I loved this book so much. I loved the family, the friends, and all of them coming together to help one another.

Bad Cree is such a good supernatural horror with focus on Indigenous culture, family relationships, grief and healing. I loved the author’s writing style - straightforward, atmospheric and female-centered! I also enjoyed reading Mackenzie’s character development and her journey in coming to terms with her pain and loss. After reading this, I now understand the hype. Definitely recommending this to add to your tbr if you haven’t read it already!

This was hard to get through as I am someone who gets reoccurring nightmares. Mackenzie’s nightmare that starts off this novel is deeply unsettling and disturbing. Reminding me of things like hereditary or final destination at times, this debut was a great exploration of supernatural horror from a voice that should be telling more stories. Excited to see where Jessica Johns goes next.

A terrifying story about what happens when we let the past and grief overwhelm us. Mackenzie keeps waking up after worse and worse bad dreams, only to have a decapitated crow in her hands. She tries to block it out, but her dead sister keeps finding Mackenzie in her dreams. After being transported to another state in her dreams, Mackenzie realizes that she needs to go home and speak with the women of her family and her tribe and get answers. What the answers end up being are more than what she was hoping to deal with. The book is filled with exhaustion and you feel worn out after reading. The final scene confronting the big bad was enough to make me nauseous and hope for a quick ending. I love the family ties that are there, while worn, still connected. If you're already having issues falling asleep, this will not help.

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns brings nightmares to daylight. A story of famillial love and forgiveness, seeped in indigenous lore. I enjoyed this book so much, more so because of its atmosphere and originality.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read it in exchange of an honest review.

Nothing like a novel that blends horror with Indigenous folklore. The story follows a young Cree woman who is haunted by disturbing dreams that begin to bleed into reality, revealing unsettling truths about her family and heritage. Johns' writing is evocative and immersive, creating a chilling atmosphere that enhances the novel's exploration of trauma and cultural identity. The integration of Cree mythology adds depth and originality to the narrative, though some readers might find the pacing slow in places. Overall, "Bad Cree" is a captivating read that combines psychological horror with cultural richness, offering a unique and thought-provoking experience.

Overall, I liked this one and even if it didn't fully meet my high expectations, I would still recommend it.

Although the main character was an adult, she spoke as if she were a teenager. The voice was wrong for the character, and I found it hard to read through the story. The book had good bones, but the execution wasn't there.

2 ½. Not bad on the vibes front, but otherwise limited as an aesthetic object. More subjectively, just not the kind of horror I go in for.

I've been looking for some good indigenous horror, and Johns' Black Cree scratches that itch perfectly. She weaves indigenous folklore elements into a great horror story.

<b><font face="roboto" size="12pt">TW: Language, PTSD, grieving, cancer, alcoholism, drinking, smoking, toxic relationships</b>

<b><big>*****SPOILERS*****</b></big>
<b>About the book:</b>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.
<b>Release Date:</b> January 10th, 2023
<b>Genre:</b> Horror
<b>Pages:</b> 259
<b>Rating:</b> ⭐⭐⭐

<b>What I Liked:</b>
1. The writing is so good
2. Atmospheric

<b>What I Didn't Like:</b>
1. Dreams felt repetitive

<b>Overall Thoughts:</b>
When I requested this book from Netgalley last year I was too in love with the cover and the idea of this book to really take in that I hate dream descriptions in books. I kept putting this book off because of that reason. I heard great reviews about this book too so that made me decide to go for it.

The writing style was so good. The author wrote a book that was very descriptive and atmospheric while also giving a lot of character development.

There was a lot of sad conversations that happened in this book that made me emotional. I felt for Mackenzie as she is struggling through some tough dreams that she is also dealing with and still coming to terms with her sister's death.

I don't know why she thought coming home would help with the dreams though. Going back to the scene of crime I wouldn't think would make you forget.

<b>Final Thoughts:</b>
Honestly this book was written beautifully and the characters were good, but I felt like I lost interest around 150 pages. It started to feel repetitive to me. The book just continues to repeat over that she is going to find her sister through her dreams. It's almost beaten over your head over and over about her sister. It all just felt one directional.

Never felt like I got to ever really know who Mackenzie was because it was so centered around The disappearance of her sister. Sure every so often you would get a little sprinkle of who Mackenzie is but it was very rare.

