Trade Yer Coffin for a Gun by Mer Whinery
Jackanapes Press (June 2026)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Mer Whinery is a storyteller from Southeastern Oklahoma. He is married with two boys and far too many critters crawling about his century-plus-old house to count. His home is often filled with phantom smells (usually the aroma of fried chicken) and a ghost that likes to hide DVDs. Jackanapes Press presents a new edition of his Trade Yer Coffin For a Gun, which has been out of print and, of late, unobtainable.
The story follows Jubilee “Sugar” Bava, her twin brother Cutter, and their elder brother Micah, who are mercenary gunslingers collectively known as the Haints. Orphaned and driven out of their hometown of Coffin Mills by corrupt officials, the trio are lured back to battle a supernatural threat to the town’s children. Rumored to be the work of the Cult of the Cold Hand, the Haints suspect something far more sinister and evil. Will they find revenge and justice against the evil cursing Coffin Mills, or will they end up doomed and damned?
As a weird western, this book is a delight. Whinery creates an atmospheric world with a post-war landscape devoid of all hope and joy, even light itself. The whole area feels abandoned to the supernatural demons the Haints fight, and even the citizens of Coffin Mills seem hopelessly steeped in darkness and misery. This world-building creates an over-the-top horror story filled with witches, zombies, demons, vampires, necrophilia, Satanism, as well as the usual western tropes of lawless towns rife with prostitutes, gunslingers, and the other unsavory elements that famously populate the Wild West.
Whinery’s prose is thick and luscious, almost deliberately calling attention to itself. His descriptions create an almost poetic lyricism in the text. This serves as a stark contrast to the violent, gory subject matter, creating a memorable reading experience. The pacing of this novel works well, too, with Whinery knowing when to slow down to reveal a backstory or philosophize on the nature of evil, and when to make the action scenes punchy, fast, and raw.
Overall, Mer Whinery’s Trade Yer Coffin For a Gun is a fun, scary romp through the Wild West. Fans of Weird Westerns, especially those drenched in blood and horror, will thoroughly enjoy this tale, but any horror readers interested in demon hunting, folk horror, and revenge plots will want to have this title on their shelf as well.
