrating scenes and characters in broad strokes and the way fairytales do. Most of the characters are seen only on surface level, with little backstory or exploration of their motivations. Characters will crack and kill loved ones or sell themselves to villains and we never really know why. This is common in myths and fairytales; they deal in symbols and archetypes rather than psychology and subtlety.

But without that psychology I had a hard time staying interested in the characters. Magdalena goes through terrifying ordeals but she often doesn’t feel like a real person with real terror. When she makes appalling choices, when she kills to survive or steals the bones of a saint hoping for a miracle, it’s hard to take that journey with her on an emotional level. It seems like Desert Creatures is trying to show us the real, complex human behind the burgeoning legends of sainthood, but for me this largely failed. That left me a bit disappointed and bored in spite of the great world building and ambitious ideas.

Still, I don’t regret buying this book and I would probably try Chronister’s work again if I stumbled across it. If you enjoy complex, deeply realized characters you might share my frustration. If you love original world building and enjoy creative horror, you should definitely try this book.

Until next time, I wish you thrilling novels to read. –Corvus