Book • Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Only Good Indians is the latest horror novel by Stephen Graham Jones, and has been quite a lot of buzz here on bookstagram.

This story focuses on four Native American friends as they must come to terms with and face the repercussions of a horrendous night from their past as its ten year anniversary approaches. One of the strengths of this story is the way that Jones was able to maintain a sense of a modern myth throughout his narrative. The themes of the story felt familiar, but the way that Jones went about telling the story was fresh. In addition to that, Jones knows how to jar the reader with thrills, scares, and violence in a way that was really gripping.

That being said, I was not a fan of the pacing of this novel. It almost felt like a collection of short stories, but with a small narrative string to connect the different perspectives. Because of this, I would get really into the story, and then it would peak and drop into some parts that really dragged for me. I also wasn’t attached to any of the characters, which always brings my rating down a notch.

I do think that this is a very important novel, despite my criticisms, as it brings forward a very important perspective, and draws attention to the stereotypes and injustice around the societal perspective on Native Americans that is still present today. While this novel wasn’t a huge hit for me, Jones does a lot of things right, and I am excited to see what he does in the future.

Jeez oh Pete... I loved this book the only thing that was weird was all the basketball?? It was an interesting book and you definitely get sucked into the plot.

Everything about this was fantastic, easily a new all time favorite for sure. The characters felt to real, and familiar. The setting and atmosphere were everything I could have wanted from a horror story. And the gory elements didn't feel forced or gratuitous. It was perfectly balanced and satisfying. I'm definitely going to be re-reading this every year to establish the perfect ~scary vibes~!

A slow burn, but when it gets going.... A very solid horror novel with multidimensional indigenous characters with various kinds of relationships with their tribal identities. The tragedy is inevitable but completely preventable - the second half of the book is infused with palpable dread. I've been recommending it frequently.

A very unique story. It may take a bit to get into, but it's well worth it. There aren't many books dealing with native American culture, and this was excellent.

Definitely felt like it dragged in places, but overall a very different and engaging story. I really enjoyed the shifts between perspectives.

This is not an easy book to read. It is a true horror read. I've been reading horror/thrillers for most of this year as a way of escape, but this is no escape here.

This novel falls into the "haunted by your past" type of tale. Four friends are haunted and hunted by a choice they made, ten years after the fact.

It is dark. It is disturbing. It is chilling.

Stephen Graham Jones is a Blackfeet Native American, something I looked up after page one of the book. Jones does an excellent job weaving culture and the horror genre together.

I both highly recommend and warn you against taking this lightly.

All sorts of content warnings: animals being harmed and graphic violence.

As usual, SGJ blows me away. I want to give a content warning but for some it might be a spoiler so proceed at your own risk: Animal death, animal revenge, people death, gore, racially-based murder, wasted mac & cheese.]

Ten years before the time of this novel, four friends who grew up together shot a bunch of elk on lands protected by their Blackfeet elders. Strange things start happening....

I just can't spoil it for you, read it.

In discussing it (on a future episode of someone else's podcast) I really started to notice how clever Jones is. First, he changes tenses as the story changes, and this really messes with your head in delicious ways. Since he's writing what he calls "Indian" characters, he openly applies some of the tropes you often encounter when reading about indigenous people but then spins them around - I felt like I could see him chuckling at some of the clever turns some of them take. There are moments that required me to go back and be like, wait, what just happened OH DAMN THAT JUST HAPPENED. He tricked me into liking the characters and how real they feel, and how real their relationships with each other feel, and then he would have bad things happen to them. I'm still not sure I fully understand the ending (but enjoyed rereading it.)

The Only Good Indians was a good read by Stephen Graham Jones. This book follows four Indian men that are struggling for their lives. They all had a disturbing event in their past. They are tracked by something that is bent on revenge and must now do whatever they can to survive.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

5 stars

The Only Good Indians follows the story of four Blackfeet men dealing with the consequences of the slaughter of a herd of elk on the reservation when they were young boys. One of those elk was different from the rest—she was pregnant. She’s come back for revenge and she won’t stop until every single Blackfoot and the one child that was born of one of the men are dead. This is a beautiful book. It’s a book about being Blackfoot in a world that doesn’t understand what it means to be Blackfoot and being Blackfoot in a world that no longer accepts the traditions and what it means when those traditions fade away or are desecrated. I know many who are not Native won’t get this book and as someone who isn’t Native, I was looking to read a horror novel with Native American elements not a horror novel with only white American elements and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I also went in fully expecting this book to be a 5-star read because it was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I couldn’t wait to read this and when its release month came, I was scared to dip my toe in and once I did, I was blown away.


