Red Rebel

Red Rebel is the name of a horse. While being the titular character, Red Rebel and his offspring play a secondary role in the narrative, serving as a common thread that binds the human characters together. Red Rebel, the book, is an Australian western at times with some supernatural elements and a few spicy love scenes as well.

The book starts with Rebel Yell, a spirited horse, causing a bit of a ruckus. Georgia O’Grady

 manages to capture the horse and calm him down. The book makes a shift when a policeman comes and claims he needs a horse to pursue a criminal. He requisitions one of the O’Grady family horses, Rebel’s Cause. O'Grady's son, Patrick, protests, and the policeman hits him in the head with the butt of his rifle and takes the horse anyway.  Georgia grabs her gun and follows him. 

The book takes another turn when the policeman aims to shoot two of Georgia’s neighbors, the twins Wolff and Johan McKinley. Georgia shoots the police officer in the head, and the three dispose of the body and then proceed to have a threesome in the McKinley brothers’ home. In the morning before dressing, they exchange vows of marriage to each other, at which point Georgia’s father walks in on the naked trio.

There is a perspective (and time) shift to another character, Sean O’Grady, who is tending to a sick horse, Red Rebel. He was tasked by his father to bring the horse via boat from America to Australia. 

The story is told in a nonlinear way, jumping between perspectives and time. We start to learn the backstories of the characters we meet in the first few chapters. Eventually, the story jumps back to Georgia and her interesting predicament.

The author is from Australia, and uses quite a few words I was not familiar with. Stetson, for example, is a hat. Verandah, which is a word I certainly have heard before, but I’m not sure I knew what it meant. It is like a porch. I was also amused to see the word gaol (jail in American English).

I did want to give some warning. There are some sex scenes in the book. Some of these scenes are also with minors, and there are some inappropriate relationships between adults and children. 

Overall, the book is a quick read and the first book I have read set in Australia. If you are interested in having a very new and unique experience, or if you enjoy genre-bending, character-driven narrative, this may be the book for you! 

Length: 248 pages

Perspective: 3st person

Tense: Past  

Kindle Unlimited: Yes

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rebel-Justice-What-Make/dp/1763693112