This is a tremendous novel. I read it in one gulp, and was so happy- as there aren’t enough horror novels these days, and to incorporate Native American culture was superb. Am telling everyone to read this!

This one has been on my TBR since the first moment I heard of it.

This unnerving, unsettling, understated horror book will leave you satisfied AND longing for more, all at the same time. On the eve of an anniversary of a hunting incident on Indigenous land by Indigenous men unauthorized to hunt there, weird things start happening, and within the span of a few days, many are left dead. “Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.” Snagged that line from the original summary, because it’s too good and apt to change.

This one is weird. I mean that in the best, possible way. I love my fiction weird, and I love my horror weird. This book is everything I love about horror. It’s got solid social commentary (which all good horror should do), it’s a bit horror for its own sake, presented without a lot of explanation or apology, and the characters are sometimes unreliable narrators. I flew through this one, and I’d like to revisit it at some point, having full context for each of the friend’s stories.

It’s out now, so don’t sleep on it. I’d love more of all these elements in the modern book world, please, particularly modern Indigenous stories.

I am not normally one for horror or revenge narratives, but Graham Jones has such a reputation that I thought I’d give his latest a shot. This book disturbed and thrilled me, and I learned so much about this culture and community. Very highly recommended.

I'm still processing this one. I liked it, but the pacing felt a little weird to me. The first half of the book was great, but then it seemed to go in fits and spurts - slow then quick and then slow again. At times I felt like I had to force myself to keep reading. But I really liked the ending, so that bumped it up a half star, making it a solid 3 stars.

This is a story about curses and revenge and there were a lot of elements that reminded me of The Crow in the best ways. The writing was solid and I especially enjoyed the social commentary about Native Americans. I will never look at an elk the same way again.

Brutal. Haunting. Visceral.

Ten years ago, Lewis, Ricky, Gabe and Cass, did something on the last day of hunting season that they will ultimately live to regret. They knew it was technically wrong, felt it at the time, but spurred on by each other and the adrenaline of the hunt, went against their better judgement anyway.

Close to the 10-year anniversary of the event that came to be known as the Thanksgiving Classic, Lewis, now living far from the reservation, begins to be haunted by images of that day. When a new work colleague, a Crow woman, reaches out to him and a loose friendship begins, Lewis confides in her, thinking she'll understand.

From there, sh*t hits the proverbial haunted ceiling fan pretty quickly. This is my first novel by Stephen Graham Jones and to say I was impressed would be putting it very mildly. His writing has such a texture and grit. Oftentimes you are waiting for a novel to take it all the way and it never does. This one goes the distance.

It is bloody, brutal, fast-paced, genuine and horrifying. The nature of the storytelling feels so classic and traditional whilst also being cutting edge. The only issue I had while reading it, which is completely a personal taste issue and nothing to do with the quality of the writing or story, was a lot of the animal content was hard for me to make it through. While this is a personal taste issue, I still rate books I read based upon my reading experience and I had to be honest that those scenes did bother me.

With this being said, I will mention that I do not think in anyway that the author threw those scenes in recklessly. They definitely served a purpose in the narrative. I get it.

Overall, I think this is a purposeful, creative and engaging horror story. I will absolutely be picking up anything else SGJ writes. Thank you so much to the publisher, Gallery / Saga Press, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. It will haunt me for a long time to come!

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Right from the start the storytelling is intricate and carefully place, and we get a taste of the creepy parts. That hooked me in and kept me reading because I wanted more. I felt the start was a little slow to build, but it was worth it because once I hit the halfway mark everything started to make sense and I found myself holding my breath in suspense. This was an amazing, gruesome story of the moral of what happens when a group of young Indian men take something that wasn’t theirs, and how the spirits got their revenge. I definitely felt some King-esque horror going on, and loved it! Highly recommend for any fan of Adult horror, as this really scratched an itch for a good old haunting story.

This book is an absolute gut-punch. For those sensitive to scenes depicting domestic violence or violence at large, you should definitely go into this book knowing that there will be plenty of blood and viscera to wade through. For fans of the genre who have been waiting for the next big atmospheric horror novel, this is IT. More than any other book I've read this year, Stephen Graham Jones knows how to stick the landing.

I haven’t read much written by Indigenous authors, unfortunately, so I was very excited to get my hands on The Only Good Indians. Stephen Graham Jones is an esteemed Horror writer, which makes someone like me, a big scaredy-baby, a little nervous to be honest.