The prologue was a gripping start to showing the slaughter of one of the men in the group, but it did it in such a way that made it look like a mob accident gone wrong with revenge on the Indian man in an all-white bar. This elk doesn’t play, y’all. If you think that is too simple of a beginning wait until you read the first part, The House That Ran Red. I didn’t get what it meant until I got what it meant and boy, did it make my stomach turn. An absolute BLOOD BATH. I’ve never read anything so gory and upsetting. There was so much built up in the first part that when the house start running red (not literally, of course) I was so stunned that all I could do was flop my mouth like a fish and yell, “WAIT, WHAT?!??!” It caught me off guard because I was continuing to expect this book to stay in the slow build and exposition, but NOPE. This book is blood bath after blood bath and ends with an epic basketball battle between an elk and an all-star high school basketball player. Go into this book expecting executions upon executions because this elk is getting revenge. It’s not playing tricks. It’s out for the same blood that was taken and stolen from it. I have decided I never wanted to be haunted or hunted by an elk.


The commentary this book provides on colonization and stereotyping of the Native people and tribes is so important and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through and evaluating what I was familiar with and what was new to me. Really what Stephen Graham Jones does throughout this book is answer the question, “What makes a good little Indian?” This question permeates throughout the text and offers many different viewpoints from each man in the group as well as the daughter of one. It goes a step even further and offers it from the perspective of an angry and vengeful elk. There are many layers and I would love to reread this in the future and dissect it on a deeper level.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

The first main character we encounter in the part one is Lewis. Lewis is married to a white woman named Petra and lives off of the rez. He works for the Post Office and there is now one other Native woman, Shaney, from a different tribe working there (she actually turns out to be connected to another person we meet later on- THE TRAGEDY). This storyline gets wild. It goes from being am I being haunted by the ghost an elk, to I need to kill this person because they are possessed, to full on killing spree. It is horrifying and trigger warnings for the brutalization of women, especially Native women which is a huge issue in both the US and Canada (but that’s a conversation for another day).


The next two characters we follow are Gabe and Cassidy. We also meet Gabe’s daughter, Denorah, who is an all-star basketball player in high school. The two men are setting up a sweat lodge to get closer to their roots and a young boy who has just lost a friend in an accident is going to join them while his father (a local cop) will keep watch. The Sweat Lodge Massacre is exactly what it sounds like and the build up was brilliant. The execution was satisfying and Stephen Graham Jones is great at having the Elk Head Woman lie in wait until just the right moment. It was horrifying, gritty, and I’m not going to lie, I BAWLED LIKE A BABY BECAUSE IT WAS SO UNFAIR AND POIGNANT all at the same time. That’s the brilliance of a good horror novel. It’s steeped in poignancy and the horror makes sense. It’s not gratuitous and heartbreaking for the sake of being over the top, it’s telling a story and showing the horrors of where humanity can go and will go if pushed far enough by just the right source. The ending made me cry and told so beautifully what need to be said. This isn’t a revenge story, it’s a story for a group of people that I had the honor of peaking into and learning more about. What a story. I am blown away. This will stay with me forever.


Characters Scale: 5 (we lover layers)

Villain Scale: 5 (I think this is my favorite villain of the year and reading 157 books so far, that’s saying something)

Overall, you have to read this book. You need to read this book. Even if you hate horror, you should read this book because it’s not white horror and it’s not a white story. It’s the story of how being a good Indian isn’t wrapped up into one narrative like America wants to convince everyone outside of a reservation. It’s layered and full of pain and hope. There is so much to unpack here and I can’t recommend this book enough. I probably did a horrible job of explaining it and you should definitely read some reviews by Native reviewers because their words matter so much and they have said some amazing things to take into account. So, go buy a copy of this book!


Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. More animal heads on covers, please.

Thank you, Netgalley and Saga Press, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am going buy my own copy!

Written in a style that takes some getting used to, this book starts with a young man living in town and traces back to his buddies, his reservation, and an incident that preys on his subconscious. Eventually the danger grows as he travels back to the reservation, pursued by the Spector of an animal from his past. Before the story ends, his wife, his friends, their children and relatives are put in danger by an avenging spirit. Once I got started, I just couldn't stop reading. The spirit world of the Native Americans creates an ongoing danger. When the book ends, you realize it was about the spirit and not any of the people. Scary all the way.

