Review - Medicine Woman
Indie '25 - Lap Fifteen
‘You were born under a dark star, Levi Thurston.’
Yeehaw! Welcome back to Indie ‘25 review number fifteen!
(I promise that was the only yeehaw of this entire article. Please keep reading).
Today we’re taking it all the way to the wild savagery and hard living of the American frontier to count coup and run buffalo with Frank Kidd’s action-packed western Medicine Woman.
I’m really excited about this one so saddle up and let’s ride.
In a time when the West was still wild, when herds of buffalo thundered on the plains and the white man had only just cracked the potential of the untamed lands, we find Levi Thurston. A true mountain man, Levi lives rough and wanders the new world, making his way as a hunter, a trapper, and of course, a fighter. A lone man might find himself easy pickings for the Indian braves, but not Levi. He faces them head-on and has hung many-a scalp from his saddle horn. But his luck runs dry after escaping a tussle with Ute warriors. Injured, he takes shelter in a sacred burial ground and is convinced he’s picked up a curse. His only hope? The hearsay of a Blackfoot medicine woman who might be able to lift it.
The young and beautiful Apaniaki is the daughter of the Blackfoot Chief, and the medicine woman Levi seeks. Of an age to marry soon, her most daunting issue of late is the potential suitors being entertained by her father; will it be the honorable Spotted Locust or the ambitious Large Teeth? Levi’s entreaty sows tension amongst the Blackfoot, but this is eclipsed when war comes to the tribes and both mountain man and medicine woman are caught in the middle…
Y’all this was my first ever real Western and boy howdy, it did not disappoint! For a simple premise, this book delivered the good stuff every step of the way and there wasn’t any part of it that left me feeling unsatisfied. From the setting and characters, to the action and romance, all the way to the prose and structure of the novel itself, Medicine Woman deserves nothing less than the five stars I’m giving it. Quite simply, I adored this book.
In an age that is getting a bit thirsty for new solid Men’s Fiction, Medicine Woman shines. It’s a true rough-and-tumble adventure set in a time when men were men, and you can tell that Kidd did his research while writing it. He puts you right there on the frontier; ranging through the wilds, where the old magic still held sway in what the White Man called the new world. A place where the spirits of the land and beasts still speak to their People; visions coming in dreams, signs being interpreted by the yipping of a coyote at the full moon, medicine men casting bones to read the will of the creator. It’s a world that is somehow foreign and familiar all at once, but where “civilization” has not yet conquered the sweet savagery of the untamed. Bows and arrows, horses and hatchets, single-shot guns… those are the only laws of the land. It’s kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, and it breeds a hardy people.
Levi plays the part of the hero and wears the mantle well. He’s a man of true grit; raised hard to be independent and adaptable, someone who walks tall through the world and is sure of himself. He’s the sort of guy who has a presence, who other men instinctually offer a respectful nod to as they pass by. He’s more than a survivor, he’s a fighter that goes to toe-to-toe with any that cross him, be they man or beast. What really got me about Levi though is that even though he is strong and competent, he is also pragmatic and never arrogant. He might be a bit brash and wrathful, but he also respects the fact that he lives in a dangerous time, an outsider in a land that is still very much ruled by its indigenous people and their superstitions and culture. Hell, the whole novel begins with him subscribing to the notion that he’s been cursed by evil spirits and needs to go find a skilled medicine woman to heal him.
Levi had always been taught to pay no mind to fate, for what it did or did not do could change as often as God liked. All a man could do in the face of eternal uncertainty was face his doom head on, and go straight at it, whether win, lose, or draw. There was honor in that.
Speaking of the medicine woman, Apaniaki is the perfect pairing to the gruff Levi. Soft yet headstrong, graceful yet sturdy, quick-witted yet humble. And easy on the eyes, which is a cause of the lot of her problems but not something she can be faulted for. She knows who she is, trusts her instincts, and knows exactly what she does not want. Which is, mainly, the two-faced bastard Large Teeth.
Large Teeth, an antagonist to both our leads, is a real piece of shit that you love to hate. He’s everything Levi is not; conniving, cowardly, and cruel, letting his ambitions rules him and not caring what he tramples on to see them realized. Particularly, his infatuation obsession with Apaniaki drives most of the schemes he hatches, from those that are merely whackadoodle to the ones that are downright heinous.
His thoughts turned to Apaniaki then and remembered the way she looked. How her hips moved when she walked and had not known he was watching. The tumbling of her hair in the sun. The heave and fall of her heavy bosom. What he would give to take her.
Through Large Teeth came a lot of (if not most of) the drama. For a setting presented as untamed and savage, I found the scenes amongst the tribes to be surprisingly sophisticated. The political intrigue amongst the Native tribesmen, particularly the inner power struggles within the communities that played out as well as any courtly dramas I have read in other books. There is backstabbing and manipulation, lies and slander, duels and murder. But of course, it’s not all subterfuge either. This is the Wild West we’re talking about so there is also a fair share of violence within the book. It is palpable but never egregious, realistic in the way that lets you feel the bones cracking or hear the peeling of flesh from skull as someone is scalped.
Luckily Kidd is skilled enough to know well how to balance that sort of excitement. Enter: the romance.
(Let me just stop here a moment and state that anyone who thinks romance does not have a place in fiction for men has probably never kissed a girl who didn’t have the same last name as him. Feel some feelings and dare to care for a woman, you pansies.)
While Medicine Woman is undoubtedly an action and adventure novel, it is also a love story that is surprisingly gentle and sweet. The stolen glances, the slow roll of the lovers coming together and learning to love one another, the tender embraces and passionate kisses.
And the sweet, sweet love makin’ that follows. Mmm, get some.
She loved him. Burned for him with every fiber of her being. He was gentle, and kind, at least to her, and the things he cared for, but to everything else, to foe or enemy, he was to be feared.
I’ll digress there without saying too much more about the plot as I want you all to read this book. But I will go back to touch on the prose I mentioned earlier. There is a simple elegance to how Medicine Woman is written that was breathtaking. Sometimes for the beautiful, poetic descriptions of landscapes, people, or philosophical ideas; but other times for the visceral reaction it evokes in the reader, something deep and animalistic that lurks just below ourselves, buried under generations of societal advancement. It’s quite remarkable and you can tell the author poured a lot of his own passion into every aspect of this novel.
I said earlier that I was going to give Medicine Woman a solid five stars and it deserves it. I really did not want this book to end, having that bittersweet ache in my guts when it did. Not because the story was over, but because the story was over… If you know what I mean by that. I also learned shortly after reading it that this is Kidd’s debut novel, and if that’s so then I look forward to any subsequent works.
I truly cannot recommend this one enough. I also realize that a few times in the review I pegged it as Men’s Fiction but don’t let that scare you off, ladies. DudeLit doesn’t just have to be for the dudes. There is plenty here for everyone. Live a little.
Grab a copy of Medicine Woman today. You won’t regret it.
Wouldn’t want to follow that one, eh?? ;) ;) But someone will! Stay tuned for my announcement on indie read #16 of the year, coming soon.
Thanks for stopping by The Word Dump!
Omg this sounds amazing! It’s so hard to find good gritty westerns these days. And the cover is a banger. Thank you for fattening my TBR 🤘
Romances can be very useful for adventure tales. Not only do they raise stakes, sometimes they are necessary to give shape to what would otherwise be an episodic series of adventures. Why end the tale here? Because he won the girl.