The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is a 2005 novel by Tim Pratt. This is Pratt's first full-length novel. Rangergirl takes place in the real world, but with supernatural and Western elements. The cover artwork was illustrated by pulp artist Michael Koelsch. Plot summary Marzi McCarty is an art school dropout working at Santa Cruz coffeeshop Genius Loci. She draws a comic book called The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, featuring the eponymous heroine fighting the evil Outlaw in a Fantasy Western setting. College student Jonathan rents a room in Genius Loci in order to study the murals inside. They are the last works of Garamond Ray, an artist who disappeared during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He is interested in a desert-themed mural in the storage room, which Marzi has sealed off as structurally unsound. As Marzi, Jonathan, and Marzi's best friend Lindsey get to know one another, strange incidents begin to occur at Genius Loci. People in the shop hear voices. Marzi has recurring flashbacks of a door in a desert. Art student Beej rambles about a god trapped in the shop. A mudslide interrupts a romantic outdoor interlude between graduate students Denis and Jane; Denis escapes but leaves Jane to die. Jane's body is transformed into mud, and she begins talking about an earth goddess living inside the shop. Marzi recovers a repressed memory: several years before, she had opened the door inside the storage room, encountering the dimension within and the god trapped inside it. This contact allowed the god to influence the real world, but also marked Marzi as the door's guardian, giving her subconscious influence on the space inside. The dimension has taken on the Weird West aesthetic of her comic book, and the nameless god has taken on the guise of the Outlaw, causing it to look and act like an outlaw stock character in a Western, complete with cowboy hat. The Outlaw manipulates Jonathan into opening the door and escapes, throwing Jonathan inside and placing a deadly curse on him. He tells Marzi that Jonathan will die if she doesn't rescue him. When Marzi insults him, he realizes her influence has made him significantly more human: he gloats, has insight, and takes offense. Each too weak to defeat the other, they vow to have a showdown, and the Outlaw leaves. Marzi and Lindsey enter the realm beyond the door to save Jonathan and find