Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck by Leonce Gaiter vividly recounts the harrowing true story of the Rufus Buck Gang, a group of multiracial teenagers whose brief but brutal rampage in 1895 shocked Indian Territory and beyond. Against the backdrop of the fading frontier as the U.S. government pressed deeper into Indigenous lands and Judge Isaac C. Parker’s era of harsh justice drew to a close, Gaiter reconstructs a moment in history where lawlessness, identity, and resistance violently collided. The gang, led by the half-black, half-Indian Rufus Buck and spiritually fueled by visions involving a mysterious 13-year-old girl named Theodosia Swain, aimed to reclaim Native lands through an unsettling mixture of zealotry and carnage. Interweaving real-life legends like Cherokee Bill and Henry Starr with fictional elements, the novel paints a complex portrait of a collapsing world where youthful rage meets imperial domination, and where the line between martyrdom and madness blurs.

Author Leonce Gaiter has a keen sense of atmosphere and timing, and these small details in the vivid descriptions bring a forgotten chapter of American history to life with gritty realism and haunting emotional depth. One of the things I enjoyed most about the novel was its emotive sense of perspective, putting real events into an artistic and literary format that reconstructs a multiracial viewpoint, rather than the dry reporting of history books. Rufus’s dialogue was especially enthralling, giving a good blend of cinematic-style entertainment and period accuracy, especially in his viewpoint on those who opposed him and the judicial system of the time. This is also a morally complex narrative, not just because of its wayward anti-hero figure and his often fanatical ways, but because the racial tensions of the time are brought into the cold, hard light and inspected with interesting parallels to discussions of how to preserve and honor world history today. And for readers looking for a deeper connection to their characters, Gaiter certainly captures the psychological and spiritual trials of his cast with fearless intensity and raw, visceral detail. Overall, I Dreamt I Was in Heaven is a bold and disturbing meditation on justice, race, and historical memory that I highly recommend.