This next one was a bit of a doozy. Misery Plaza by J. J. Alo tells the story of a man who is being forced to face his past. After being found by a previous associate the man, now going by the name Potter, takes his two young children and leaves town knowing the law will soon be after him. They travel to Missouri Plaza, a small town in extremely rural New Mexico with an extremely small population. Upon arriving they move into the old Bennett house, a house that belonged to Potter’s father-in-law, and work on making it and the land livable. Potter gets a job at the neighboring ranch while his young son finds work in town. However, things start getting weird when they start exploring the Bennett property. There is an unusually large collection of weapons and explosives in the basement of the house and there is no well on the property. Potter goes to dig a well and has trouble striking water. As he continues digging he discovers that the reason there is no water is that there is a ship buried in the yard of the Bennett House. A ship filled with mysterious creatures and rich treasure.
This book was pretty good overall as it actually had a pretty intriguing storyline. However, I was more than a little surprised by the way the story ended up going. It started out feeling like a pretty stereotypical western with a man on the run from the law, only this time taking his kids with him on the way. Once the family actually arrives in the town of Missouri Plaza is when it starts feeling different. The town seems to be hiding some secrets and as they start to come into the open it starts to amp up the tension and stress that is present in the storyline. I will admit that some of what was present in the story felt a little out of place at times and I wasn’t sure if it was just me. The butcher and his wife practicing human sacrifice seemed a little over the top considering everything else going on in the town. I felt like this was maybe an unnecessary element to include though I will acknowledge that it did play a role in the events taking place in the second half of the book so maybe it was more important than I realized. However, the role of the butcher and his wife could have been pretty similar without the human sacrifice element. There were definite times when it felt almost like the author was just adding in all of the different elements frequently seen in horror stories and sometimes they didn’t quite fit, at least in my opinion. In spite of my feeling like that I will also state that this book was still very well written and rather compelling and haunting. I really hope I never end up living in a place anything like Missouri Plaza so I am happy to give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
This book was a pretty good example of a horror western so if you like those genres consider trying it out. It comes closer to the horror end of that spectrum so it rarely feels like a typical western though so keep that in mind when you consider it. If you don’t happen to enjoy those genres than I doubt that this book would appeal to you. In terms of recommended age range I would suggest that this should probably only be read by adult readers. That is probably the intended age range anyway but with how dark and violent the second part of the book is it would probably by unsuitable or difficult for younger readers. At best nobody younger than their late teens should probably read this book. However, it is a pretty good book and I hope you consider trying it. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I acquired this book through the NetGalley review program.