Red in Tooth and Claw

By: Lish McBride

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

A dark young adult Western fantasy about a teen in a remote settlement full of monsters and secrets.

"In this eerie, blood-splashed Western, Lish McBride invokes a frontier that is harsh, cruel, and practical...A damned enjoyable novel."—Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns

Faolan Kelly’s grandfather is dead. She’s alone in the world and suddenly homeless, all because the local powers that be don’t think a young man of seventeen is mature enough to take over his grandfather’s homestead…and that’s with them thinking Faolan is a young man. If she revealed that her grandfather had been disguising her for years, they would marry her off at the first opportunity.

The mayor finds a solution that serves everyone but Faolan: He hires a gunslinger to ship her off to the Settlement, a remote fort where social outcasts live under the leadership of His Benevolence Gideon Dillard. It's a place rife with mystery, kept afloat by suspicious wealth. Dillard's absolute command over his staff just doesn't seem right. And neither do the strange noises that keep Faolan up at night.

When Faolan finds the body of a Settlement boarder, mangled by something that can’t possibly be human, it’s clear something vicious is stalking the palisades. And as Settlement boarders continue to drop like flies, Faolan knows she must escape to evade the creature’s wrath.

©2024 Lish McBride (P)2024 Listening Library

Critic reviews

*A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection*

*An Amazon, B&N Reads, and Kobo Best Book of the Month*

"In this eerie, blood-splashed Western, Lish McBride's prose invokes a frontier that is harsh, cruel, and practical, allowing moments of warmth to shine all the brighter. Every time I put it down I picked it right back up. Just a damned enjoyable novel."—Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns

“Magic, murder, mystery, and mayhem, all set in against a wild, Western backdrop. I have never read anything like this. A terror and a true delight, all wrapped up in a gritty bow.”—Kristen Simmons, author of Article 5 and Find Him Where You Left Him Dead

"A stark, gritty horror set in an uncanny world, Red in Tooth and Claw transfixed me from the first line, pulling me in for a dark, tense, exhilarating ride."—Gretchen McNeil, author of Ten and #murdertrending

3.75 stars

This was a good tale that held my attention. The romance portion was awkward and I didn’t really feel the love, but the rest of the story was pretty interesting.

greed and prosperity

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Red in Tooth and Claw by Lish McBride in exchange for an honest review. This book had a great old Western/fantasy feel. I really enjoyed it and the characters. I love it when fantasy books can make you feel for the characters and want to be with them and adventure with them. This book was able to accomplish that.