Cathy Beaudoin

Loved It!

Revisado: 01-19-22

Back in 2016, I read Robin McLean’s book of short stories, Reptile House, and fell in love with her writing style, unfiltered, edgy with a purpose, and funny. Robin’s writing reflects the fact that she has lived in the kind of rural places that require a keen awareness of one’s surroundings. You can feel this in her work, where such an awareness results in writing with a razor’s edge.

For me, I appreciate this style of writing. It’s why I read, to be exposed to people, places, and ways of thinking I’d otherwise never experience That’s what Pity the Beast is, a world I’d otherwise never see.

Though the story is classified as a Western, I view it more like a story about the relationship between people and each other, people and animals, and people and the land. In order to explore these three relations, it makes sense to place these characters in a rural setting, and ultimately, the American West.

Pity the Beast is far from a “feel good” story. At its heart, the story explores the fine line between good and bad in people. And though serious to its core, there is a lot of wry humor throughout, especially male cowboy humor. My favorite character, Granny, also has a lot of dry wit, and uses it to deliver her own bits of wisdom throughout the story.

Without a doubt, this book has a strong sense of place and characters, a strong story arc and plot, and Robin uses every word available to her when describing the range of emotions her characters feel. I definitely felt like I was right with these people, and cringed at the choices they made. And while this is ultimately a simple “chase” story. In the end, defining the beast is not so simple. In the end, Robin challenges the reader to understand how the beast is in all of us.

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