Jones is one of the brightest stars in the literary world and this novella only further cements his status as a master storyteller. The tale revolves around a young boy who is coping with the loss of a parent. Not only that, he is learning to overcome (and sadly, maybe just come to terms with) the unfair hand life has dealt him. Poetry in motion, the story captures the reader's heartstrings from the jump and tightens them with every turn of the page. It's a gritty, true-to-life story that is powered by love and the magic of childhood. As we all learned, that magic can be good... and it can also be dark.
Stephen Graham fleshes out his characters like the best filmmakers do. You can see them, you can feel them, you can believe them. You are able to love them for who they are, flaws and all. Mapping The Interior is one of the best stories I've read in a while. It will sit with you for a few days afterward.

We’ll be going on a journey here, buckle in.
I first discovered Stephen Graham Jones’ writing when Paul Tremblay gave a glowing review of The Ones That Got Away on Twitter.
Father.
Son.
Holy Rabbit.
If you know, you know.
My second ride though was “Mapping the Interior”...…and it was magic.
Not necessarily good magic, but that dark, bitter magic. The kind of magic that gathers in your throat when a relative dies with no hope of justice.
Yeah, something like that.
Mapping The Interior is the story of Junior, a 12-year-old Indian boy living with his mother and impaired younger brother Dino, away from the Rez and trying their best to make it. The ghost of Junior’s father haunts his mind until the night he appears in the outside world as well. As Junior longs for his father to return and fix things as he always imagined he would, an unfortunate truth becomes evident.
And at the end we’re left with the memory of heavy footsteps and the question of if and when we’ll step into them.
If you’re the kind of reader that I am, SGJ’s writing somehow reveals the truths you’ve felt in your heart but never let pass through your mind.
If you have a father that you rooted for, that you wished so much better for…
If you cursed the world for what it did to him, his dreams that it destroyed; the patterns that kept him trapped re-tracing another’s footsteps…
I think this story is for you.
But I also think it’s for those fathers that (maybe finally) figured it out.

10/10 reborn action figures.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to revisit this amazing story as an ARC!

Absolutely terrifying representation of CPTSD. I loved it!

This has taken up so much room and thought in my mind after reading it, the amount of tension Jones is capable of building in such a short story is truly incredible.

This was just an ok read for me. The novella is focused around loss and grief. I found the story very original and entertaining but for some reason it did not suck me in like some of other works of SGJ. A few times I was a bit confused.

Atmospheric and creepy, but full of heartwarming family connection. This novella did not read the same as the synopsis presents. Instead, I felt myself intrigued by the lore and impact on kids growing up. The unsettling ghost action fell to the wayside.

What an unsettling story. This novella walks the edge between waking and dreaming, with enough in reality to make the horror feel disturbingly close. It’s eerie and gory, built on disorientation and dread. The line between what happens and what feels like it happens is blurred. The ambiguity works, the horror lingers. I wasn’t fully glued to the page, but the atmosphere was thick and compelling enough to keep me reading. There’s a lot packed into this short read: grief, memory, haunting, and legacy. It’s a dreamlike narrative that made me uncertain and uneasy. It did its job, I finished it feeling unsettled and confused, which might just be the point.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for access to this re-release.

This was incredibly atmospheric, I could not put this down and read it all in one sitting. Probably one of the spookiest books I have read; the descriptions that flew off the pages were otherworldly and creepy. It is at the same time a coming of age novel with a child main character exploring his grief upon losing his father and a discussion on the roles our parents play (both the good and the bad). Through discussion generational trauma, Jones made me care for every individual character in the novel while also being completely creeped out by the them. And as an older sibling, I completely identified with Junior and the hope and sorrow he felt throughout. This is definitely more a slow moving novel, but the way Jones pulls you in will have you never leaving the pages until its done.

A creepy coming of age story from the perspective of a boy who lost his father young. Junior is living with his mom, a widow, and younger brother who has special needs. They moved off of the reservation when his father died and are just trying to get by. When Junior starts seeing a ghostly figure walking through the house he realizes it's his deceased father trying to come back to them.

That's about all of the synopsis I think that this story needs - I think going in as blind as can be sets readers up for the best experience. I really got pulled into how young kids' imaginations can feel so real.....or be so real? I felt for every member of Junior's family and the gradual realizations Junior has over his experience. The only thing that took my out of the story at times but it all kind of came full circle in the end. But I also ended it depressed.

