Ten years ago four young American Indigenous men went hunting in an area they technically weren't allowed to, and something happened that has somewhat literally come back to haunt them. I assumed going into this book that the story would be about four men going hunting on the tenth year anniversary of their last hunt, only to find that something is hunting them. That is not what this about at all, which is a good thing.

As one can tell from above, I went into The Only Good Indians with little idea of what it was about, and I think this was ultimately a good thing, but even if I had a thorough idea of what the premise was I would have still been shocked and confused by the twisting nature of the plot. This book more than once shocked me, including one disturbing scene in which I may have mumbled "no" to myself a lot while sitting in a public park.

I think I'm not going to say much more about it except that the author does a great job of making the reader understand the point of view characters and empathize with them even as they do awful things to each other. The book has a lot to say about cycles of violence and revenge, as well as about the results of settler colonialism that still linger to this day, and underpin large parts of north american society.

Book • Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Only Good Indians is the latest horror novel by Stephen Graham Jones, and has been quite a lot of buzz here on bookstagram.

This story focuses on four Native American friends as they must come to terms with and face the repercussions of a horrendous night from their past as its ten year anniversary approaches. One of the strengths of this story is the way that Jones was able to maintain a sense of a modern myth throughout his narrative. The themes of the story felt familiar, but the way that Jones went about telling the story was fresh. In addition to that, Jones knows how to jar the reader with thrills, scares, and violence in a way that was really gripping.

That being said, I was not a fan of the pacing of this novel. It almost felt like a collection of short stories, but with a small narrative string to connect the different perspectives. Because of this, I would get really into the story, and then it would peak and drop into some parts that really dragged for me. I also wasn’t attached to any of the characters, which always brings my rating down a notch.

I do think that this is a very important novel, despite my criticisms, as it brings forward a very important perspective, and draws attention to the stereotypes and injustice around the societal perspective on Native Americans that is still present today. While this novel wasn’t a huge hit for me, Jones does a lot of things right, and I am excited to see what he does in the future.

Jeez oh Pete... I loved this book the only thing that was weird was all the basketball?? It was an interesting book and you definitely get sucked into the plot.

Everything about this was fantastic, easily a new all time favorite for sure. The characters felt to real, and familiar. The setting and atmosphere were everything I could have wanted from a horror story. And the gory elements didn't feel forced or gratuitous. It was perfectly balanced and satisfying. I'm definitely going to be re-reading this every year to establish the perfect ~scary vibes~!

A slow burn, but when it gets going.... A very solid horror novel with multidimensional indigenous characters with various kinds of relationships with their tribal identities. The tragedy is inevitable but completely preventable - the second half of the book is infused with palpable dread. I've been recommending it frequently.

A very unique story. It may take a bit to get into, but it's well worth it. There aren't many books dealing with native American culture, and this was excellent.

Definitely felt like it dragged in places, but overall a very different and engaging story. I really enjoyed the shifts between perspectives.

This is not an easy book to read. It is a true horror read. I've been reading horror/thrillers for most of this year as a way of escape, but this is no escape here.

This novel falls into the "haunted by your past" type of tale. Four friends are haunted and hunted by a choice they made, ten years after the fact.

It is dark. It is disturbing. It is chilling.

Stephen Graham Jones is a Blackfeet Native American, something I looked up after page one of the book. Jones does an excellent job weaving culture and the horror genre together.

I both highly recommend and warn you against taking this lightly.

All sorts of content warnings: animals being harmed and graphic violence.

As usual, SGJ blows me away. I want to give a content warning but for some it might be a spoiler so proceed at your own risk: Animal death, animal revenge, people death, gore, racially-based murder, wasted mac & cheese.]

Ten years before the time of this novel, four friends who grew up together shot a bunch of elk on lands protected by their Blackfeet elders. Strange things start happening....

I just can't spoil it for you, read it.

In discussing it (on a future episode of someone else's podcast) I really started to notice how clever Jones is. First, he changes tenses as the story changes, and this really messes with your head in delicious ways. Since he's writing what he calls "Indian" characters, he openly applies some of the tropes you often encounter when reading about indigenous people but then spins them around - I felt like I could see him chuckling at some of the clever turns some of them take. There are moments that required me to go back and be like, wait, what just happened OH DAMN THAT JUST HAPPENED. He tricked me into liking the characters and how real they feel, and how real their relationships with each other feel, and then he would have bad things happen to them. I'm still not sure I fully understand the ending (but enjoyed rereading it.)