The plotting of this book is interesting. I’d say the majority of the time is spent on character development and relatively benign interactions of regular Native people living their lives. It almost hits you like a sucker-punch when everything starts going off the rails. Seriously—one moment I was reading about a guy obsessed with his ladder, and pages later someone has their head caved in. Part one in the novel, The House That Ran Red, didn’t have that much tension through the beginning and middle. But after a mid-book bloody climax, there’s a discernible current of it running through every seemingly innocuous action or phrase uttered by a new character. I ended up being pretty shaken thereafter.

Not sure if I can say much else without giving stuff away. I went into this book blind, something I don’t normally do, but it left me caught off guard with the way the storyline progressed. I can see it’s getting some mixed reviews, but for those who are uncertain if they want to read it for that reason, I’d say it’s worth your time.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS
Stephen Graham Jones
Gallery/Saga Press
ISBN-13: 978-1982136451
Hardcover
Horror/Thriller

It seems as if we are experiencing a resurgence in the literary horror genre. Every week seems to at least one new book which could easily tiptoe its way into the mainstream consciousness without compromising or sacrificing the core values established in the long, noble, and yes, gory tradition of what has gone before. This week’s must-read book in the genre is THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, a tale whose unpredictability is the stuff of nightmares.

Author Stephen Graham Jones has written an entire shelf or two of books across a boatload of genres. He has only relatively recently made a foray into the horror and dark fantasy waters. That makes THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS all the more remarkable. Jones, a Blackfeet indigenous American, presents a powerful work that threads bits and pieces of American Indian culture into a tapestry which is dark, frightening, and ultimately uplifting, even as he gently toys with his storytelling structure to constantly surprise the reader.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS begins with a vignette which telegraphs almost from its opening paragraphs that it will not end well. Jones then begins to reveal the backstory to the tale. It involves four Blackfeet friends, full of alcohol and vinegar, whose elk-hunting foray into the wrong territory ends badly with a massacre and something more. It is only after a decade or so goes by that things begin to go gradually and terribly wrong. The first third or so of the book is particularly haunting, as bad choices lead to terrible results in spite of good intent generated by guilt but manifested far too late. Something is seeking its revenge upon the quartet of friends. It is relentless, seemingly unstoppable, and very, very angry. Jones could have gratuitously slipped nuggets of Native culture into his narrative but instead --- in a manner that is far more effective --- uses elements of Indian life on and off the reservation to support and guide his story in such a manner that the reader thinks they know what is coming. More often than not, they could be wrong, particularly about the ending, not to mention the beginning and middle. THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS is in some ways the ultimate revenge tale, one in which it is all but impossible to pick a favorite character. That would include the all but indefinable avenging spirit, which takes a number of forms and which is, quite honestly, arguably justified in (most of) its actions.

Those who function on a steady paleo diet of dark fantasy are already familiar with Jones’s work. For those looking for a way to break in, begin with THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, move on to the critically acclaimed MONGRELS, and proceed from there. That resurgence in the horror genre which I mentioned at the beginning of this piece is being fueled by Jones and others for good reason. As far as Jones’s other work is concerned, you have some catching up to do across a variety of genres and after reading this wonderfully frightening and compelling work you will be happy to do so. Recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2020, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS is a masterpiece. Intimate, devastating, brutal, terrifying, yet warm and heartbreaking in the best way, Stephen Graham Jones has written a horror novel about injustice and, ultimately, about hope. Not a false, sentimental hope, but the real one, the one that some of us survive and keeps the rest of us going. And it gives me hope that this book exists.

Happy one day late release date to this creepy ass book! Stephen Graham Jones, a native author who teaches in Boulder, CO, but who is originally from TX (word up!), brings the chills in this three part story about a group of four Native American men who break an agreement with the elders and end up killing a buttload of elk outside their Rez territory. One of the elk women doesn’t take this well (for an incredibly justifiable reason) and seeks revenge.

I received an ebook ARC thanks to #netgalley and @gallery but enjoyed it so much I bought my own copy. One of my friends who grew up with the legend of deer woman warned me that you just don’t mess with the deer woman and she cringed at the thought of even watching John Landis’ corny Deer Woman film with me, which Jones actually references in his Acknowledgments along with a short story by Louise Erdrich. I can understand the sentiment now, as this novel is shockingly gory and haunting.


