3.0
A Book of Tongues
ByPublisher Description
“Gemma Files has one of the great dark imaginations in fiction―visionary, transgressive, and totally original.” —Jeff VanderMeer
In Gemma Files’s “boundary-busting horror–fantasy debut,” former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic (Publishers Weekly). He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side.
Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires.
Caught between the good, the bad, and the unholy, Morrow will have to ride out a storm of magical mayhem to survive, in this debut novel, the first book of Files’s “weird Western Hexslinger trilogy . . . [which] is chock full of hellish horrors” (Mike Allen, author of Unseaming).
“Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.” —Tor.com
“Definitely promising—tantalizing, even, because it sets up such a fertile scenario and hammers home the themes of love, sacrifice, and apotheosis.” —Strange Horizons
“Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.” —Fangoria
In Gemma Files’s “boundary-busting horror–fantasy debut,” former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic (Publishers Weekly). He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side.
Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires.
Caught between the good, the bad, and the unholy, Morrow will have to ride out a storm of magical mayhem to survive, in this debut novel, the first book of Files’s “weird Western Hexslinger trilogy . . . [which] is chock full of hellish horrors” (Mike Allen, author of Unseaming).
“Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.” —Tor.com
“Definitely promising—tantalizing, even, because it sets up such a fertile scenario and hammers home the themes of love, sacrifice, and apotheosis.” —Strange Horizons
“Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.” —Fangoria
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3.0

✨🦇gaycowboyvampire🦇✨
Created 10 months agoShare
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Glenna U
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Onion Knight
Created about 1 year agoShare
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“would have liked it if there was more of an explanation for why hexs have to feed on one another when they meet. or why they feed in general I just cant seem to understand it when reading. makes it hard for me to get into. I have struggled to find any character to be super likable. maybe ill revisit these books at another point, but for now I dont think ill continue it. why is everyone in this book an over the top asshole”

Triffidesque
Created about 1 year agoShare
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About Gemma Files
Gemma Files, a former film critic, journalist, screenwriter, and teacher, has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published two collections of short work; two chapbooks of speculative poetry; the “weird western” Hexslinger Series; a story-cycle; and the standalone novel Experimental Film, which won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for Best Adult Novel. Files also has several story collections and a collection of poetry forthcoming.
Other books by Gemma Files
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