Overall, this was a touching and interesting story that was a very quick read. While there are suspenseful scenes and a bit of creepy scenes, I didn't find it the book itself as creepy.. I think the themes are scarier than any particular scene.

Once again a wonderful read from Mr. Jones. Per usual, he manages to capture his readers, even in a shorter novella. Seven years later, and this book still stands the test of time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group as well as the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley @NetGalley #TorPublishingGroup @TorPublishingGroup #StephenGrahamJones @StephenGrahamJones #Horror #Fiction #BookReview

Title: Mapping the Interior
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Format: eBook
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Publication Group: April 29, 2025
Themes: Paranormal, grief, coming of age, family,
Trigger Warnings: Ghosts, paranormal, death of parent, distorted reality

The more I read this author, the more I love his writing. It’s unusual, to be sure, and isn’t easy. It’s so worth it. A fifteen-year-old boy is convinced he’s seen his father’s ghost walking around in the middle of the night. He follows this apparition, he finds that his house is hiding a lot. When he tries to map the interior of the house, he winds up endangering his little brother and gets more than he bargained for.

Normally, I have to push myself through the beginning of SGJ’s books because of the aforementioned writing style. I’m not sure how to describe it but it does require some getting used to. This novella didn’t have the same adjustment period as his previous works. This book is simply a great novella. SGJ gets right into the mind of our protagonist and proceeds to use this kid to absolutely eviscerate the heart of the reader. He wastes no time in getting to the meat of the story, as this book is under 100 pages. Within these pages are endearing and effective characters, suspense and ridiculous tension, and absolute devastation. I was left unsettled, emotional, and exhausted after this quick read.

If a reader is new to SGJ, start with this one. This is a gifted author and this is a great way to introduce yourself to his unique genius. Do yourself a favor, spend an hour on this novella. You won’t be sorry.

This was scary, sad, and heartbreaking. The story is short and I would’ve loved to read more. This was beautifully written with vivid descriptions that made the story so terrifyingly haunting.

“I was twelve the first time I saw my dead father cross from the kitchen doorway to the hall that led back to the utility room.”

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

QUICK SUMMARY 🖊️
A twelve year old thinks he sees another person walking through his house at night, but the person he thinks he saw has been dead for years …


FINAL THOUGHTS
Oof this quick read is a hard hitter on grief, the choppy sentence structure adds to the POV of this twelve year old. The Indigenous history of the family adds to the tense thought of a loved one coming back in the afterlife. Overall a great short novella and easy to fly through in one sitting.

I've read a couple Stephen Graham Jones books and not really enjoyed them, but this one was phenomenal by comparison. Something about the combination of the shortness of the novel with the surreal, dreamlike perceptions of this young kid who carries the weight of the world and his family on his young shoulders, just all worked perfectly, eerily, creepily, together. He worries about his mom, his brother, his dead father, and it's all a lot.

Mapping The Interior is following Junior a 12 years old boy who live in a modular house with his mom and his younger brother. One night, Junior see his dad, who died 8 years ago.

You should pick Mapping The Interior by Stephen Graham Jones if :
* you like unusual grief stories that are not just about the grieving
* you like light horror aspect in a book

This one was my second book by the author, I've only read I Was A Teenage Slasher previously. I liked the writing style but I had difficulties really getting what was happening. I'm still not sure exactly what happened but maybe it is intentional since the main caracter is in a sort of sleep-walking daze most of the book. I was expecting something else since it is pitched as "the interior of the house is bigger than the exterior"... but I didn't get that part at all.

This rerelease from Stephen Graham Jones was one that I was really excited to dig into. I've always found his writing to be complex and layered, which sometimes lends itself to me feeling a little stupid, or having a difficult time getting into it. But he truly is an incredible writer. He's not one to breeze through or expect to inhale in a moment. His writing deserves to be savored and pondered, and this one is no different.

While I did find the writing in Mapping the Interior a bit easier to digest than some of his other works, it really left me thinking.

This novella weaves themes of identity, loss, and grief all in a spooky little package. I really enjoyed this one. My heart broke for this little boy, just wanting his family to be whole again, no matter the cost.

