4 out of 4 stars
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Hontas is the next installment of a series of “re-imagined fairy tales” by V.M. Sawh. It takes the well-known characters, Pocahontas and John Smith (here known merely as Hontas and John), and drops them into the Wild West where they’re on the hunt for a man named Smythe to collect a staggering bounty of $10,000. Underestimated because of her “redness,” Hontas is determined to kill Smythe and collect the money.
Their trek to find Smythe isn’t easy, however, and Hontas and John quickly find themselves in more danger than they could’ve imagined. They locate Smythe, only to find that his success has been built largely on the enslavement of the Native American people, the horror of which drives Hontas to the brink. Once they get to Smythe’s camp, things go from bad to worse, and John and Hontas suddenly find themselves up against the violent, ruthless Smythe in a battle to the death.
While generally Westerns are a genre that I can take or leave, I immensely enjoyed this story. It took a story that I loved, thanks to Walt Disney, and turned it completely on its head in a way that left me so engrossed that I read the entire story in one sitting.
I enjoyed Hontas’s journey to reconcile her ethnicity and heritage with her need to prove herself to the White Men. Weaving this theme throughout helped me connect with her character and hope for her survival. In other iterations of this story, John is usually portrayed as a bull-headed, cavalier man who only cares for himself. The character developed in this story, however, was made of only kindness and goodness, which was a nice change. Smythe was also the perfect villain, and the horrors he was capable of were described in just the right amount of detail so as to drive this fact home. He’s a character that I loved to hate, and would like to never encounter in real life if at all possible.
Although short at only 67 pages, I felt the author did this story justice. There was just enough detail to really etch the story in my mind, but the pace was fast enough to keep me completely locked in. It wasn’t your usual fairy tale with a happy ending all tied up nicely with a bow. It was raw and emotional and fraught with terror. I rate it a 4 out of 4 stars and I really look forward to reading other stories in this series.
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Hontas
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