The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man's Wife by Premee Mohamed

Publisher – Absinthe Books

Published – Out Now

Price – £18 hardback £2.99 ebook via https://pspublishing.co.uk/the-rider-the-ride-the-rich-mans-wife-ebook-by-premee-mohamed-6383-p.asp

Lucas is dismayed when his brother Kit is chosen to take part in the Hunt: a chase that takes place every seven years and acts as a sacrifice to the Rider and his Wife, ensuring a plentiful harvest, at least that year. Determined to save his brother, all he has left, Lucas hatches a plan to save Kit and accompany him in his struggle to survive—setting the scene for a race through a post-apocalyptic landscape filled with more danger than either boy could ever imagine. The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man’s Wife is a thrilling, post-apocalyptic chase, marrying Fairy Tale, Western and Adventure. Hang on tight!

Stories have echoes. They shape and are in conversations with other stories and that’s one of the things about reading that I love to explore in my reading. How do stories evolve and what influences they have on one another. In Premee Mohamed’s eerie post-apocalyptic folk tale The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man’s Wife we find two brothers in a deadly race for freedom, but they discover they are part of a much bigger chase than they could ever imagine. It’s a hugely enjoyable fable that plays with the legends of the past in innovative ways and creates something new in the process.

The small town of Wrathford makes do. The farmers eke out a living in a world where water is scare, where ethe river is 200 feet blow in a canyon and every seven years is haunted by two ghosts. One inhabitant will be selected and then is hunted by their deadly pack. The unlucky soul will then be the next Rider. Kit and Lucas are twin teenage brothers all alone apart from themselves and their farm. But when the rains return both know the Hunt is about to begin. Kit is suddenly chosen but Lucas refuses to let their brother be a sacrifice and desperate race across the land begins. But the brothers are going to find the world and beyond is far bigger, stranger and more dangerous than they could ever imagine.

I really enjoyed this novella which starts as a weird post-apocalyptic western story and subtly goes into different directions wrong-footing the reader as the ultimate shape of the story. Mohamed grounds us in Lucas’ voice as our narrator he comes across as a young, kind-hearted young man very confused by the world he is now in. The bond with Kit really comes across – he really is the other part of him, and you feel with the references to the past that these two have struggled and never given in even with being saddled with a farm after their parents passed away early. They’re the heart of the story and for all about to come down on their heads we are invested and scared for their fates.

The weirdness and horror of the story is the haunting hunters. They turn up, they choose a victim and they hunt – two dead ghosts with physical presence and a strange swirling menacing pack of dogs that give chase. The lack of any real communication means we have a juxtaposition of a world that feels like a post apocalyptic western village with ruined wind farms and tales of a deserted city but then the supernatural also exists and the atmosphere of the weird western really works. The hunt begins and is earnest, strange and has highs and lows for the brothers as they seek to escape.

But Mohamed is never a writer known for not being innovative and the story takes shifts into exploring the hunters and the reason they may exist. The arrive into a deserted ruined modern city may suggest we may be about to have one of those technology and magic tales so common and instead Mohamed takes us instead into a deeper exploration of myths and the Hunters do indeed remind us of other stories. The idea Mohamed explores is why do so many stories have such an idea and what could this be interpreted as and I love the way the wider world gets expanded and allows Mohamed to play other riffs on the myths with a central explanation awaiting at the heart of it. The brothers have to navigate each setting and it pushes Lucas in particular to their limits as to what the best course of action is.

I’m always a fan of anything Mohamed writes and this novella experiments with voice, settings and inventiveness in a host of ways. Surprising, emotional and when it wants to be scary (there are some lovely jump scares in book form here) this is a hugely enjoyable read and highly recommended!