I don’t read a lot of horror, but this book relies a lot on character development, which is my jam. Jones’ writing is cinematic and deceptively simple. If you love a good woman centric revenge thriller, you will love this, but be warned, it will follow you around for days.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Available July 14, 2020

Thanks for the nightmares Stephen Graham Jones. Thanks.
When four high school friends break the rules and hunt on elder ground, they do more than go against tribal law. Their killing of a pregnant elk and her unborn calf releases a spirit bent on revenge. Over the course of the next ten years, her spirit will seek to exact revenge on the men and their families.
Absolutely chilling and terrifying, The Only Good Indians is a haunting look at how nature always gets her revenge. What seems like a simple story-boys commit a crime and now must pay the price-is actually filled with great depth. The four friends go their separate ways and have their own struggles. None of those struggles excuse their behavior and not all of their actions are redeemable, but over time they seemed to realize that what they did that night was incredibly wrong and they never should have killed the elk the way they did. Jones crafted characters that felt incredibly real with their struggles with relationships, alcohol, money and regrets over not keeping up with old traditions.
Intensely graphic, The Only Good Indians is not for the faint of heart. There are some vivid descriptions of animal and human death as well as harm to children. That said, it’s necessary to the overwhelming sense of dread and danger felt throughout the novel. I flew through this in one sitting because I was so scared if I stopped reading, I would just pick up at an even scarier or more gruesome part. A very solid and terrifying horror story and I highly recommend it. .

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

"The Only Good Indians" by Stephen Graham Jones is an experience - and I mean that in the best way. I started out not liking the characters all that much before the book smacked me in the face with fear (and a bit of gore). It was at that moment that I understood that the characters weren't really the point. While the novel's plot is fast-paced and interesting, it's also, somehow, about our relationship to the natural world and it makes you think about what death feels like to animals. Did I mention there is a vengeful ghost of a young, pregnant elk? There is also, as in all good horror with supernatural elements, the characters' disbelief, their attempts to push back against the intrusion of the impossible. One character rationalizes, for example, "If animals came back to haunt the people who shot them, the old-time Blackfeet would have had ghost buffalo so thick in camp they couldn't even walk around, probably." But this one does have ghosts - ghosts of how tribes have been treated in America, animal ghosts, ghosts of social and humanitarian problems we haven't, as a country, put to rest. Eerie as well as scary and well worth your time if you can stand to be scared any more in 2020!

When I read the title for this book I should have known that it was going to hit racism right between the eyes. Stephen Graham Jones is known for capturing Native American life or as he says "putting the Blackfeet in it" without submitting to white gaze. He is also known for his experimental fiction and works of horror.

I am not a horror aficionado so I cannot say how well this book fits into that genre. What I can say with conviction is that <b>The Only Good Indians</b> defies categorizaton.

Four friends ignore tradition and tribal law by hunting on elder ground. They slaughter a whole herd of elk, including a pregnant cow. Bent on revenge her spirit becomes the hunter and the four men and their loved ones her prey.

The prologue opens up like an action adventure, full of adrenaline and testosterone. The hunt and then a bar room brawl. Then we are introduced to Lewis and the book slows down and becomes more of a character analysis with the reader getting a sense of the inner workings of his mind, his ideas on being an Indian married to a white woman and what this says about his identity. Lewis has a wry, denigrating sense of humor. He pictures his life as headlines while deliberating native stereotypes; at times judging himself against them.

During this portion of the book I found myself confused, unaware of where this book was headed. I wasn't sure if Lewis's assertions could be trusted or if he were an unreliable narrator with his guilt getting the best of him. Was he imagining things? Was he experiencing lapses in memory? Did he harm Harley? I kept flipping back and forth to see what I had missed only to realize that Graham Jones had laid down a trail of crumbs. All the clues were there to resolve the mystery of what went wrong in the hunt and set the stage for what happens next.

Like a movie, when the scene changes the story takes another turn. So as Graham Jones takes us back to the reservation, the book picks up its pace and becomes more plot-driven.

On the rez there is tradition, family, love . . . We feel connected to these men. We know that they did something wrong in their past and we understand why this beast is seeking a reckoning. But we want them to win. And I think this is where the real horror lies. All who tread here are victims as we get a sense that in the end there will be no survivors, no victor. So we hope against hope and we say our prayers as Graham Jones unleashes one gory scene after another.

