A review by bisexualwentworth
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow. Maybe I like horror after all.

Stephen Graham Jones writes tension so brilliantly. He builds terror and suspense in a way I haven't quite encountered before. This novel follows several different characters as a terrifying series of deaths takes place, but that description also doesn't do it justice at all. The events of the book happen as a consequence of an ill-fated hunting trip that four Blackfeet men went on several years ago. They killed a deer. When the book starts, one man is dead, two are still living on the rez, and one has moved away and is living with his white wife and their dog. And something is hunting them and the people close to them.

Never before have I so sympathized with an antagonist in a way that was so intentional to the story. Never before have I been simultaneously so afraid on a character's behalf and so satisfied with the tragic fate that befell them.

The ending was perfect.

It got kind of bogged down in the middle section (in the transition from Lewis to the other characters), but otherwise I have no real complaints. 

I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

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