I'd highly recommend picking this up when you have a free day or weekend. It's not a long read and can definitely be consumed more quickly than some of his works, but it will leave you thinking long after you've put it down.

This was so haunting, heart-breaking, and gripping. It was a super fast read that I could not put down. This story is about grief, loss, and generational trauma, especially as it applies to Native Americans. It is beautifully written and will pull at your heartstrings fiercely. There is something in this story that feels so easy to connect to in so many different ways that I feel all readers will get something different from the story.

4.5 Stars

Thank you to @tordotcompub for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

This novella is perfectly suited for reading out loud. It's something you feel and absorb. SGJ's prose is beautiful, capturing plot, intention, and emotions in just a few words. This isn't necessarily a writing style that's easy to read, but the short length makes it easy to revisit.

⭐️⭐️ (2/5)

I cracked this slim, 138‑page novella expecting a razor‑sharp slice of Indigenous horror; what I found instead felt more like wandering a fog‑thick dream—beautiful in flashes, but impossible to hold.

Jones drops us inside twelve‑year‑old Junior’s sleepless nights after his father’s mysterious drowning. Each scene pulses like a distant pow‑wow drum, slow and deliberate, yet the beat never quite forms a song. Junior drifts through hallways, half‑seeing his father’s ghostly “sector,” half‑sleepwalking, and I drifted right alongside him—re‑reading sentences, hunting for anchors that never appeared.

I wanted to love this portrayal of grief on a reservation: the weight of raising a neurodivergent sibling, the ache of a mother stretching paychecks and patience. Those moments ring true and intimate. But the storytelling feels caught between genres—too subdued for horror, too fragmented for straight literary fiction. Scene breaks promise leaps in time, yet the narrative starts exactly where it paused, undercutting momentum. Junior’s choices often read less like the instincts of a scared child and more like logic abandoned; tension dissolves into confusion.

By 38 percent, I was skimming, not shivering. The premise—ancestral spirits, inherited guilt, the thin veil between worlds—is rich. The execution, however, tangled itself in prose so non‑linear that I kept tripping over the next clause. I closed the book feeling more sad than scared, more frustrated than moved.

If you’re already a Stephen Graham Jones devotee, his cadence may resonate. As a newcomer seeking a gateway, I’d start elsewhere. Mapping the Interior left me outside the story’s borders, listening to a drum whose rhythm I couldn’t follow.

This haunting and introspective novella centers on a 15-year-old boy who believes he sees his deceased father within the walls of his home where he lives with his mother and brother after leaving the reservation. The story unfolds with an unsettling intensity as he becomes determined to see a father he never really knew. The house contains hidden spaces that lead to mysterious discoveries that deepen the unease threading through the narrative.
Rich in cultural roots and generational stories, the book explores the weight of family bonds and inherited pain. The supernatural presence is subtly woven, more haunting than horrific, building a tense atmosphere where the line between reality and delusion blurs.
At its heart, this is a story about identity, loss, and the desperate need to protect loved ones—even when that instinct leads to devastating consequences. This is a quietly intense read that lingers long after the final page.
Thank you Tor Publishing Group for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

“Standing there, I promised myself that if I ever had kids, I was going to be different. It's a promise every Indian kid makes at some point.”


Mapping the Interior is a story of generational trauma, the cycle of passing on that trauma from father to son.

The novella opens up with 12 year old Junior sleepwalking and feeling a presence in the room, which he takes to be his deceased father. Over a series of nights of Junior “deadfooting” in order to reach an altered state to communicate with this entity, we soon learn there may be more going on than a young boy’s imagination.

“The way it was turning out, it was that you could maybe come back, be what you'd always meant to be, but to do that, you had to latch on to your people and drink them dry, leave them husks”

Junior wants to believe so badly his father had returned to help his brother but Dino seems to be getting progressively worse, seizures happening more often. He believed having his father back would make everything better, help his family be safe and whole. This echoes the thoughts of many children who come from families with absentee parents.

Tragically this story of trauma comes full circle, with an unexpected twist ending.

“I'm sketching out a map of the human heart, I guess. There's more dark hallways than
I knew. Rooms I thought I'd never have to enter.”

A quick, tense, atmospheric read for any horror fan.

Thank you Tor Publishing Group, Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for this eArc.