This feeling of empathy for both sides is a testament to Stephen Graham Jones's skill as a writer. I may have picked it up for the thrill but I walked away touched by these characters and moved by the social commentary. <b>The Only Good Indians</b> is literary genius; both thought-provoking and inventive.

<i>Special thanks to the folks at Gallery, Pocket books for making this wish come true.</i>

Stephen Graham Jones wrote one of the creepiest novellas I've ever read, Mapping the Interior. Naturally, I leapt at the opportunity to grab an eARC of his new novel, The Only Good Indians. I'm glad I did, too. 

Ten years ago, four young Blackfeet men went on their last hunt together. One last chance to get an elk before winter. Ricky, Lewis, Gabe, and Cass. It was supposed to be their shot to prove that they weren't the screw-ups that so many folks on the reservation thought they were. One opportunity to prove that they were good Indians. Only it all went wrong, didn't it? They weren't supposed to be hunting in that part of the reservation. They would pay the price.

Ricky died the next year. "INDIAN MAN KILLED IN DISPUTE OUTSIDE BAR," the headline had read. But he'd run from home. Left the reservation after his little brother overdosed, looking for work. He never made it to Minneapolis like he'd planned. But what if the headline didn't get it quite right? What if there was more to it than a handful of roughnecks getting drunk and angry in a parking lot? More than a lone elk wandering into the lot, trashing the men's pickups, leaving them to believe that Ricky had been causing the damage?

Now the tenth anniversary of their hunt is coming up, and Lewis is trying to find the courage to tell his wife the truth of what the four men did that day in the snow. The truth about the elk they killed, and the fate that they sealed for themselves with each rifle round. Lewis left the reservation too, though he never went as far as Ricky tried. But lately, Lewis hasn't been feeling quite right. He's been seeing things, impossible things. A cow elk dead in his and Peta's living room. Dead? Or was her eye following him as he climbed the ladder? And it couldn't be the same cow. Lewis killed her that day. Distributed her meat to the reservation elders. Still has her skin balled up in his freezer. Was it an elk that he saw? Or was it a woman with an elk's head?

Meanwhile, Gabe and Cass are still at home on the rez, preparing a sweat lodge for a friend's kid who needs to get put back on a proper path. A classmate of Gabe's daughter, Denorah. The sweat will be a chance for Gabe and Cass to embrace their heritage, and pay respect to Ricky's memory. Teach the kid, Nathan, a little too. Maybe a little bit of atonement for their elk hunt, now a decade back. At the very least, the kid's dad will throw Gabe some extra cash that he can use to buy something for Denorah. But then, Lewis is in the headlines too...

Something survived that day, ten years ago. Something vengeful. Something patient. Something with horns.

Elk, the Blackfeet elders say, have a long memory. 

The Only Good Indians is a fabulous novel. Stephen Graham Jones did not disappoint with this heartbreaking work. Part contemporary commentary on Native American lives, part slow-burning horror, it's everything I could've wanted. 


Happy publication day at long last, Mr. Jones. 

My thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for a fair review. 

This review can also be found here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2020/07/14/the-only-good-indians-a-review/

And on goodreads.: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3045128151

I really wanted to like this book. However, I struggled with the writing style. The story was okay although a bit confusing. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS: Stephen Graham Jones

Published July 14th, 2020

A breathtaking horror: TOGI Is a dark novel full of revenge, vengeance, cultural identity, and the price one must pay to break from ones heritage.

Let me say, that I am just now breaking into the horror category and it’s not as bad as I thought It would be!! I was a bit scared to jump in because I CANNOT do scary movies but It seems as if books don’t fall into that category!!

TOGI is something I would highly recommend. Strictly because of how seamlessly Jones weaves a dramatic narrative with pressing, sensitive, social commentary. I do have mix feelings though about recommending It because it did give me complex feelings. Let’s see if I can be a little more clear:

I have always loved reading about different traditions and cultures, and most importantly, peoples perspectives from where they stand. This is a major reason why I read. So immediately, I was drawn to this book and was super pumped with @netgalley and @libro.fm gernously gave me copies! The first scene in the book is about an Elk Hunt; and then, It lost me for a while. Things got slower and it was difficult for me to pay attention. Once the plot developed thicker into a group of four friends who committed the crime at the beginning of the book are then threatened by some supernatural identity- bam. I was hooked. And majorly creeped out.

