Book Review — BAD CREE by Jessica Johns
In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.
When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow’s head in her hands, she panics. Only moments earlier she had been fending off masses of birds in a snow-covered forest. In bed, when she blinks, the head disappears.
Night after night, Mackenzie’s dreams return her to a memory from before her sister Sabrina’s untimely death: a weekend at the family’s lakefront campsite, long obscured by a fog of guilt. But when the waking world starts closing in, too—a murder of crows stalks her every move around the city, she wakes up from a dream of drowning throwing up water, and gets threatening text messages from someone claiming to be Sabrina—Mackenzie knows this is more than she can handle alone.
Traveling north to her rural hometown in Alberta, she finds her family still steeped in the same grief that she ran away to Vancouver to escape. They welcome her back, but their shaky reunion only seems to intensify her dreams—and make them more dangerous.
What really happened that night at the lake, and what did it have to do with Sabrina’s death?
Release Date: January 10, 2023
My ThoughtsBad Cree is a character-driven story of grief, familial relationships, and Cree traditions, with a strong supernatural component.
The writing style is engaging. I was immediately fascinated by the young woman’s ability to seemingly travel into her dreams. The dark, psychological aspect had me on edge.
But pacing soon lagged, and the middle of the book meandered too slowly. Poor communication—or often the complete absence of communication—within this otherwise close-knit family directly resulted in many of the mishaps and misunderstandings, drawing things out unnecessarily.
I would’ve liked to get to know the family better, and to spend more time learning about their traditions and beliefs.
The final quarter of the book came alive, sucking me back into the story and giving me chills.
*I received an eARC from Doubleday books, via NetGalley.*
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