I dnfed around page 200 because I found myself not caring if I picked this book up ever again.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My copy of this only provides the cover material -- I'm sorry that it wasn't the full version. I plan to read it at some point via an alternate means.

--

Coming back to add that this was an excellent book with beautiful writing, a compelling story, and just a great read overall!

Mackenzie is plagued by dreams of a severed crow's heads and battles against masses of birds. She returns over and over to a memory from before her sister Sabrina's death. Now when awake, Mackenzie is being followed by a murder of crows that follow her all over the city. Her dreams also start to get far too real when she wakes up throwing up water.  Once she starts getting threatening text messages from someone who swears they are her deceased sister, Mackenzie packs in up and returns back to her hometown in Alberta to be with her family. Her family is still drowning in the grief Mackenzie once fled from, and her dreams are now even more dangerous.  There's a big chance that the evil Mackenzie is running from is already taking control of her.

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns is part-thriller, part-horror. It explores themes of colonization and a sense of ancestral grief. This book isn't your typical type of horror novel.  As another reader mentioned, the book is unapologetically Native.  It moves as a slow burn, with one heck of an ending.

Bad Cree is now available from Doubleday

Highly addicting and creepy, this book is a horror story featuring an icy monster that also comments on white colonizers and the loss of culture and society. Reading this book was like listening to a good ghost story told around a smoky fire. I loved the pace of the story and how each chapter, while sometimes short, add in layers and layers of creepiness. You will love this one and ending will get you!!

This is written in first person which might throw some people off but to me its worth sticking with. It did not end in a way I loved but everything else about it was great. This is a slow burn so you have to be patient with it but this is a horror worth taking your time with. I loved that all the women in this supported the hell out of each other.

This is a gripping debut tinged with supernatural horror. 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.

This is such a solid debut. It is a very well-written thought-out, slow-burn Supernatural novel, full of inspired imagery and thought-provoking themes. I was pulled into this story from the beginning. The protagonist Mackenzie's dreams are at the forefront at the start of this novel and I loved the tone it set.

The writing is to the point and perfectly descriptive without being overly descriptive. I appreciated how incredible the imagery was without being so flowery that the plot got buried. I also really enjoyed the mystery at the heart of the story. Trying to find out how the current situation was related to the past was so engaging.

I can't wait to see what the author writes next.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one just wasn't for me. I really liked the concept and was so excited to get into this book. But it just... didn't really feel like horror? I wanted it to be creepier, I guess, and all of the reviews I was seeing all were saying that, but it just didn't hit for me. I had a bit of trouble with the writing, I couldn't get into it and it felt a bit too slow most of the time. I know a lot of people have loved it so far, so this may just be me though.

Mackenzie has tried her best to run away from the tragedy of her sisters death, but a force begins pulling her back in. Her nightmares become more and more vivid, even waking up to find that she's pulled items from her dreams into real life. When she finally decides to share her nightmares with her family, she realizes that these dreams could have deadly consequences.
This book was not what I expected, however, the characters and atmosphere are so well written that it pulled me right in. It is a medium paced story rich in Native culture. While there are horror elements to this book, there is so much more about family and grief. The author does an excellent job combining a haunting atmosphere with that of the love and never-ending bond of family.
This is an excellent debut novel, I look forward to what Jessica Johns does next.

Thank you to @netgalley @doubledaybooks and @PRHAudio for the gifted copy of this book.

A tender and inventive horror with the creepiest atmosphere and the loveliest representation of family! I loved the ways that Bad Cree explored grief and trauma. The supernatural horror elements were so well integrated into Mackenzie's experience of her sister's loss, and the imagery was haunting. The story is a slow burn but the payoff is so worth it!

What happens when you get a semi coming-of-age horror story full of grief, guilt, and add on layers of family tradition and some folklore? BAD CREE! It's a slow burn novel full of all the atmospheric goodies but also has this element of coziness to it (something about the way the family interacts and all their conversations, etc just reminded me of own growing up). There's a ton of eerie imagery and some pretty shocking scenes, and I will never look at crows the same way. Jessica Johns has major writing chops because the prose and story were just lush with details in a way that I did not even know how much time was passing in real life while reading. I had to know more, but I also couldn't stop myself from continuing the journey. It's haunting and engaging, supernatural and spellbinding. Definitely going to be reading more from Jessica Johns!