So full disclosure, I did struggle with some of the language and progression of the story. However, I do think this author was brave enough to write differently, to show a true look at Native life. There is no idyllic version here and I am grateful to have gotten to peak into the guilt, shame, and degraded expectations that follow a portrait of Native American life. This is a political book. So my recommendation is yes, read It. I’m giving It 4 stars. But it’s not your typical fiction horror easy read so buyer beware!

Along with posting on Net Galley, I will be posting my review to Goodreads, Amazon (when it becomes available), my Instagram (which has over a two thousand book review followers) and my blog. Please find the link to my blog post below. I am very grateful for the opportunity to review such an political, and eerie novel. Thank you very much.

This book follows the story of 4 American Indian men, who after a elk hunting trip turns strange, are now being hunted by an entity who is out for revenge. ⠀
⠀
This was unlike anything I’ve ever read before and I almost DNFd it until a few people urged me to continue. I’m so glad I did! I got really into it towards the end and ended up really liking it. What I struggled with while reading was just the Author’s style of writing. This is very literary which I’m not used to when reading horror. Also, it threw me off when the POV suddenly changes in the second half. Once I did get the hang of the story I found it to be super spooky.. it made me want to look over my shoulder quite a few times. The gore was also spot on! It’s intense though.. so be warned. I also really enjoyed reading & learning about another culture. The sections in which life in the reservation, folklore, and traditions were mentioned were some of my favorite parts. Definitely give this one a try if your looking for something unique to read. ⠀

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.</I>

This is a difficult review for me to write because I only got 25% through the book. Normally, I wouldn't review the book at all having stopped at that point, but since this book is from NetGalley I still needed to provide feedback.

This is the first book I did not finish that I have given more than one star to. I didn't stop reading this book because the writing or story were bad. I was actually really engaged with both and would not be against trying another of Jones's novels.

Unfortunately the animal violence was too much for me. Since this was an advanced copy, I pushed on past the first two upsetting instances of it, but once I got to a third in only the first quarter of the novel I decided to stop. If it had only been the scene with the elk, as bad as that was, I could have kept going since that was at least integral to the story. If this is not a deal breaker for you in a book, I do suggest given this one a try since the rest of it was pretty good.

I got an ARC of this book.

This book is something I thought I was hated while I read the first chunk of it. I dragged my feet. I barely read. I would go days without reading a single page. Then out of nowhere I was hit by how much I was in love with this book when I actually sat down to read it for real.

The book is pretty slow to start. The prologue seems a bit disjointed from the book at first, but was enjoyable. After that it felt like the book took FOREVER. That forever was really setting up the whole point of the book, but doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. It really set things up wonderfully and when that first twist came, that is when I realized I loved this book. It was so different than any other book I have read. It was so new.

The way the rest of the story was told after the first twist was jarring and confrontational in a way that just gave the story life. It ebbed and flowed with the emotions. It was really wonderfully written. The characters and their motivations were clear. There were clear paths of actions, nothing was 100% out of nowhere. Everything had a place even if I didn’t know that the story was going to that place. I never felt cheated by a twist. The ending was even pretty wonderful.

The biggest issue I had with the book was the amount of gore that the horror aspect relied on. I can get behind some human torture gore when it makes sense. I really can’t get behind graphic deaths of dogs. This book had four graphic dog deaths (though it might be almost safe to say five honestly). The amount of time spent building up the suspense and the gore using these dog deaths really got to me. I can understand why the dogs had to die for the story to make sense, but most of the dogs could have been erased from the book without the story changing at all. So it just felt gratuitous. The horror in the second half was a bit more amped up and felt more terrifying, but the first half really can’t be discounted despite the slow start. The horror relied on gore in human and canine form for most of the horror. It was annoying and I felt like there could have been more, but murderous rampage is a genre I guess. I am just not the biggest fan of it. I adore the villain so I can forgive the methods (outside of the dogs).

The cover felt too plain to me when I first saw it, but it is probably the best fitting cover for this book. It is direct. It is raw. It really is the perfect cover. The ending really just sealed it for me.

Overall, the book was a wonderful read. The characters were vivid, things made sense, and the villain’s motivation made the most sense which is super rare in a horror.