Having read this author before I was looking forward to this one. Graham Jones writes with a beauty that few authors can match and this book was the same. Since I was familiar with this one and being that I was given an advanced copy I saw this through to the end, however i probably would have quit on it otherwise. While I'm not familiar with the symbolism of the elk in this story, I went with it but didn't find a satisfying solution here. This element and the Native American culture in it are things Graham Jones expects you to keep up on, there is no hand holding if you don't get it.

The back half of the book was even more scattered for me. While I love the prose I just can't imagine a reader I would reccomend this too unless they are big fans of the author.

Haunting and suspenseful, The Only Good Indians is one of the best horror books I've read recently. I read it about three hours and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The beginning is a little slow, but keep reading because it picks up. The book is well-written and you can easily envision the story as you read it. I anticipate that this book will be adapted into a movie or miniseries and I look forward to that.

First, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this!

4 stars I think? This one is a weird one because I read the first 50%, got distracted and read the last 50% on a flight while I was nauseated. So like most of this is a fog for me but I did really enjoy the book overall. I really just need to re-read it to give it a better chance.

I also don't read lots of horror, so I can't speak to any horror tropes in this really.

There was a really good use of 2nd person in this, and I just loved that aspect so much. The story being told was also done very well. I could follow the plot and I didn't really feel loss as to why things were progressing that way.

A lot of the reason this is ranked as just a 4 even though I really loved it is because one of the more graphic sequences had me lost when it came to what was going on. Like I thought some characters were alive only to find out they had died and I had apparently missed that paragraph while reading, but even on re-reading I was still confused on some of the action taking place.

The book is split into sections, the first one is the longest (and a REALLY good build-up), and the last is the shortest. The first and last sections are also the best. The second section has the 2nd person I love, but certain parts just felt dragged out or like it took too long to buildup.

There is also a REALLY good section that follows someone that thinks they're going crazy and I think it was done very well, like it was believable that the character was losing it. Overall a really great book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes horror.

Wow, what a creepy, twisted read! Well written, shocking, scary, chilling to the bone, and so much more! Wasn’t sure what I would think of this one; but when I started I was hooked and could not put it down! Really shows that karma is not the nicest, so be careful on what/who you decide to hurt! If you like scary stories, with some good thrills and mystery worked in, this is for sure your book! Preorder now!
Will make sure to buzz this one up.

I know this book doesn’t release until May, but I simply could not wait. 2019 is the year I started reading Stephen Graham Jones. I’ve only read/reviewed Mongrels and All the Beautiful Sinners , and I am so thankful there are many more back titles for me to get to in 2020.

I wanted to mention the other two books I’ve read because, while the other two are different, there is something at play between these three. All of them focus on a Native American character or characters, and all three include a search for identity. If you haven’t yet read Jones (fix that!), you won’t miss out on anything if this one is your first, just know that some of the same themes arise in others as well.

The title itself, The Only Good Indians, could reference any number of things in Native American history. Is it something that Sheridan or Roosevelt said? Maybe it references a previously written book. Or perhaps, it is just what it is, a phrase the friends grew up with and internalized as they traversed life in and outside the reservation.

At any rate, we see mainstream racial stereotypes, but Jones gives a very raw look at the internalization of harmful behavior, not only outside of the reservation, but from within as well. If you’re reading this thinking “ugh, pass on the social commentary”, first, check yourself, and second, this book has a lot more to give; without the depth, it just isn’t the same.

Jones isn’t one of the most prolific and versatile horror fiction authors for no reason. Be prepared for truly gnarly body horror, supernatural happenings, and a complete sense of “what the hell is going on”. No worries though, with Jones at the helm it all makes sense. This book is going to leave a mark. In the best way. The Only Good Indians made me laugh, ugly cry, and hide my eyes in revulsion. Want a great story? This is the book. Want to be terrified? Yep, this book. Pre-order or wait until May, just get this one in front of your face.

This has been getting raving reviews... so I want you to take this review with a grain of salt ;).


I really really struggled with this book. I found it extremely slow and had issues with the writing style. I feel like the story never grabbed me from page one and was waiting for something to happen.... it just lost me. I love a good horror book but this just wasn't for me and feel like I wasn't the best reader for this book.


There have been many positive glowing reviews so give it try you may love it.

