THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES REVIEW BY ANDREW FOWLOW 

This was one hell of a wild ride. When I started reading, I will admit that I struggled to get into a good rhythm with the story in that I had trouble with the dialogue. Of course, I quickly got my footing and it was tough to get out of it. The Only Good Indians is one of those books where the reader develops a firm connection to the characters early on in the story just so the author can gut punch you over and over as you read along. Something I really appreciated was that you didn't need to have any real knowledge of aboriginal culture to enjoy the story. Instead, I got to take a walk on a reservation and see through the eyes of deeply flawed characters plagued by the ghosts of their pasts. The Only Good Indians is a terrifying cultural tale that has the perfect blend of cosmicism and folk horror proving Stephen Graham Jones is one of horror fiction's most brilliant writers.

I say that I had a tough time getting into a rhythm reading The Only Good Indians because the author uses a lot of slang specific to aboriginal culture. BUT once I found my footing, I was deeply invested in the story. At first, I thought the writing style was going to hinder my reading experience but that was not the case. Instead, I felt a deeper connection to the characters as if I knew them better or maybe it was a sense of belonging. Stephen Graham Jones wrote with the sole intent to place the reader in the story. Don't be deterred by the… adjustment period. I assure you, you'll get your rhythm quickly.

This is one of those stories where you can't help but develop a strong emotional connection with the characters. Every person written into this book has its own apparent internal struggle that ties them to the cosmic being that plagues their existence. Readers will get a firm grasp of what each of the protagonists is going through emotionally, the haunting details of their past, and of the evil that seeks revenge. My issue with Stephen Graham Jones is the sorrowful gut-punchy feeling I continually felt as I read through his story. The Only Good Indians will leave you breathless and heartbroken.

I'm Canadian and am well versed in aboriginal culture, I'm surrounded by it. BUT I was in no way prepared for what was happening in this story. I had never read anything involving aboriginal folklore other than stories about Wendigo until now but let me tell you, it's scary as hell. Stephen Graham Jones takes you to the darkest regions of cosmic folk horror that was both visceral and moving. Now, if your at all worried that maybe you need to know something about aboriginal folklore, you don't. You're definitely going to get a taste of the culture with a little added terror to fuel your nightmares for a while.

I rated The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 4 / 5 stars. I can't ignore the fact that the dialogue was tough to follow at times. To be perfectly honest though, I caught on quickly enough that I was still able to thoroughly enjoy the story. This novel is the perfect example of how literary fiction has its place in horror. Stephen Graham Jones will draw you in with his brilliantly crafted characters and emotionally gut you. Readers are sure to revel in this wild cosmic tale of bloody folklore.

ANDREW FOWLOW

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES REVIEW BY JOHN BODEN 

Stephen Graham Jones has long been proving himself one of the most original voices in modern horror, except a lot of his stuff I wouldn't call horror, not quite. Dark, yep...weird, most certainly. Also tragic and honest and unsettling. When you crack open a new book by Jones, you're cracking ribs and spending time gazing into the man's heart. The beats and the small but sturdy shadows that burble in his blood.

The Only Good Indians is certainly no exception to this. In fact, he has grabbed the knob and cranked it so loud the speakers are crackling an uneasy static...to match your brain and breath as you turn these pages.  Boiled down as simply as I can without giving too much away, The Only Good Indians is the story of friendship and consequence and tenacity.  A group of American Indian men face up a vengeful spirit, balancing the scales for a despicable event in their past.  That's it in as few words and spoilers as I can give you. But, oh, my brethren, this book is so much more.  It's identity-expected and inherited fist-fighting with perception by both our own selves and others.  It is fierce but no without compassion.

The very structure of the narrative is a testament to how honest and damn true to life he writes. Never a straight line or smooth edges...there are always splinters and cracks to navigate just like life.  As the layers peel away and we get to see the spine beneath the skin...just awestruck, is what I was. The voice Jones writes in, with this book and, really, any I have read, lulls you into a state of comfort. I felt so comfortable, it read like we were sitting at a corner table in a diner and he was telling me these things. It's warm as gravy and three times as rich and probably left stains on my shirt.

A truly remarkable and unforgettable experience.
 
JOHN BODEN

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES REVIEW BY TONY JONES 

There has been considerable buzz for The Only Good Indians amongst reviewers and bloggers, the first novel in four years from Stephen Graham Jones. The excellent Mongrels of 2016 is a tricky act to follow and although this latest work shows the versatility of a very experienced author, ultimately it falls short of the earlier read. Neither is it likely to have the wider appeal of the quirky and engaging Mongrels which featured a slightly different type of ‘outsider’ to that of The Only Good Indians.
 
