For me, this book was a bit hard to get through. Even though there are definitely some action-heavy moments and it follows the traditional arc of pulp fiction, it relies very heavily descriptions of nature, which, in my opinion, are somewhat difficult to get through. Moreover, many of the characters are very poorly developed / reflect traditional gender roles. Overall, the plot is good, I just personally wasn't a fan of the writing style.

I definitely enjoyed this more at the beginning than the end. By the end, the descriptions of noble and innocent women with fluttering hearts was too much for me. I kept on with it though because I was fascinated by the premise and initial focus on a female protagonist. If only the author had stayed focused on her than shifting the story mostly to the men fawning over her.

Part of my giving this book 5 stars is the fact that I listened to the audio version. I loved the reader, his way with voices, and his very Western rhythms. Fun story, too.

Liked it more than I thought I would since I am not a fan of the Country-Western genre. But I am intrigued by books that are old, and it was interesting to read a book written around the time of the Model T. Who knew that a multi-page description of a horse chase could be so spell-binding?

An excerpt of a review posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

Riders of the Purple Sage is often listed among the best novels the Western genre has to offer. While Zane Grey’s pulp roots show through, his rich descriptions of the Utah landscape are extremely evocative, and he’s managed to create some fairly compelling characters in Jane, Lassiter, Venters, and the girl he befriends. Grey’s focus on friendship, religion, family, and even marriage (as well as the strength of his female characters) will likely endear him to fans of more romantic authors like Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë—authors whose fan base tends to skew more to the feminine side. Don’t get me wrong. There is action here (gunfights, chase scenes, etc.), but the focus here is on the indirect way the Mormons exert their power over Jane. They work behind the scenes, so confrontation rarely occurs. Indeed, Grey highlights both the cowardice and the wickedness of this oblique approach by contrasting the conniving Mormon methods with the more direct (and thus somehow less despicable) actions of the local gang of cattle rustlers.

Full review available here.

After reading this and concluding that it wasn't for me for a number of reasons, I turned to other Goodreads reviews to see if others found the same distractions and annoyances that I did.

God bless you all, Goodreads reviewers.

Grey's writing is fun, but a bit tired. He waxes rhapsodic about the sage and the color of the sage at least twice on each page. Is this an exaggeration? Read it yourself and see.

Something so anti-pick-a-religion could never get published today. How the Church of Latter Day Saints didn't cut Grey's throat and let him bleed out after this is beyond me.

It's a Western! It's a Romance! It's a Western! It's a Romance! It's both, wrapped up in a cliched mess.

It'll be a while before I turn to another Zane Grey book on purpose.

westerns are not my typical genre of choice, and the first half of the book took some effort to get through, but then the second half when all the stories started coming together was great! rootin’ tootin’ cowboys meets i can fix him meets a whole lot of sage