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Mapping the Interior
by
Stephen Graham Jones (Goodreads Author)
Mapping the Interior is a horrifying, inward-looking novella from Stephen Graham Jones that Paul Tremblay calls "emotionally raw, disturbing, creepy, and brilliant."
Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, his mother or his brother, the figure reminds him
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
You know when you read a book and you know that at least 50% of the symbolism, comparisons, philosophy and psychology went over your head? That's what Mapping the Interior felt like to me. I know there is obviously a lot of importance and density to this novella but ask me to explain it or pull out snippets and I struggle knowing I missed a lot of somethings I can't articulate.
"There are rules, I know. Not knowing them doesn't mean they don't apply to you.
This is a story of a Native American bo ...more
"There are rules, I know. Not knowing them doesn't mean they don't apply to you.
This is a story of a Native American bo ...more
Mapping the Interior touched me in a way that's hard to define.
A young man, missing and thinking of the father who died before he could really be known, believes he saw his father coming through a doorway. From there, we learn more about this young man, his family, Native American culture, and superstitions.
In a way, this could be interpreted as a ghost story. In another interpretation it could be thought of a coming of age story-with perhaps a little psychological horror on the side. Howeve ...more
A young man, missing and thinking of the father who died before he could really be known, believes he saw his father coming through a doorway. From there, we learn more about this young man, his family, Native American culture, and superstitions.
In a way, this could be interpreted as a ghost story. In another interpretation it could be thought of a coming of age story-with perhaps a little psychological horror on the side. Howeve ...more
This elegiac but dragging new novella by Stephen Graham Jones features a haunting in the way that I believe it would actually occur. Not with translucent, floating apparitions banging on walls, levitating over you while you sleep, or chasing you down the halls of your house, but a haunting by something much more personal, quiet, and understated the way it is here.
Jones uses weaves together elements of horror, superstition, family conflict, and Native American culture and lore to tell a coming of ...more
Jones uses weaves together elements of horror, superstition, family conflict, and Native American culture and lore to tell a coming of ...more
This is a creepy Native American horror novella from one of the most inventive writers working today! A teenage boy wakes in the night to see his father going through a doorway. There’s a problem: his father is dead, having died under mysterious circumstances before his family left the reservation. Still, he follows him through the doorway, only to discover the house is much bigger than he thought. And if he goes the wrong way, he will find things that were better off hidden. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnn
...more
Jun 18, 2017
Michael Hicks
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
horror,
netgalley-2017
I know this one is getting a lot of love, but it just doesn't do much for me. It's a short read, so I don't feel particularly cheated by the time spent with it, and although I found it pretty dull overall, I feel largely ambivalent about the work as a whole.
The biggest barrier between me and the story was the writing style. The writing was just too choppy for my tastes, and the sentence constructions irked me. How so? Well, a lot of the sentences, it was written like this. "Our house, like I sa ...more
The biggest barrier between me and the story was the writing style. The writing was just too choppy for my tastes, and the sentence constructions irked me. How so? Well, a lot of the sentences, it was written like this. "Our house, like I sa ...more
Stephen Graham Jones skillfully combines American Indian lore with the innocence of childhood in this novella about a teenage boy who fears his long-deceased father has made a home for himself beneath their modular home. SGJ teasingly blurs the line between reality and imagination.. and it was exactly that quiet horror of what *might* be that kept me hooked!
Jun 20, 2017
Monica **can't read fast enough**
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
arc,
fantasy-for-real
Mapping the Interior is a chillingly hair raising, yet emotional read. This novella grabbed me from the beginning and kept me locked in until the very end. This was my first time reading a story by Stephen Graham Jones, but I will be grabbing some of his backlist titles soon. I have most definitely been missing out. I won't go into any plot details so as not to give away spoilers. I think that it is best to go into this one knowing as little as possible. The fun of reading stories like this is t
...more
Briliant short story that took a decidedly unexpected turn at the end.
NOTE: This review originally appeared on New York Journal of Books: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-...
There’s something profoundly upsetting in the thought of being able to interact with a late family member—upsetting and disturbing. Such is the twisted, black, beating heart at the center of Stephen Graham Jones’ latest tale, Mapping the Interior.
