This book was a slow burner that burned bright at the end. The story is as intriguing as any Native American folktales and takes the revenge story to a new level. There could be moments that you want to just speed through the chapters, but I promise that soaking up every word, and every detail will be worth it.

Another superb piece of literary horror from Stephen Graham Jones, as always. Scary and original slasher novel with great kills and plenty of twists. The Native American themes are CRUCIAL to the plot; never heavy handed or pedantic. Highly recommended!

In Native American cuture the Elk is generally considered masculine in nature and a symbol of a sucessful hunt. For four American Indian men, this would be appropriate and a curse. Ten years ago Lewis, Ricky, Cass and Gabe are out hunting and make the decision to break tribal rules and enter an area reserved for elders. Here they come across the mother lode: A massive herd of elk gathered below them in a welled valley ripe for the picking. However things don’t necessarily go as planned, leaving a nightmarish scenario that would stop anyone from hunting for sport.
Cut to the present where revenge raises its antlered head as a spirit from the past comes a calling to claim justice.
I found this a mixed bag. If I had to classify this I think I’d call it literary horror. Jones is a good writer and yet as far as sheer thrills go it wasn’t until the final third of the book I found myself needing to read until the end. Perhaps some of this is his decision to focus primarily on one of the four men for the first third of the book leaving the others as supporting characters I didn’t care much about. His build to the payoff around a sweat lodge, climaxing in a stand off between the daughter of one of the four men and the supernatural entity is the highlight of the novel and appropriately pulse pounding, ending the book with a satisfying conclusion.
On a side note, I love to read acknowledgements and Jones has written one of the best and most heartfelt. I had to quote this, what he says about his wife, because it so moved me. “As always, thanks to my beautiful wonderful smart and perfect wife, Nancy, for putting herself between me and the world time and again, leaving me little pockets out of the wind where I can sometimes write a book or three. I write nothing without you shielding me like that time and again.But, really, thanks for seeing me across a wash of sand when we were both nineteen and holding my eyes that one moment longer, a moment that’s lasted for us, and still has a lifetime to go.”

I didn't make it all the way through this book, I only got to 50%. I had an issue with the writing style it was just odd and not working for me. I would put it down pick it up, then repeat until it was just kinda meh oh well maybe next one. I haven't read any other books from this author so I'm not certain if this is his normal writing style or if this was a one off for him. It's funny how so many reviews can be in the extreme positive and then so many can be in the negative, and most of the review that I saw in the negative couldn't get past the writing style.

I’m not much of a horror reader, but the premise of this thriller caught my attention. Four young American Indian friends are haunted throughout their lives by the memory of a hunting event. On an elk hunt, they ran nine elk off a cliff, reminiscent of an old-time buffalo jump. As they butchered the dead and dying crippled elk, one young female elk with gold and hazel eyes refused to give up. Even after repeated attempts she still showed an unearthly desire to protect the baby fetus still in her womb. It was an unforgettable, scarring event to witness for each of the men, but they had no clue how it would haunt them for the rest of their days.
Told from the sad, wry, down and dirty angle of how American Indians are treated in today’s America, the lives and events of these four men are challenging enough without the constant specter of this elk, who still refuses to pass on without protecting her unborn. At times a bit slow but at others, terribly bloody, haunting and fast-paced, this is a story that will hang with you long after you’ve finished.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley for making it available.)

The writing style wasn’t for me, and I found myself reading sentences to grasp what was going on. Also, the story didn’t start on a high note for me so the rest was really a struggle. Couldn’t bother to finish it because I didn’t care for any of the characters.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

As I normally would not rate a book that I could not finish, I am giving this a rating for what could probably be a good one. I read 45 percent of it and still had no idea what was going on, or understood what the characters were doing or talking about. I'm sure this will be a great book to others who have read his works and love it, this just was not for me.

* I wanted to thank Netgalley, and the author, Stephen Graham Jones for giving me an ARC digital version of this novel.
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It’s been a decade since four Native American men of the Blackfeet Nation walked away from a hunt with nothing to show but empty yet blood-stained hands. They’ve all moved on but someone or something has not and it’s back for revenge. The past catches up with each man in chilling ways, walking a fine line between the stereotypes placed on their culture by mainstream society and the haunting power of traditions.

