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The Book Corner 3/12/2020: Stephen Graham-Jones’s The Only Good Indians

Traci Kenworth

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham-Jones. Gallery/Saga Books. May 19,2020. Netgalley.

Amazon’s blurb: “One of 2020’s buzziest horror novels.” —Entertainment Weekly

“What Stephen Graham Jones does for me, is create new possibilities for Indigenous storymakers.” —Terese Marie Mailhot, New York Times bestselling author

“The Only Good Indians is a masterpiece. Intimate, devastating, brutal, terrifying, yet warm and heartbreaking in the best way, Stephen Graham Jones has written a horror novel about injustice and, ultimately, about hope.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

A tale of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.

Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

My review: It has a dry style of writing that took me a while to catch onto but once I did, the pages flew! Louis is haunted by a day that he and his three friends shared on the reservation. What’s more an entity may be coming back for revenge of the same. Starts off with a scene that leads Louis from a bar and a potential butt-kicking because he’s a Blackfoot Native American to haunted visions of a day spent with the boys of his youth. It has been ten years since Louis participated in a massacre of elk and now, he’s haunted by one in particular. When his dog dies, it seems the horror is creeping closer to him. He starts to distrust those around him. One-by-one his friends are target for that fateful day. Can any hope to survive? Much less atone. Well thought-out, masterpiece of horror! Haunting, gripping, a book to rival all hauntings! My Scorecard-B+