A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From USA TODAY bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a “masterpiece” (Locus Magazine) of a novel about revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition. Labeled “one of 2020’s buzziest horror novels” (Entertainment Weekly), this is a remarkable horror story that “will give you nightmares—the good kind of course” (BuzzFeed).From New York Times … horror story that “will give you nightmares—the good kind of course” (BuzzFeed).
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
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An emotional rollercoaster and my favorite read so far this year. The writing is different, loose and really gives you the sens of the characters. The twists and turns of the plot don’t seem forced, and the ending is gripping. I will definitely be reading much more from this author now.
How long must we pay for our mistakes, for our sins? Does a thoughtless act doom us for eternity? This is a novel of profound insight and horror, rich with humor and intelligence. The Only Good Indians is a triumph; somehow it’s a great story and also a meditation on stories. I’ve wondered who would write a worthy heir to Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. Now I know the answer: Stephen Graham Jones.
The Only Good Indians is the most American horror novel I’ve ever read.
The Only Good Indians is scary good. Stephen Graham Jones is one of our most talented and prolific living writers. The book is full of humor and bone chilling images. It’s got love and revenge, blood and basketball. More than I could have asked for in a novel. It also both reveals and subverts ideas about contemporary Native life and identity. Novels can do some much to render actual and possible lives lived. Stephen Graham Jones truly knows how to do this, and how to move us through a story at breakneck (literally) speed. I’ll never see an elk or hunting, or what a horror novel can do the same way again.
Fans of Stephen King’s It and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story should find plenty to love in this tale of friends who are haunted by a supernatural entity they first encountered in their youth.
A fresh, unusual writing style, creepy, thoughtful and utterly immersive.
The best yet from one of the best in the business. An emotional depth that staggers, built on guilt, identity, one’s place in the world, what’s right and what’s wrong. The Only Good Indians has it all: style, elevation, reality, the unreal, revenge, warmth, freezing cold, and even some slashing. In other words, the book is made up of everything Stephen Graham Jones seemingly explores and, in turn, everything the rest of us want to explore with him.
Jones boldly and bravely incorporates both the difficult and the beautiful parts of contemporary Indian life into his story, never once falling into stereotypes or easy answers but also not shying away from the horrors caused by cycles of violence.
This one has stuck with me ever since I finished it last week. A truly excellent horror novel that twists and twists and twists you up and then ends with a bang that feels so damn right and gives really good closure. There were moments that lowkey traumatized me (TW: dog death), but it was honestly just a great book that made me think deep thoughts.
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.
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An amazing piece of storytelling. Completely authentic characters. Beautiful writing. An exploration of folklore and its place in modernity, the question of how to honor our heritage when modern life demands so much of us. Not exactly a horror story, but it will leave you chilled all the same.
For Native Americans, there exists a special relationship between their lives and the natural world that surrounds them, which forms much of their spiritual beliefs. Animals also feature prominently in Native creation myths, legends, and art. They live with respect to the world around them, with care given to the environment they co-habitate in, careful not to over-fish, over-harvest, or over-hunt, and to use all the parts of an animal which they kill, with an eye toward sustainability. But what happens when a group of Natives indiscriminately kill animals and show no respect or reverence to the hunt?
Such is the central question in The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, which follows a group of Indians that are being haunted — and hunted — by a beguiling apparition. Ten years ago, these four friends trespassed on elder hunting grounds and massacred a herd of elk, a crime that banned them from the hunting preserve and made them infamous. Now, as the eve of that Thanksgiving massacre approaches, Lewis and his friends find themselves targeted by a strange, horned entity.
Stephen Graham Jones is a hell of a writer, man. His prose moves along in rapid clips, and he’s terrific at character development. I had a real fondness for Lewis, one of the principle figures we follow over the course of the book, and Jones sucked me in. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to figure out Lewis’s background, his past crimes, and why he was suddenly being haunted by this odd specter. I was right there with him as his paranoia grew, tracking and dismissing various claims to get to the bottom of things.
As good as he is at fashioning characters that get under your skin, Jones is especially, horrifyingly, good at crafting scenes that shock and make your blood run cold. I practically leaped off my sofa at one particular “OH HELL NO!” moment, unable to believe what I was reading, not because it didn’t make a kind of sense for the narrative, but simply because I didn’t want it to be true. And that was also when I knew all bets were off with this book and that Jones wasn’t particularly interested in playing it safe with this narrative.
The Only Good Indians has plenty of shocks to be sure, but it’s Jones’ ruminations on these men’s lives and the culture they’ve left behind and turned their backs on that seals the deal. Beyond being a wonderful ghost story of sorts, it’s also a poignant commentary on mankind’s relationship to the world and ecosystems around us, and the hope that we can somehow break the vicious and cyclical natures of violence and revenge. If there’s any hope for our future generations, we have to rediscover that semblance of balance with the world and our place in it.
If you enjoy horror, you must read this novel. If you’re not an avid fan of horror stories, you MUST READ this novel. If you enjoy romantic comedies … probably stay away.
But for the rest of you, this novel should be on all your to-be-read lists, if you haven’t already inhaled it.