I really don’t want to give too much of the plot away here! I went in knowing little and it heightened my sense of anticipation. The story struggles to gain a steady pace in the beginning; readers are introduced to each character and slowly given an explanation of what happened to the group on their last hunt together. Despite the slow start, Jones delivers a fascinating horror story that manages to speak volumes on cultural identity while giving readers a violent rollercoaster tale!

The Only Good Indians is a captivating and inventive novel that I highly recommend to readers who enjoy horror.

Thanks to Gallery/Saga Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Only Good Indians is scheduled for release on July 14, 2020.

This is a "sound effect" book. As I read, a lot of "oh no", "look out" and many other noises escaped. My husband said it must be a really good book and yes, it was. As the story begins, you will feel the frustration that leads to bad decisions that lead to the fight that will follow them the rest of their lives. This is one book that you will set down then come back to quickly. WOW!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This is a horror book with a fresh voice, the horror intricately intertwined with Native culture and norms, mixing tradition with the current reality of the rez, the addictions, the cycle of poverty.

Ten years ago, a group of four young Blackfeet men went hunting on the last day of the season, just before Thanksgiving. Their freezers empty from a fruitless year, they were desperate to kill something, to try to be "real" Indians. Finding nothing on the land they were allowed to hunt on, they make the decision to cross over into the elders' land, knowing that better elk lay ahead, even though the price of getting caught is losing their hunting permits for a long time. I won't spoil the rest of the story, but the decisions they make on that fateful day - dubbed the Thanksgiving Classic - will haunt them.

Ten years after the Thanksgiving Classic, the four men are in various states of relationships and jobs, both on and off the rez. But the horror that happened ten years prior are coming back for them, one by one.

I don't know if I would say this book is necessarily scary - although I have yet to be truly scared by a book in the same way I get scared watching horror movies. But the execution was fantastic. Jones's writing is whip-smart, lean and casual and fast, almost like Nico Walker's Cherry but much, much better. The story is woven with the complex ideas of modern Native life, with the ruts of being stuck on the reservation, what sweat lodges are like now, interracial relationships, trying to be a "proper" Indian, etc. Jones fills the book with sharp insights, criticisms, and reflections on what all of this means, and it makes the reading experience much richer than a run-of-the-mill revenge thriller. Even the entity exacting the revenge is deeply tied to ideas of what's right and wrong in Blackfeet culture.

This book was much different than anything else I've read all year, and its differences make it a standout in the horror genre. There were some weak points for me - the ending was a bit drawn out and didn't hit the climax I hoped it would - but I enjoyed it overall and would recommend it for anyone who's looking for an interesting new take on the revenge horror genre. Thank you to Gallery / Saga Press for the ARC!

Do you like the Final Destination franchise? If you say yes, just know this novel is for you.
Did you like Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World? If you say yes, this novel is also for you.
Are you a fan of the Charlie Daniel's song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia?" Again, here's your next favorite read.

Now, I am going to say something that may be a bit of a hard sell for horror readers: This is a novel that gets better the more I reflect on it. As a white man, it took me a while to acclimate to the use of storytelling, mythology and folklore used in this book. But Jones is a master storyteller and should be trusted at every step of the way.

This book is also such an interesting piece in the pantheon of horror in how it changes genre. You read the prologue, and you think you are getting a monster story. Then Part I brings you a ghost story. But you hit Part II and find a "cabin in the woods" slasher. And you end on a "demon comes to collect its debts" slow burn. So I find myself able to recommend parts of this book to fans of any style of horror, but only able to push the whole novel into true genre devotees.

This book loses a star for me because two of the central passions discussed in the book (cars and basketball) are not passions I share, so I found parts of the book hard to visualize.

I will end my review with the strangest push I've ever given: Buy this novel for the acknowledgments, ESPECIALLY if you are a writer. These acknowledgments have set a new bar in their amazing stream-of-consciousness look into how a writer gets from Point A to Point B in the writing process.

