HOBBIES OVER COFFEE

Once you’re done reading the prologue, you quickly realize that you are about to take a journey where you will question everything. Since this book has yet to be released I will try to talk about it without spoiling anything. 

• Title :  The Only Good Indians
• Author : Stephen Graham Jones
• Genre :  Horror, Fiction, Fantasy/Supernatural, Contemporary 
• Pages :  320
• Own/Borrowed/ARC :  eARC provided through NetGalley
• Publication Date :   July 14th 2020
• GoodReads Link /Synopsis : 

The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel 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

In the prologue you are introduced to Ricky, one of the four friends this story is centered around. It talks about his life off the reservation and you follow him on a night out at a bar right before his death. Honestly, this short story about Ricky captivated me and kept me wanting to know more about why this entity would want him dead and just with how we were introduced to it and Ricky’s flighty need to leave, I wanted to know more.

We then follow Lewis and through these chapters we find out what it is that set this all into motion. I will not ruin what the reason this entity has for hunting these four friends down as I want you to experience it for yourself. We do follow Lewis’s slow descent mentally as this entity haunts him. You see him question the people around him and what leads to his own vicious actions as he no longer can trust anyone or himself.

When it is done with Lewis, we see it then set its sights on Gabriel & Cassidy, the last two of the friends. They still live on the reservation and they both also live with what they all did in one way or another. At the moment they are brought together to mourn the loss of their two friends. This section of the book is aptly named “The Sweat Lodge Massacre,” and the chapters do a wonderful job of setting up what brings things into motion along with the tension of unsaid things that the last two friends have between the two of them.

This book forces you to feel the descent into the slow madness that the four main characters go through as they are haunted, and hunted, by this entity. It is unflinching with its gore so please be warned ahead of time if that is something you would rather prefer.

There are multiple changes in point of view through the chapters depending on who or what you are following. Don’t get me wrong, it works with this story but multiple changes is just one of those peeves I have in stories. I understood why it did what it did, it helped us watch Lewis’s mentality slow decline, it helped us build slowly towards what happened at the sweat lodge, it even helped us follow in the thinking of the entity and its one track mindset of what it needed to do. I just don’t like switching back and forth so many times. But again, that is just a personal preference thing. It did not take anything away from this story or feel meaningless. I actually enjoyed it in this novel.

This book is easily one of my favorite reads of 2020. If you love horror I suggest you run out and buy it, but please also be warned that the book is graphic in its violence and if that is something you would prefer not to read or triggers you, I suggest that you skip reading it all together. There are other triggers as well to look out for but seeing as I don’t really have any I can’t name them all. I know violence/death of an animal is a high one in this book along with domestic violence and vivid murder scenes. But if you have other triggers you’d like me to add to this let me know!

My Rating :

Thank you again to Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.