The Only Good Indians was a good read by Stephen Graham Jones. This book follows four Indian men that are struggling for their lives. They all had a disturbing event in their past. They are tracked by something that is bent on revenge and must now do whatever they can to survive.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

5 stars

The Only Good Indians follows the story of four Blackfeet men dealing with the consequences of the slaughter of a herd of elk on the reservation when they were young boys. One of those elk was different from the rest—she was pregnant. She’s come back for revenge and she won’t stop until every single Blackfoot and the one child that was born of one of the men are dead. This is a beautiful book. It’s a book about being Blackfoot in a world that doesn’t understand what it means to be Blackfoot and being Blackfoot in a world that no longer accepts the traditions and what it means when those traditions fade away or are desecrated. I know many who are not Native won’t get this book and as someone who isn’t Native, I was looking to read a horror novel with Native American elements not a horror novel with only white American elements and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I also went in fully expecting this book to be a 5-star read because it was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I couldn’t wait to read this and when its release month came, I was scared to dip my toe in and once I did, I was blown away.


The prologue was a gripping start to showing the slaughter of one of the men in the group, but it did it in such a way that made it look like a mob accident gone wrong with revenge on the Indian man in an all-white bar. This elk doesn’t play, y’all. If you think that is too simple of a beginning wait until you read the first part, The House That Ran Red. I didn’t get what it meant until I got what it meant and boy, did it make my stomach turn. An absolute BLOOD BATH. I’ve never read anything so gory and upsetting. There was so much built up in the first part that when the house start running red (not literally, of course) I was so stunned that all I could do was flop my mouth like a fish and yell, “WAIT, WHAT?!??!” It caught me off guard because I was continuing to expect this book to stay in the slow build and exposition, but NOPE. This book is blood bath after blood bath and ends with an epic basketball battle between an elk and an all-star high school basketball player. Go into this book expecting executions upon executions because this elk is getting revenge. It’s not playing tricks. It’s out for the same blood that was taken and stolen from it. I have decided I never wanted to be haunted or hunted by an elk.


The commentary this book provides on colonization and stereotyping of the Native people and tribes is so important and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through and evaluating what I was familiar with and what was new to me. Really what Stephen Graham Jones does throughout this book is answer the question, “What makes a good little Indian?” This question permeates throughout the text and offers many different viewpoints from each man in the group as well as the daughter of one. It goes a step even further and offers it from the perspective of an angry and vengeful elk. There are many layers and I would love to reread this in the future and dissect it on a deeper level.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

The first main character we encounter in the part one is Lewis. Lewis is married to a white woman named Petra and lives off of the rez. He works for the Post Office and there is now one other Native woman, Shaney, from a different tribe working there (she actually turns out to be connected to another person we meet later on- THE TRAGEDY). This storyline gets wild. It goes from being am I being haunted by the ghost an elk, to I need to kill this person because they are possessed, to full on killing spree. It is horrifying and trigger warnings for the brutalization of women, especially Native women which is a huge issue in both the US and Canada (but that’s a conversation for another day).


The next two characters we follow are Gabe and Cassidy. We also meet Gabe’s daughter, Denorah, who is an all-star basketball player in high school. The two men are setting up a sweat lodge to get closer to their roots and a young boy who has just lost a friend in an accident is going to join them while his father (a local cop) will keep watch. The Sweat Lodge Massacre is exactly what it sounds like and the build up was brilliant. The execution was satisfying and Stephen Graham Jones is great at having the Elk Head Woman lie in wait until just the right moment. It was horrifying, gritty, and I’m not going to lie, I BAWLED LIKE A BABY BECAUSE IT WAS SO UNFAIR AND POIGNANT all at the same time. That’s the brilliance of a good horror novel. It’s steeped in poignancy and the horror makes sense. It’s not gratuitous and heartbreaking for the sake of being over the top, it’s telling a story and showing the horrors of where humanity can go and will go if pushed far enough by just the right source. The ending made me cry and told so beautifully what need to be said. This isn’t a revenge story, it’s a story for a group of people that I had the honor of peaking into and learning more about. What a story. I am blown away. This will stay with me forever.


Characters Scale: 5 (we lover layers)

Villain Scale: 5 (I think this is my favorite villain of the year and reading 157 books so far, that’s saying something)

Overall, you have to read this book. You need to read this book. Even if you hate horror, you should read this book because it’s not white horror and it’s not a white story. It’s the story of how being a good Indian isn’t wrapped up into one narrative like America wants to convince everyone outside of a reservation. It’s layered and full of pain and hope. There is so much to unpack here and I can’t recommend this book enough. I probably did a horrible job of explaining it and you should definitely read some reviews by Native reviewers because their words matter so much and they have said some amazing things to take into account. So, go buy a copy of this book!


Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. More animal heads on covers, please.

Thank you, Netgalley and Saga Press, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am going buy my own copy!

Written in a style that takes some getting used to, this book starts with a young man living in town and traces back to his buddies, his reservation, and an incident that preys on his subconscious. Eventually the danger grows as he travels back to the reservation, pursued by the Spector of an animal from his past. Before the story ends, his wife, his friends, their children and relatives are put in danger by an avenging spirit. Once I got started, I just couldn't stop reading. The spirit world of the Native Americans creates an ongoing danger. When the book ends, you realize it was about the spirit and not any of the people. Scary all the way.

This story is most unusual. There is a strong tone of Indian myth in this story, that sense of a blurred line between the human world and the wild, and in the end there is some moral or lesson to be learned. In this case, I suppose there are several lessons buried in the story, mercy perhaps is one. The tale itself is wild, an elk that has been wronged returns to enact revenge on a group of Indian boys who broke the rules, and killed ten elk on land they weren’t supposed to be on. Ten years later she returns taking a human form to exact her deadly mission. There is almost a lyrical, poetic writing style in this book. If I had to classify it, I guess it would be horror. As revenge tales go, this is certainly very different. Review posted to Amazon, Litsy, LibraryThing, Facebook, and Goodreads.

I could still feel this story on my skin after I finished reading. I laughed, I cried, I gasped—this is truly an emotion-provoking title from a perspective that the literary world needs so much more of. It’s gory, it’s mystical, it creates a bleak but detail-rich world.

Look at other reviews. They mostly all loved this book.

I'm the dumbass that requested and wanted to beg for it thinking I would love it. Then I started reading it and realized I hated the dang thing.


Like that's a shock.

And confession time. I didn't even finish it because I'll pull every hair of my head out if I do.

Don't troll my ass because I'll ignore you.


Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

I struggled with this one. At first, I thought we were following three independent narratives all relating to one central "monster". Once I realize they all tie together as friends, I stopped ~1/3 into the book to start it over. I am glad I did because there were details I missed the first go around.

In the end, I really enjoyed it. Jones' style is the epitome of horror. He never goes wrong there. The difficult comes in his unique way of story telling. Nevertheless, he never fails to give us those vibes of classic horror slashers, or at least here he does it well.

This is a book that I think could stand for a reread. It was a fun ride that only gets better the closer you dig into it. It was also a fascinating exploration of indigenous people.

I really enjoyed this book. It took a little bit to fully pull me in but then it had me. It was very creepy and I thought it was going one way then it took a hard left turn on me. I thought the for a slow burn story is was so good. I don't generally like slow burn so that's why it took a bit to fully get into it for me. If you love a good slow burn and horror I definitely suggest this one for you!

I just could not get into the writing style provided in this novel, and it left me frustrated and confused at times. Sadly, it turned me off from anything going forward with this story. I know there are many people that enjoyed this book, but it just wasn't for me.

One of my favorite books of the year.
After Mongrels and Mapping the Interior, I thought it would be difficult to top himself, but Stephen Graham Jones has done so here. Will post full review on goodreads and amazon.

This was definitely a terrifying read, if anything, it was because of the main entity that comes back to haunt these poor fellows. I gasped quite a bit while reading.

I will say there is a lot of dog deaths that honestly were a bit overkill (no pun intended) but that is because I love dogs. Thankfully, this one didn't leave me in tears, but it did leave me pretty horrified. Like, what did dogs ever do to this entity besides exist for the people that they were going to get revenge on? Though, I suppose that is the point because dogs are so loyal, but yeah that was a bit much in my opinion.

It was interesting to read some of the narrative he gave about Native American culture because I do not know a lot about it. I have some Native American friends and I find it fascinating. I enjoyed how he poked fun at some things, some things being super stereotypical but honestly life is full of that. If you can't poke fun at yourself, I don't think you're accepting of yourself. It rang true and more authentic that way.

The whole thing was interesting, but I definitely enjoyed the first story with Lewis the most. Since he was kind of put in the leader role during the event from their youth, it was definitely interesting how it affected him so much. It was neat to see the process of just how the guilt ate at him and made him paranoid, going down a path until he finally got to the end of it.

This book definitely had a message to it and it ended powerfully. I'm definitely making my husband pick this one up!

I ended up giving it 5 stars.