At its heart one of the major themes of The Only Good Indian is that of the ‘outsider’, providing social commentary and observations about the lives of modern Native Americans or Indians. The prologue opens with a newspaper headline; “Indian Man Killed in Dispute Outside Bar” and throughout the story this idea is revisited; the downtrodden plight of the modern American Indian. There is nothing wrong with social commentary in horror novels, but the balance with the supernatural must gel. In The Only Good Indians it lurked so far in the background the reader might easily forget they were reading a tale of the uncanny. The many cultural observations of the American Indian, the prejudices which still exist, the differences in living on or off the reservations or clashes between tribes all played a part in the background story and were perhaps more interesting that the supernatural angle. 
 
The main story revolves around an event which happened ten years before the action begins; Gabe, Cassidy, Richy and Lewis were out hunting on the last day of the season and shot a herd of elk. These killings were unnecessarily as they gunned many more animals that they required for food and through some sort of weird karma, a spirit connected to the dead animals is seemingly hunting them for revenge ten years later. In the prologue, Ricky is killed first, it looks like a bar fight which went too far, but the others think there might be something sinister and contact with each other for the first time in years. Set over a two-week period, there is a countdown to the exact ten-year anniversary to the killings of the elks whilst the entity draws closer.  But this countdown was a real plod and I struggled to remain invested in the slow-moving proceedings. 
 
The spirit, the entity seeking revenge, lacks page time and for the most part remains very abstract. I just did not have the patience for the crawling pace of the novel and once the men were being hunted, they just seemed to accept that this was their lot in life, their price to pay for their earlier discretion. It lacked tension and any sense of urgency with the Indians running short of ideas very quickly. Ultimately the supernatural angle of the novel was weak, and I struggled to balance the elk entity story with the lives of these downtrodden Indians who lived on the fringes of society. I was looking to be entertained and I kept putting this book down and reading other stuff and it was tough to finish. Amazon shoots itself in the foot by name checking it with Adam Nevill’s The Ritual, this novel has nothing in way of comparison to the terrifying remote Swedish forests where the Nevill masterpiece is set. 
 
At a certain point the novel does make a change of direction and the action picks up slightly after the introduction of Denorah, the daughter of one of the four, Gabe. I found her much easier to spend time with as she has not been ground down by the same circumstances which impacted her father and his friends. Denorah, who has her own problems, is also a basketball prodigy but is often at odds with the school coaches due to her flamboyant, seen as showing-off, style. Again, nothing to do with horror, but I found these sections concerning basketball and the American Indian from the teenage perspective to be one of the strongest of the book. Eventually the Demorah basketball story intertwines with that of her father and the elk entity which was an odd but entertaining sequence. Although I did come close to abandoning this novel, I was ultimately pleased I finished it, mainly as I wanted to know how everything played out for this spiky, but very likable, teenager.
 
Entities associated with Native American mythology often pop up in modern horror fiction and although The Only Good Indians does occupy the literary end of the genre it lacked the necessary ingredients to make me want to take some of the ideas explored in the book further. For example, did the killing of the elk have some special significance to the Blackfeet Tribe, to which the men were members? Did the four break a tribal unwritten law by killing more than they could eat? Was the elk ever seen as a supernatural force by the Blackfeet in any wider context? These are all good questions, but I just did not care enough about the men involved to follow any of it up. I recently also read J.H. Moncrieff’s Those Who Came Before, which concerns a supernatural happening on an ancient Indian reservation. That novel might not have been as thoughtful or literary as The Only Good Indians, but it was a great page-turner and along the way also made observations about the life of modern American Indian without sacrificing readability. 
 
Ultimately, I struggled with the writing style of The Only Good Indians and found it heavy going, slow and all the characters were too similar until Denorah is introduced to the story and there are a few sparks. I am sure this novel will have its fans and many readers will be delighted to see Jones return to the Native American themes he last visited in the strong novella Mapping the Interior, but it lacked the freshness of Mongrels .

Tony Jones

Adam Nevill's The Ritual meets Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in this atmospheric gothic literary horror.

Ricky, Gabe, Lewis and Cassidy are men bound to their heritage, bound by society, and trapped in the endless expanses of the landscape. Now, ten years after a fateful elk hunt, which remains a closely guarded secret between them, these men and their children must face a ferocious spirit that is coming for them, one at a time. A spirit which wears the faces of the ones they love, tearing a path into their homes, their families and their most sacred moments of faith.
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The Only Good Indians, charts Nature's revenge on a lost generation that maybe never had a chance. Cleaved to their heritage, these parents, husbands, sons and Indians, these men must fight their demons on the fringes of a society that has no place for them.

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