ALL THE LAIRD’S MEN
By Tabatha Wood
Published by Wild Wood Books
I recently (finally) got around to reading Tabatha’s first story collection, Dark Winds Over Wellington, this summer, and loved it. If being her friend wasn’t enough reason to follow her work, those stories did the trick. I’m now a fan of both the person and writer that is Tabatha Wood.
Her latest release, All the Laird’s Men, is a novella that mixes military fiction with creature-feature. You can read it in about an hour, so there’s no reason not to see what Tabatha has up her sleeves. And if the promise of a quick introduction isn’t enough to warrant your attention, let me go on to say it’s heartfelt and gruesome in all the right places. Though a short read, it packs a punch. Though it seemed obvious to me this story could be expanded into a full novel, I also think it was the right move to do it at this length. It feels complete, but not drawn out. The story isn’t complicated, but still intelligently designed, enough so that I enjoyed the structure more than anything. I would have liked a bigger and more difficult battle between Hopkins and the monster in the end, but that’s my only complaint.
All the Laird’s Men is a nice bite of Tabatha’s art; it shows her love for horror, her education, and her humanity in a wonderfully brutal and compact package.
Find Tabatha Wood at www.tabathawood.com.
Review by Aiden Merchant – This book was provided as an e-book by the author for review consideration.
- http://www.aidenmerchant.com (Also on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, and Amazon)
- contact@aidenmerchant.com (Message for review consideration)
AIDEN MERCHANT 
Leave a Reply