This story is most unusual. There is a strong tone of Indian myth in this story, that sense of a blurred line between the human world and the wild, and in the end there is some moral or lesson to be learned. In this case, I suppose there are several lessons buried in the story, mercy perhaps is one. The tale itself is wild, an elk that has been wronged returns to enact revenge on a group of Indian boys who broke the rules, and killed ten elk on land they weren’t supposed to be on. Ten years later she returns taking a human form to exact her deadly mission. There is almost a lyrical, poetic writing style in this book. If I had to classify it, I guess it would be horror. As revenge tales go, this is certainly very different. Review posted to Amazon, Litsy, LibraryThing, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Look at other reviews. They mostly all loved this book.

I'm the dumbass that requested and wanted to beg for it thinking I would love it. Then I started reading it and realized I hated the dang thing.


Like that's a shock.

And confession time. I didn't even finish it because I'll pull every hair of my head out if I do.

Don't troll my ass because I'll ignore you.


Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

I struggled with this one. At first, I thought we were following three independent narratives all relating to one central "monster". Once I realize they all tie together as friends, I stopped ~1/3 into the book to start it over. I am glad I did because there were details I missed the first go around.

In the end, I really enjoyed it. Jones' style is the epitome of horror. He never goes wrong there. The difficult comes in his unique way of story telling. Nevertheless, he never fails to give us those vibes of classic horror slashers, or at least here he does it well.

This is a book that I think could stand for a reread. It was a fun ride that only gets better the closer you dig into it. It was also a fascinating exploration of indigenous people.

I really enjoyed this book. It took a little bit to fully pull me in but then it had me. It was very creepy and I thought it was going one way then it took a hard left turn on me. I thought the for a slow burn story is was so good. I don't generally like slow burn so that's why it took a bit to fully get into it for me. If you love a good slow burn and horror I definitely suggest this one for you!

I just could not get into the writing style provided in this novel, and it left me frustrated and confused at times. Sadly, it turned me off from anything going forward with this story. I know there are many people that enjoyed this book, but it just wasn't for me.

One of my favorite books of the year.
After Mongrels and Mapping the Interior, I thought it would be difficult to top himself, but Stephen Graham Jones has done so here. Will post full review on goodreads and amazon.

This was definitely a terrifying read, if anything, it was because of the main entity that comes back to haunt these poor fellows. I gasped quite a bit while reading.

I will say there is a lot of dog deaths that honestly were a bit overkill (no pun intended) but that is because I love dogs. Thankfully, this one didn't leave me in tears, but it did leave me pretty horrified. Like, what did dogs ever do to this entity besides exist for the people that they were going to get revenge on? Though, I suppose that is the point because dogs are so loyal, but yeah that was a bit much in my opinion.

It was interesting to read some of the narrative he gave about Native American culture because I do not know a lot about it. I have some Native American friends and I find it fascinating. I enjoyed how he poked fun at some things, some things being super stereotypical but honestly life is full of that. If you can't poke fun at yourself, I don't think you're accepting of yourself. It rang true and more authentic that way.

The whole thing was interesting, but I definitely enjoyed the first story with Lewis the most. Since he was kind of put in the leader role during the event from their youth, it was definitely interesting how it affected him so much. It was neat to see the process of just how the guilt ate at him and made him paranoid, going down a path until he finally got to the end of it.

This book definitely had a message to it and it ended powerfully. I'm definitely making my husband pick this one up!

I ended up giving it 5 stars.

I was very excited to read this one. The plot sounded super intriguing. I am sad to say I was pretty disappointed though. I found myself lost more than once in the book. I think the writing style is unique, but I kept having to re-read lines and I had a hard time following the story because of it. I think the synopsis is great, but I am sad that I couldn't quite get into this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery / Saga Press for this ARC.

Wow, ok, so this is an unusual book. It took me a few days after I finished it to really stew on… well, basically everything that happened. Not in a bad way! There are just so many layers to this story, that it really took me a little bit to unpack everything and really think about how it made me feel.

I’ll start off with what I didn’t like. There is a lot of animal deaths. And I’m not talking about a short paragraph or two, or a mention in passing sort of thing. They were drawn out and nasty. I hate violent animal deaths. It didn’t ruin the book but it almost did for me. It was a little much, but all the violence is part of the story, so it’s not a complaint about the author…. I just wanted to put it right up front that if you are an animal lover or someone else who hates to see the pets get killed, here is your warning.

This book is really good, BUT, it does take a little bit of time to get fully invested. Don’t give up on it! It’s got a great plot, but it takes a while for you to feel like you understand what is going on. The first character we really get to know is Lewis, and the way the story starts, we have a very hard time following if Lewis is haunted by a ghost or if he is crazy. For a good chunk of the book, it just looks like Lewis is totally bananas and there is nothing haunting him, or his friends, except for their stupid life choice when they were young.

