The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones. Audiobook by Shaun Taylor Corbett
"You're just making that up!" Cassidy tells him. "Everything that's Indian, you just make it up!"
"Shit, somebody's got to," Gabriel says.
Ten years ago, four young Blackfeet men went on an elk hunt. Something went wrong, but not the usual sort of wrong I've ever read in a horror novel before: they didn't accidentally shoot another hunter and cover it up, like they might have in a thriller or realistic horror novel, or trespass on an Indian burial ground or Indian curse, like they might have in supernatural horror written by a non-Indian author. What actually happened was different, a wrong that had to do with their particular culture and lives.
And then they moved on. Two of them stayed on the reservation, and two of them left. But the ten-year anniversary is up, and their past is coming for them...
The Only Good Indians works on every level: as a horror novel that revels in the tropes of horror (chapters have titles like "The House That Ran Red" and "It Came from the Rez"), a clever reconfiguration of those tropes, a vivid portrait of a specific place and people, and exploration of cultural loss and identity.
It's violent, gory, often darkly comic, with lots of likable or at least very human characters (many of whom die), some very scary scenes, a really cool ambiguous monster, and some absolutely bravura pieces of writing. It starts out very male-centric, but there's a major female character who comes in later and instantly rocketed to a place in my all-time favorite female characters.
Warning for lots and lots of gory animal harm. It's central to the theme/plot, but I skimmed some parts due to extreme gruesomeness. Other standard horror warnings apply, plus depictions of racism. No sexual violence.
( Spoilers! )
The flip side of horror is transcendence, like the fearfully and wonderfully altered worlds in the movie Annihilation and the book The Girl With All the Gifts, or the abandoned lot that holds the rose that contains the sun in The Waste Lands. The ending of The Only Good Indians is transcendent.
Excellent reading by Shaun Corbett-Jones. (I always like audio performances in the audio books I review, because if I don't, I don't last more than a couple minutes and switch to the text version.)
The Only Good Indians
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"Shit, somebody's got to," Gabriel says.
Ten years ago, four young Blackfeet men went on an elk hunt. Something went wrong, but not the usual sort of wrong I've ever read in a horror novel before: they didn't accidentally shoot another hunter and cover it up, like they might have in a thriller or realistic horror novel, or trespass on an Indian burial ground or Indian curse, like they might have in supernatural horror written by a non-Indian author. What actually happened was different, a wrong that had to do with their particular culture and lives.
And then they moved on. Two of them stayed on the reservation, and two of them left. But the ten-year anniversary is up, and their past is coming for them...
The Only Good Indians works on every level: as a horror novel that revels in the tropes of horror (chapters have titles like "The House That Ran Red" and "It Came from the Rez"), a clever reconfiguration of those tropes, a vivid portrait of a specific place and people, and exploration of cultural loss and identity.
It's violent, gory, often darkly comic, with lots of likable or at least very human characters (many of whom die), some very scary scenes, a really cool ambiguous monster, and some absolutely bravura pieces of writing. It starts out very male-centric, but there's a major female character who comes in later and instantly rocketed to a place in my all-time favorite female characters.
Warning for lots and lots of gory animal harm. It's central to the theme/plot, but I skimmed some parts due to extreme gruesomeness. Other standard horror warnings apply, plus depictions of racism. No sexual violence.
( Spoilers! )
The flip side of horror is transcendence, like the fearfully and wonderfully altered worlds in the movie Annihilation and the book The Girl With All the Gifts, or the abandoned lot that holds the rose that contains the sun in The Waste Lands. The ending of The Only Good Indians is transcendent.
Excellent reading by Shaun Corbett-Jones. (I always like audio performances in the audio books I review, because if I don't, I don't last more than a couple minutes and switch to the text version.)
The Only Good Indians
[image error]
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