Grab the Lapels

Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn

Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn is a mix of genres: western, revenge, witchcraft, a small dose of horror, humor, and historical fiction (set around the Mexican-American War in the 1840s). The novel begins clearly in the narrator’s intentions: this is a letter to her child explaining why the child’s mother and father are not in its life. Readers immediately wonder: is our narrator already dead? Did the baby’s father run off? What’s going on?

The narrator is Li Lian, a girl raised among women in St. Louis, Missouri, who have owned a roadhouse for generations. Through descriptions of her facial features, we realize Li Lian is half-something. Maybe Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. Although being not obviously white, Li Lian stands out for other reasons: she’s a witch, as are all her female kin. Explaining her origins to her child, Li Lian writes about the time her cousin was haranguing her at school, so she used witchcraft against him, which kept him out of school with an illness. Here, readers learn that witchcraft “costs” the witch something; Li Lian herself becomes ill with diarrhea and can’t go to school, though she feels it was worth it to intimidate her cousin into leaving her alone. Through these memories, Dorn explains to the reader what kind of witches they have imagined without an obvious info dump or worldbuilding.

In her late teens, Li Lian meets Matthew, a medical man who can go toe-to-toe with her forward thinking. Later, when Matthew is called to the Mexican-American war to serve as a doctor in the field, they write each other letters, and when he comes home, they marry. Throughout all this, Matthew is guided by his friendship with a soldier named Ness, and it is Ness who suggests Li Lian and Matthew leave the city in which they live for the Nebraska Territory. Ness could become the only sheriff in an untamed land, and Matthew would be the only doctor. Li Lian is thrilled, not being one for claustrophobic city life, and stops taking herbs to prevent pregnancy. Now, the couple are expecting their first child, the one to whom the letter is written. Dorn creates just enough characters to give the story movement and a closeness with the people without overwhelming readers with too many names.

All of the events I’ve described happen in the first couple of chapters; we’re not even to the main plot line, which begins when two strangers, one Irish and one Mexican, show up in need of a doctor. Deciding the injured man needs a leg amputation, Matthew sends Li Lian to their neighbor, the drunken Mr. Hawking, to assist. When Li Lian and Hawking return, she sees a third person, a man in black, who wasn’t there before, unload his gun in Matthew’s chest. Dorn amazingly endears us to their characters in a short couple of chapters, meaning Matthew’s death sucks. But, it is the catalyst that sends Li Lian on her revenge plot with Hawking as her drunken sidekick. The only issue? The man in black has left no trace of himself, meaning when Sherrif Ness shows up, he believes Li Lian killed Matthew (Ness has never liked this “half-breed” witch), and puts her in jail.

Li Lian and Hawking’s relationship develops as they travel, following the man in black using magic, and Dorn includes pockets of humor, typically related to technology. When Li Lian struggles to summon her mother in a mirror, Hawking asks why she doesn’t just send a telegram. Confused by faucets in a hotel bathtub, Hawking scoffs, asking why she doesn’t just question the bear she sees in her visions on which tap is the hot water.

Horror fans will want more horror, wester fans will delight, and anyone who likes a compelling story will enjoy Devil’s Call. By mashing up so many different genres, Dorn creates something wholly new. We’re not burning witches at the stake. We’re not fighting “banditos.” We’re not reading a buddy-“cop” comedy in the style of Shanghai Noon (the western-karate film starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson). The historical fiction isn’t about reimagining the time period; instead, we get distrust—Li Lian’s features are obviously Asian, and the Mexican man who arrived for medical help argues that Matthew’s involvement with the U.S. military in Mexico contributed to the death of his family there. The horror derives from the bodies the man in black leaves in his wake, and throughout most of the book, we don’t know who he is or why he’s luring Li Lian across the central U.S. states. Dorn’s only novel is a compelling read, one which nearly killed them in the writing process.

books of winter 🎄❄️⛄

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