Starving Zoe

Splatter Western, Book 5

By: C. Derick Miller

Narrated by: JR Owens

Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

To most, 1865 was an eye-opening year. The American Civil War was officially over and the soldiers fortunate enough to survive the bloody conflict returned home to collect the pieces of their former lives. To young Arizonan, Robert Jack, the fateful desert homecoming marked the end to all he once knew.

Forgiveness is overrated. Death is final. Revenge, however, dances between the fine lines of mortality and eternity.

Love always finds a way.

©2020 C. Derick Miller (P)2023 C. Derick Miller

Starving Zoe: A Wild West Tale!

C. Derick Miller delivers a raunchy, irrelevant, and downright disgusting yet undeniably hilarious Splatter Western, taking readers on a rollercoaster ride of one misfortune after another. Narrated by the talented JR Owens, this gruesome tale will have you laughing out loud while cringing at the same time. If you're looking for a twisted, darkly humorous adventure, Starving Zoe is the book to devour, but beware, it's not for the faint of heart!

splattery good fun

I read a the first of the Splatter Western series a year ago and loved it. Starving Zoe, along with the rest of the series, has been on my TBR ever since. Because I want to read more books than I could ever get to in my lifetime, the series has gone neglected but there is a time for every book and the time for Starving Zoe is now.

Let’s talk about the audiobook for a moment. JR Owens is a new voice to my ears. I don’t see a lot of titles narrated by him on Audible but I hope to see that change because his voice and diction are perfectly suited to the genre. He really brought the Robert Jack to life.

Robert Jack. Holy cow, I hated this guy. He is a product of his time, so the way he talks and thinks makes sense and does put you in the time like any good period piece should. But I am a product of my time so I found myself cringing at a lot of his internal dialog. The way he painted himself like some kind of saint because he didn’t touch Zoe until she was legal marrying age even though he really wanted to had me rolling my eyes so hard. Everything I didn’t like about Robert Jack made him a great character in this story. He’s a nasty piece of work, making him a perfect lead in a splatter western. Like the others in the series, the cover art is stunning and gives you a glimpse of the plot. This fairly short book is unrelentingly violent, which puts it right up my alley. My fellow splatter fiends will love it.

A great story of love and revenge

An amazing ride through Northern Arizona. Zoe and Mr. Jack create a relationship that pushes the limits of love. Bloody and funny at times in the best ways.

Starving Zoe

This is a story of love, loss, and revenge. Smothered in hilarity and gore. Great performance and material. Must read splatter western!

Lansdalesque novel

Joe R Lansdale is the king of the weird and wild west. As a fan of his stories, Jonah Hex, and the RPG Deadlands, I can tell you that this book fits right in that particular genre quite snugly. It's a fun gorey ride on a pale horse with no name that'll make you think of Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter meets Dawn of the Dead, but with some quirk. The narrator keeps the tale above snakes, i.e. alive, with his spot on performance. Good stuff. Now I need more stories in this setting.

Wow!!! Splatter certainly describes this story!!!

Raunchy, irrelevant and disgusting but very funny!!! One bad luck situation after another! I enjoyed it!

Loved it

Really enjoying this series and this was no exception
JR owens does a fantastic job with the Narration
If you enjoy extreme horror and dark humour than this is for you

different than what I expected...

This was an interesting story which turned out to be much different that I originally expected. Based on the cover alone, I I thought this was going to be your basic zombie story. It wasn't...

The story is about a man who is away at war for years but finally gets to return home. He is rushing to get back to his beloved wife but when he arrives, he discovers everything is not as it once was. Having thought he died, the wife has moved on in life and even has a baby by someone else.
What happens next is crazy....

Poon!

A gnarly twisted tale of misfortune, love, struggle, and revenge. As nasty as it is funny. Seriously, if you dont like horrible disgusting stuff, well, what are you doing buying a book like this anyway
If you (and you know who you are) like this kind of stuff, I think you'll dig it. I have only two criticisms that I will get out of the way. First, the naarator was a bit fast. A very minor and petty complaint to be sure. Extremely well read and very suiting otherwise. I really enjoyed the performance.
The other is that there is a lot of repetition in the writing. It didn't break the book, but it was definitely noticeable.
Then there was Poon. perhaps my favorite character in a while. I would listen/read an entire book about Poon. Even writing this has got me smiling and chuckling. I don't want to ruin any part of the enjoyment you may get from Poon so I'll leave it there. Couldn't get enough Poon.
I would read more by the author and will check out more from the narrator as well.

With all due respect

And I do mean ALL DUE RESPECT, wtf did I just listen to? I was not aware Splatter Western was a genre I didn’t need.

I guess the story was on par with other stories of this nature. The narrator sounded one non-filtered cigarette away from death. So I guess, again, it fits the genre.

Bonus point for brevity.