Jones has always had a knack for telling unusual stories that challenge and break through a wide variety of genres; yet there is often a theme of ...more
There’s something profoundly upsetting in the thought of being able to interact with a late family member—upsetting and disturbing. Such is the twisted, black, beating heart at the center of Stephen Graham Jones’ latest tale, Mapping the Interior.
Jones has always had a knack for telling unusual stories that challenge and break through a wide variety of genres; yet there is often a theme of ...more
Wow. This novella. It is amazingly rich, full of details and a phenomenal main character. There's not much I can say without spoiling the plot, and even now I still don't know what the 'truth' is - a true stroke of a good writer. There are twists and turns that leave you questioning everything, the protagonist, the story, the reality of his world. Truly excellent. Additionally, the perspective that Jones brings into his character and his heritage is refreshing. Having never read anything like th
...more
Well that was a great read. This pulled me back to my younger days, reading Stephen King for the first time and drawing into the lives and horrors of a family. Of a boy who sees a shadowed ghost of his father. Of a boy with hope. Of a boy who does not understand horror until it pulls him into the murky, tepid waters until it's too late
A wonderfully written novella by a talented man. The writing has a few odds and ends that make it difficult to follow exactly, some things that could have been sai ...more
A wonderfully written novella by a talented man. The writing has a few odds and ends that make it difficult to follow exactly, some things that could have been sai ...more
Jun 14, 2017
Books, Vertigo and Tea (Danielle)
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorites,
culture-literature
Mapping the Interior is a stirring novella that is difficult to label. While there is a certainly element of horror and the paranormal occurring within its absorbing pages, there is something more magical happening.
Mapping the Interior is the story of a 15 yr old boy who is unexpectedly reacquainted with his father after leaving the reservation. However, there is a small complication with the encounter. His father lost his life under unexplained circumstances. What ensues is a poignant tale of l ...more
Mapping the Interior is the story of a 15 yr old boy who is unexpectedly reacquainted with his father after leaving the reservation. However, there is a small complication with the encounter. His father lost his life under unexplained circumstances. What ensues is a poignant tale of l ...more
I sometimes found the writing a tad confusing, but this one was definitely a creepy, yet moving, read. I'll definitely be reading more of the author's work.
Jul 02, 2017
Max
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-fiction,
horror
I'm not sure I entirely understood this one, but I sure loved it.
A coming of age story filled with understated horror, loss and real emotion. I’ve read various short stories by Stephen Graham Jones in anthologies and his writing has always impressed me, this is another story that has done just that and inspired me to read more of his work.
An unusual novella that I got to read in galley form. It is a disturbing and somewhat genre and convention defying ghost story, but such a description does not do it justice. Steeped in Native American lore and knowledge (the author is a Native American) it's only real drawback is that the only two sympathetic characters are supporting characters. An interesting and quick read nonetheless.
Bruise-dark like all of Jones' writing, there's an ache in its pages that is hard to refute. It is a compact read, one that'd have fellow claustrophobes cringing, and also one that evokes the restlessness of a difficult childhood. Born and raised in Malaysia, I don't think I have the background to comment on how well the book deals with Native American identity, but I can say this: it is brilliant at calling up the hurt of a dead parent, the hurt of being an outsider, the hurt of always having t
...more
Reminds me of the best of Stephen's writing, but, for me, it never hit those real high notes.
It's a great little novella about a boy, his dead dad, his brother, and his mother, that has a ton of heart, some laughs, and some scares. It reminds me a lot of The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, but it's more straightforward and less playful.
No one writes teenagers as well as Stephen, and this really captures that feel of being young and not knowing the world, not fitting into the world the way you thin ...more
It's a great little novella about a boy, his dead dad, his brother, and his mother, that has a ton of heart, some laughs, and some scares. It reminds me a lot of The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, but it's more straightforward and less playful.
No one writes teenagers as well as Stephen, and this really captures that feel of being young and not knowing the world, not fitting into the world the way you thin ...more
My first encounter with this author was in his werewolf novel Mongrels which I thoroughly enjoyed. Mapping the Interior is another story about family dynamics and history with the terror ratcheted up. We are introduced by way of a horror story to twelve-year-old Junior who carries the stories of his culture and long dead father. He also sleepwalks and he sees ghosts. But this story isn’t really about ghosts is it, just like Mongrels wasn’t about lycanthropy?
Read the rest of the review:
http://th ...more
Read the rest of the review:
http://th ...more
Ooh, the creepiness is tangible, but you can never quite put your finger on it. And poor Dino. And that ending...guh.
