I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Yeehaw Junction by Kayli Scholz Source: Moonstruck Books
on November 5, 2025
Genres: Splatterpunk
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“Welcome to Yeehaw Junction, Florida. I’m Skeet. The date is June-something, 1999 and I’m gonna be a school shooter when I grow up.”
When a family of thieves and runaways joins the search for a missing girl in rural Florida, they’re drawn into a chemical conspiracy that extends far beyond their worst nightmares. Told through the eyes of Skeet, an aspiring school shooter and Marilyn Manson fan, Yeehaw Junction is a gritty, fast-paced Southern noir packed with unforgettable imagery and horror.
Yeehaw Junction is a horrific white-trash slice of life crime story told through the eyes of a disturbed twelve-year-old boy who goes by Skeet, along with police interrogations and news reports. The overarching story revolves around the disappearance of a young girl named Heather. Skeet and his foster family decide to look for the girl in hopes of claiming the 100,000 dollar reward. But that’s just the start of what becomes a series of horrific events caused by this “dirty rotten family.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. It started out pretty tame. Skeet and his oldest “foster sister” sell jars of what they call DDT soil to tourists for money. Jenna records disturbing content with a camcorder to sell online to people looking for macabre videos and items. Clothing worn by murder victims, abducting children, and the like. Sure, it was weird and creepy until they decided to be the cause of the footage they captured. Page 89 is where the story takes its terrible turn, and it’s all downhill from there. The actions taken by the “dirty rotten family” are terrifying, but when they’re the brainchild of a 12-year-old boy, that just amplifies the horror.
Even though the main story is “Frakensteined,” together I never really got lost, but I did have to go back and check the dates at the beginning of each chapter every now and then. However, that was mainly so I could keep up with the amount of time that passed. By the end of the book, all the pieces fell into place for a mind-blowing twist. I don’t know if this is a negative, but when I turned over the last page, I was left with so many questions and wanting to know more. I think that’s just because Scholz crafted such an intriguing story. I’ve already decided that I’m going to be rereading this soon to find clues that I might have missed.
Scholz also crafted characters that are believable and subtly terrifying. When I started reading, I could definitely tell something was off about these people, and as the story went on, their true nature was revealed. What makes Skeet so scary is that for a 12 year old boy, he knows what he’s doing is wrong, but in his mind, he’s justified. He knows how to manipulate the people around him in order to get what he wants, even from his siblings. Cricket is a character that we want to sympathize with, but there’s a darkness that lurks under the surface. Jenna mainly sits on the sidelines, but in truth, she’s the quiet catalyst for a lot of what happens within the story.
I love Scholz’s writing style and her ability to craft a story with vivid details and visuals. I could see everything Scholz described in the novel and feel the heat coming from SR-60. It probably helps that I live in South Florida, only about 90 minutes from YeeHaw Junction, but I digress. Despite being set in the Sunshine State, the tone of the novel is consistently dark. While there is some humor sprinkled throughout the book for balance, it matches the overall tone of the book.
Yeehaw Junction by Kayli Scholz is dark, gritty, a slice of Americana horror noir, and perfect for horror fans who are ready to dip their toes into the splatterpunk subgenre. It’ll leave you wanting to know so much more about this dirty, rotten family that makes their living off selling the souvenirs of local tragedies. It will be available on November 5th, 2025, wherever books are sold, and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
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