Vermilion, Molly Tanzer
Vermilion, Molly Tanzer
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

Vermilion
The Adventures of Lou Merriwether, Psychopomp

Author: Molly Tanzer

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Unabridged: 14 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/04/2015

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

From British Fantasy Award nominee Molly Tanzer comes her debut novel, Vermilion, a spirited weird Western adventure that puts the punk back into steampunk.Gunslinging, chain-smoking, and Stetson-wearing Taoist psychopomp, Elouise “Lou” Merriwether might not be a normal nineteen year old, but she’s too busy keeping San Francisco safe from ghosts, shades, and geung si to care much about that. It’s an important job, though most folks consider it downright spooky. Some have even accused Lou of being more comfortable with the dead than the living, and, well … they’re not wrong.When Lou hears that a bunch of Chinatown boys have gone missing somewhere deep in the Colorado Rockies, she decides to saddle up and head into the wilderness to investigate. Lou fears her particular talents make her better suited to help placate their spirits than ensure they get home alive, but it’s the right thing to do, and she’s the only one willing to do it. On the road to a mysterious sanatorium known as the Fountain of Youth, Lou will encounter bears, desperate men, a very undead villain, and even stranger challenges. She will need every one of her talents and a whole lot of luck to make it home alive.

About Molly Tanzer

Molly Tanzer is the Sydney J. Bounds and Wonderland Book Award–nominated author of A Pretty Mouth, Rumbullion and Other Liminal Libations, and Vermilion. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband and a very bad cat. When not writing, she enjoys mixing cocktails, hiking in the Rocky Mountains, experimenting with Korean cooking, and, as of recently, training for triathlons.

About Emily Woo Zeller

Emily Woo Zeller began her voice-over career by voicing animation in Asia. She returned to the United States in 2009 and found a natural fit as an audiobook narrator. Described by AudioFile magazine as doing "an extraordinary job of varying the voices in the dialogue without losing the intimacy of the story," Emily's multilingual, multicultural framework brings a particularly unique, clear-eyed, and intimate perspective into Asian American narratives. While she specializes in Asian American narratives, Emily's work spans a broad spectrum, including young adult fiction and such titles as The Whites of Their Eyes by Jill Lepore and The Sex Diaries Project by Arianne Cohen. She also narrated Gulp by Mary Roach, for which she won an AudioFile Earphones Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by E. on April 28, 2015

Earlier this year, I read an advance copy of Elizabeth Berg's The Dream Lover, which is a novel about author George Sand. In it, Sand says "I find I don't wish to be either man or woman. I wish to be myself." I found Molly Tanzer's heroine, Elouise Merriweather, reflected this idea, too, as people Lo......more

Goodreads review by Heidi on July 21, 2022

"How Lou hated dealing with the living. The dead were so much easier to manage." loc 256 ebook. Lou Merriwether is a psychopomp, or someone who assists spirits from the world of the living to the world of the dead. She doesn't get along all that well with the living, including her mother, whom Lou ha......more

Goodreads review by Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) on June 17, 2018

I had seen Molly Tanzer’s name kicking around various weird fiction anthologies and I had made a mental note to check her out when I came across her debut novel: a supernatural steampunk story set in the old West, featuring a mixed-race androgynous, gun-slinging psychopomp, uh? How could I resist th......more

Goodreads review by Sadie on January 28, 2025

"gender-defying heroine named Lou Merriwether, exorcist by trade, banishing unruly spirits in a gritty, supernatural version of the Wild West. There's unique folklore and classic Western tropes with a dash of steampunk flair... unlike anything else in the genre."......more

Goodreads review by Dr. Cat on August 28, 2024

Paranormal investigator aka Psychopomp is hot on the trail of missing people from Chinatown. All the clues lead to a doctor selling an elixir that cures almost any injury or sickness. Which takes us on a cross-country adventure featuring multiple acts of murder, cross-dressing, hermaphrodites, vampi......more


Quotes

Vermilion is a unique, hearty, thought-provoking romp that rewrites history with a vivacious flourish.” NPR

“A splendid page-turner…This hugely entertaining mixture of American steampunk and ghost story is a wonderful yarn with some of the best dialogue around.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Old West steampunk has another appealing heroine in Lou…The pages turn themselves in this debut novel from a small press that deserves a big audience.” Library Journal (starred review)

“[An] excellent debut novel…The best thing about Vermilion is Lou Merriweather…She’s fun, vibrant, rough around the edges, and a kick-ass heroine…Vermilion is a roller-coaster of a ride: it’s exciting, suspenseful, and a downright blast to read, but it maintains a serious side that underscores the complicated history of the American West. Plus, talking bears and vampires.” io9.com