I fall into the second category above. Stephen King is likely the only horror novelist I’ve ever read, aside from R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, if that counts.
I decided to give this story a try because it was about life outside of cities, where I also set my work, and it was written by a fellow West Texan in Stephen Graham Jones.
What I love most about this novel, aside from the beautiful prose and distinctive voices, is that I was taken on a fantastical journey that felt as grounded in reality as any book I’ve read this year.
That’s the magic of The Only Good Indians: when the horror aspects reared their unwieldy elk heads, I was so engrossed I didn’t even notice my suspension of disbelief.
This, in turn, kept me from figuring out what was going to happen next, a favorite pastime of any avid mystery/thriller reader and author like myself.
I can’t say enough about this novel. Recommended for anyone who reads darker fiction, no matter the specific genre.
A masterpiece.
You can read The Only Good Indians and enjoy it as a supernatural suspense or as a horror novel if you don’t read/watch a lot of horror or have a low tolerance for it. Or you can dig deeper and be amazed by the cyclical nature that Stephen Graham Jones incorporates into the story in regards to violence, a person’s heritage, and the destruction of animals in nature.
I read and watch a lot of horror so I wasn’t as disturbed by the gore as others. Although violence to animals is always hard for me to read/watch, so in that regard, it did make this book difficult to read at times, but I can see how it was necessary and an integral part of the story.
I was pleasantly surprised how this book has stuck with me. I find myself doing or seeing something and I’ll remember a part of the book. To me that’s what makes a novel so good, when you’re still thinking about it days later.
The Only Good Indians is a novel I will highly recommend to anyone looking to read something original and thought provoking or paranormal suspense/thrillers.
Lewis, Gabriel, Ricky and Cassidy were the best of friends growing up, often running off to hunt. One day the boys decided to hunt on land they were not supposed to hunt on; the land is meant for the elders of the tribe. After ambushing and massacring a group of elk, the boys discover one elk was pregnant, and that there are consequences to hunting on restricted land.
Fast forward and the boys are all adults, living their individual lives. When they start seeing an elk in unusual places and under unusual circumstances, they soon discover that their actions, and the consequences, have lasting, horrible affects.
The Only Good Indians grabbed me from the prologue and refused to give up its hold until the last page. It almost seems like there are three stories that make up the novel, interconnected with each other. It almost reminded me of a Shakespearean tragedy; say anymore and I may spoil the story. The characters, in many ways, are very realistic, even if the events weren’t. The writing is solid and the descriptions are strong, especially the ending.
Go find a copy of The Only Good Indians April 7th, but be sure you have plenty of time to read as you won’t want to put this one down. And be sure to feel the cover!!!!
The Only Good Indians tells the eerie story of a timely descent into a haunting existence stemming from a tragic event occurring ten years earlier. Using memories and guilt, author Stephen Graham Jones builds a strong revenge arc using characters that are revealing and tangled to the point of disturbing realism. The payoff is enormous if the reader is willing and dares to invest in the chilling writing talent of Stephen Graham Jones.
4.5 Stars, rounding up.
THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, by Stephen Graham Jones, is a novel that kept my attention throughout most every single page. Whether we were in the present time, exploring past events, or changing point-of-view, I never had any question as to what was happening, or when.
We have a set of main characters–each of whom we get to know intimately–who shared an experience ten years in their past that was to forever alter the course of their futures. The pacing was just about perfect, in my opinion, letting me really get invested in the people and events without feeling rushed or missing any pertinent information.
“. . . His whole life he’s been looking in the wrong places. Why should tonight be any different?”
The emotions were poignant in each scene. This was a novel in which it was impossible for me not to feel invested in every action taken, every word uttered or thought.
This book made me FEEL.
Whether exploring the . . . inexplicable . . . aspects going on, the day to day relations between the Blackfeet and whites, or even the feelings towards those who moved out of the Reservation, the tensions and societal issues are still relevant.
Yes, there is most assuredly horror. Bloody, impossible vengeful spirits, combined with stereotypes both inside and outside the Reservations, and you have a novel that’s both visceral and cerebral in its implications. This is the kind of book that continues to haunt you long after its conclusion.
. . . When the whole world hurts, you bite it, don’t you? . . . ”
Stephen Graham Jones is an author who knows how to deliver on all levels. I’m looking forward to reading more from him in the near future.
Highly recommended.
The Only Good Indian is equal parts revenge thriller, monster movie, and meditation on the inescapable undertow of the past. A gripping, deeply unsettling novel.
Make no mistake, this is more than a horror novel with a Native American inspired monster. There is an underlying theme in The Only Good Indians, one that shines a light on what it means to be a Native American trapped in modern America. Trapped by what the white man expects you to be and finding no way out of it, no way off the reservation except to die. Or maybe there is hope. I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out.
There is plenty of gut wrenching horror here, and the characters are not always likable, except they’re trying. They’re trying to be better than what they were born to be in the eyes of the rest of America. And the diehard horror fans will probably catch a too obvious hint near the end concerning which final characters live or die.
But that’s okay. The deeper meaning that I got from the story is what pushed me to rate it from a four to a five. Well worth the read.