![Silvana [The Book Voyagers]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1496249752p2/4216651.jpg)
Sometimes the writing confused me and the timeline seemed weird, but to be honest this seems to happen lots for Tor novellas so I'm okay with it, but otherwise this book was really something. It had its spooky moments and how Stephen Graham Jones draws the story and makes me be there with Junior and Dino and their mom.
If you're looking for a book about Native Americans written by a NA author, you should check this out when it's out! It's a novella so you'll fly by, but never doubt so MANY THING ...more
If you're looking for a book about Native Americans written by a NA author, you should check this out when it's out! It's a novella so you'll fly by, but never doubt so MANY THING ...more
I feel that this would have worked better as a full-length novel because we would have gotten the chance to get a bit more backstory, and it would have added more depth to the characters.
That said, there is some beautiful imagery throughout the story. The hero's struggle with his inner demons and his effort to stand up to his father's ghost, or maybe said ghost is actually a manifestation of his demons which is an aspect that I found very interesting, comes across adequately enough for the most ...more
That said, there is some beautiful imagery throughout the story. The hero's struggle with his inner demons and his effort to stand up to his father's ghost, or maybe said ghost is actually a manifestation of his demons which is an aspect that I found very interesting, comes across adequately enough for the most ...more
If Hollywood had any guts, someone would pick this novella up and make it work on the big screen. There's a dark Spielberg thing in here. Set not in E.T.'s suburban cookie cutter sprawl, but out on the fringes. Out where you might have an old truck tire half-buried in the yard of the house you're renting, and you have to work the antenna to get a picture on the TV.
You have two boys, living with a single mom. The oldest, the narrator, he's thinking about his departed dad more and more. The young ...more
You have two boys, living with a single mom. The oldest, the narrator, he's thinking about his departed dad more and more. The young ...more
A short, sad tale about a boy's relationship with his dead father, his loving but unhappy mother, and his little brother, a boy with a learning disability and a penchant for superhero toys. About growing up poor and Native American in a modular house in the middle of nowhere. With a supernatural twist: the boy's father comes back as a ghost, though only the boy sees him. My favourite SGJ trademark, his horror geekery, comes through in the boy's compulsion to figure out the rules regulating these
...more
Twelve your old Junior lives it his mom and little brother in a small modular home. He is haunted by the loss of his father when he was four. Now, on the cusp of becoming a man, he has to learn to cope with his feeling about his dad, a man he mostly knows through stories told by his mother. Using those clues and traditions passed down from his native Indian culture, he weaves a vivid tale of his father's remarkable return to the living and of his brother's downward health spiral. Or is it just a
...more
I'm not going to sleep tonight
This novella is Stephen Graham Jones at his deepest interior. Full of love, grace, tragedy, and pain. All of them carried in the blood from generation to generation, through the broken hearts and lives of a family. Ah, dammit. I'm tearing up again. The deepest horror in Jones' stories is that you know them and you know they're true. They're true.
This novella is Stephen Graham Jones at his deepest interior. Full of love, grace, tragedy, and pain. All of them carried in the blood from generation to generation, through the broken hearts and lives of a family. Ah, dammit. I'm tearing up again. The deepest horror in Jones' stories is that you know them and you know they're true. They're true.
Stephen Graham Jones writes stories that connect to the heart of people. I'm not, in any way, similar to the protagonist here, and yet - he expresses something universal.
It's horror, and definitely horrifying, but it's through the lens of that horror that we see the world stripped down to the basic truths that unite us all: you protect your family, and sometimes that means from each other. There are lines that shouldn't be crossed - and everyone has something that will push them over that line. ...more
It's horror, and definitely horrifying, but it's through the lens of that horror that we see the world stripped down to the basic truths that unite us all: you protect your family, and sometimes that means from each other. There are lines that shouldn't be crossed - and everyone has something that will push them over that line. ...more
I'm moving right now and the phone app doesn't want to do spoiler cuts, but, massive warning for violence against disabled people + I'll try to say more once things have settled down, IY"H.
Stephen Graham Jones creates a discomforting intimate horror that begs for lights-on reading.
May 22, 2017
Areanna Garcia
added it
Areanna
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Stephen Graham Jones is the author of fifteen novels and six collections. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in. He's married with a couple kids, and probably one
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