Do yourself a favor: Preorder this one and save it for a sunny day.

Rating: 4/5

this book was full of twists and turns. I loved every chapter. I loved the tribute to native americans and I just felt sucked in on page one.

This is like the product of your creepiest nightmare! Ten years ago, four Native American men sneak onto the hunting land of the tribal elders and slaughter an entire herd of elk. One young elk desperately clings to life, and they discover that she was pregnant. Now on the anniversary of that fateful hunt, the spirit of the elk returns to exact revenge on the four men, their families, friends, and everything they love.
I had a hard time at first with the writing style of this book, but found myself getting sucked into the story. I thought it lagged a little in between the different characters' stories, but the ending was well worth finishing.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Stephen Graham Jones never fails to surprise me. I knew I would most likely enjoy this story, but I didn't truly expect to love it... but I did. I've seen complaints about the slowness of the start of the book but that's what makes a good horror story to me- the anticipation.

I know a lot of people are enjoying this book, and I highly encourage readers to give it a chance because frankly there are not enough Own Voices out there, especially for Native American's. I truly believe this book could be excellent horror for another reader but it just wasn't for me. I struggled with the writing style, found it too slow through too many parts (but that prologue was fantastic), and I simply lost interest. Again, I think this was just a "it's me, not you" thing. I will give this author another chance in the future though!

I had a very hard time with this book. The beginning was cumbersome and confusing and it took until a third of the way through for it to start sinking in and making sense. The narrative and interactions left a very disjointed and foggy feeling of where the story was going and where it had come from. I felt that the cultural nuances could have been a bit more streamlined and referenced with more clarity instead of inference.

Remember when you first reading The Shining, or It, and the SURPRISES could truly shock you, and the horror was as much psychological as it was real, and that was why the books stayed with you for so long? Now add those emotions and add a Native American supernatural element, and you've got the bones of this story. Both dark and relatable, it's the story of making a bad decision and how it stays with you- karma, in this case CAN be a real killer. But how real is it? With innocents in the crossfire, their is a race for completion. Stay with this book until the end, for a book not to be read at night!

I wanted to read this book because it’s an own voices story and I can’t recall ever reading a book written by a Native American. So when I started reading the book it started out slow but I decided to stick with it and things picked up as the story progressed. Then the book slows down again and all hope is pretty much lost. There is a huge emphasis on basketball and the story goes into great detail about the game. I’m a sports fan but it was overkill. At times while I was reading I felt like the writing was a little disjointed. Some parts left me confused and the chapters would end abruptly. I also wouldn’t consider this book to be a horror story in my opinion. I was expecting to be scared as I read and that didn’t happen. I felt like I was reading a supernatural book. As much as I wanted to love this book sadly it didn’t work out for me which is a bummer.

Ten years after a ruthless hunting trip, four American Indian men face the consequences in The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

This novel was beautiful and frightening. It was easy to empathize with the characters; they became real people to me. They were funny, flawed, and broke my heart. The horror in these pages was palpable - I gasped, held my breath, and jumped out of my skin.

The imagery in this novel was superb and would make a fantastic film! Experiencing horror through a different culture's viewpoint is powerful. I'd love to see this story reach a wider audience, too.

This is the first novel I've read by this author, and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of his work.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

CWs: blood, gore, death, graphic animal/pet death, graphic violence

This is one of the darkest, most unsettling stories I've read in quite some time. The Only Good Indians is an effectively horrific look at the destructive consequences of cyclical violence. It's about how a past that is not honored comes back to haunt those who have forsaken it. And it is a horrifying prospect, truly.

I think this story has a lot to say about how the past inevitably colors, permeates, and shapes future generation. It's about how intergenerational trauma, particularly for Indigenous peoples, is a literal entity that ensures the colonized will destroy each other and themselves to continue the work of the colonizers. It's about how ignoring our pain will only give it more power.

And yet, despite the gore and violence, despite the cutting social commentary, it is a story about hope and survival. For a horror story such as this to not end on an image of death is a truly Herculean feat, and not something many authors can pull off.

This story only solidified the respect I have for Stephen Graham Jones' talent, and makes me want to read even more from him.