In a way, these characters are haunted both by an entity looking for revenge and also haunted by guilt and shame they feel for their past mistakes. Even though the beginning felt like it started a little rocky because you aren’t fully aware of what is going on, I really like this blending together of the two different things haunting the friends- the ghost and their shame / guilt. Some how the author makes it two different types of haunting yet also the same haunting. Very smooth touch.

I thought that was really cool because the author did a very good job of showing how differently people react to something terrible that they played a role in. Even though we have the first half of the book from Lewis’ point of view, I didn’t really feel like he was the main character. The point of view switched often between the friends, their family members, and the entity out for revenge. It felt like I got to know each character, even if they were only there briefly, the author really gave them a defined personality with surprising depth. Now, at the very end, the switching between the last survivors and the entity did begin to get a little muddled and it was hard for me for a few seconds to realize we had switched point of views to the entity. (Sorry for the repeated use of the word entity. I don’t want to call it anything else because of spoilers! 😛 )

Normally… I’m not one who feels bad for the people who get killed off in a book (unless it is a series and you kill off a main character!). Not saying I enjoy it or anything, but I just don’t always care too much. Normally I feel like as long as you don’t hurt the pets or the wildlife, do whatever you want with the people! >.> Surprisingly… I ACTUALLY felt bad for basically everyone in this book. Honestly, I found it hard not to feel a connection with them. It may be a different culture, and I don’t know much about Native American way of life, but… everyone has made stupid mistakes. Everyone has anger at a past hurt, a grudge where they felt like they’ve been wronged. Who hasn’t felt like they made the wrong choice on a crossroads decision of their past? Have you ever had something taken away from you, and you feel so much anger you want to lash out whoever or whatever hurt you? To get revenge or to retaliate.

These friends did a stupid thing when they were young. They messed up. I hated what they did, the unneeded disrespect and violence made me so angry 😡 ….but there was a small part of me that had this… stabbing sadness at what happened with the way their lives turned out. Just…… sad. 😦 I was really impressed that the author could actually make me feel empathy for everyone, even the killer, when I normally have a heart of ice! 😮

I don’t want to give a spoiler about the entity, but I thought it was pretty awesome. I saw several reviewers complain about it, that it was a lame idea… but I loved it. I don’t know anything about the folk lore of this entity, but I thought it was beautiful in this book. UGH! I wish I could say more but I can’t without giving anything away! 😡

There are some insane kills in The Only Good Indians! 😮 Seriously crazy and creative. Now, if you are not a fan of violent deaths / squeamish with lots gore, you might have a little bit of trouble getting through some of these deaths? I do not have a problem with violent deaths and I’m not squeamish with gore, so I thought these were pretty epic kills. You knew something was going to happen, but when it finally did you were just like :O OMG!! The motorcycle one…. :O Whoa…

I listened to The Only Good Indians audiobook narrated by Shaun Taylor-Corbett. He really did a decent job. I thought his accents were good. I’ve seen a small amount of reviewers complain about the dialog being too stereotypical Indian accenty in the racist way. I don’t agree with that at all. If you listen to the author talk in interviews, he does have an accent just like what the dialog and narration of this book sounded like. I didn’t find it stereotypical at all… there was no broken English or choppy speech like back in the old westerns. A lot of Native Americans do have an accent. Some of those complaints just felt kind of ignorant to assume how Native Americans talk or don’t talk.

There are a ton of social issues all through this book. Lots of other reviewers cover the obvious one- racism. So I’m going to talk about what over all message I got from the book. One of the biggest social issue themes of The Only Good Indians boiled down to respect. Respect for your culture. Don’t be a jerk. Hey, whatEVER culture you come from, if there is sacred land or objects…. How about you don’t mess with it? If it is special for a reason, treat it with respect. Special land, church, temple, ruins, graveyard, family heirloom, whatever it is…. don’t be a jerk. Respect it even if you don’t agree with it. It is literally that simple.

Aside from the violence to the animals in The Only Good Indians, this was a really good book. I still can’t believe I actually felt bad for basically every single character. The author did an amazing job with all the feels in all the right places. You really felt their emotions and pain. Only a talented author can pull off that kind of emotion with every character. Yes, the book does start out a little confusing, but if you stick with it, it turns into a very interesting story of revenge. I loved the ending. Sad and sweet. And a great message of just STOP the violence or you will never escape it.