Thank you so much to Gallery and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 5/19/20
Published to GR: 12/24/19

Be careful what you sow because you reap what you sow…
Ten years ago, four young American Indians went hunting and had killed some elks, illegally… and they had no idea what would be the consequences of their actions…

Fast forward to present day, the 10th anniversary of the said killing, one of these Indians keeps encountering some unexplainable hideous incidents until…
I like the creepy horror and suspense of this “The Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones. Nonetheless, the flow of the story is a bit choppy; at some points, the story-telling lacks some strength.


Author Stephen Graham Jones has great potential to write good horror, creepy and haunting novels, and I am looking forward to reading Mr. Jones’s future novels of such genre.
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

I finished The Only Good Indians last week and I have been thinking about it since then. I really enjoyed the novel and am thankful to Saga Press for gifting me this title. I love that this story is Native American based because it shares with the reader some of the believes and rituals of the Native Americans. We are all connected. I believe this story is pure fantasy but it feels so believable. The four boys and the way they savagely destroy the herd in a frenzy leads to the their ultimate demise. We need to all think clearly before we act because the consequences of our actions impact our entire lives. I know I can not properly convey the spirit of this story but I feel that it is a must read because of its rich symbolism and moral story. I feel as though I could read it again and take even more away from it the second time. I really am not sure that I fully agree with its placement as a Horror Novel but even though it has some gory scenes. The Only Good Indians by Steven Graham Jones is a book you should read for its great story telling, I know I will be looking for more from this author.

Phew! What an incredible read!

I give this book major points for creativity and uniqueness. I don't think I've ever read a book like this before. Four American Indian men go hunting only to end up being hunted themselves. This is a story of revenge and justice, with a splash of gore thrown into the mix. But I wouldn't qualify it as overly excessive violence, especially if you're a big horror fan. There are animal deaths, so beware if that's a trigger.

It started a bit slow, but picked up in the second act. The book is broken into sections, and it takes a little effort to really sink into each new bit of the story. However, once the action starts, it captivates. The characters are memorable and tragic, while giving a bit of insight into life as an American Indian. The entity haunting them is an enigma that kept me guessing until the final chapter. Sure, there were parts with the pacing lagged a bit, but the pay off was worth it.

I highly recommend! Thanks for the free ARC Netgalley!

This story starts out with the beating death of an American Indian outside a bar. The author then takes us on a journey along with four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. An entity is tracking them bent on revenge and it’s closing in on them, one by one!

SGJ gives us a look into Indian traditions, the lives of four friends and how all four were changed by one event. Characters are great, we learn of their hopes and dreams along with the entity that seeks revenge! It’s a slow, creepy horror that develops as the story moves along. Had some real feels at the end. This is a good one, you need to grab it!

This review is based on an ARC of The Only Good Indians which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Gallery / Saga Press).

4.25 stars

Hoo-wee! This is the best horror I've read in a while! (Certainly the best one not written by Stephen King.) When it comes to horror/suspense novels I don't typically stray outside of certain parameters. I'm glad, however, that I took a chance on this one! The Only Good Indians is utterly gripping from Go and delightfully horrific. The beginning (after the prologue) is a little bit of a slow build, but interesting nevertheless, and the novel keeps tempo throughout.

What kept my interest the most is probably the heavy Native American culture represented. It's a culture I'm not very familiar with (and one of my favorite parts about reading is seeing how other people live!), so that made the book really fun for me to delve into. I especially love the drawl-y, realistic vernacular of the narration. Jones' prose is very unique from most other author's I've read, and the story he tells is also insanely creative and new.

Just, wow! This book is a hit for me. I can't wait to read more from this author!

This novel kept me on the edge of my seat. I was really fascinated with the pieces of Native American culture sprinkled throughout this story involving four friends who are "cursed" after an act of violence when they were young. This was definitely a slow burn for me. Sometimes I couldn't see where parts of the story would intersect right until the last few chapters. And I was not expecting the ending at all. I highly recommend this book!

The Only Good Indians is a thrilling and horrifying novel that sits deep in your soul. This is the kind of book that stays with you and keeps you up long into the night. Friends, this is what horror SHOULD BE. I'm a fan!

Four young American Indian men find themselves fighting for their lives against an entity who wants revenge after an event that occurred during an elk hunt ten years earlier.

Many are really enjoying this book and I encourage my fellow readers to read those reviews. This book just wasn't for me. I struggled with the writing style, I found it slow in parts, and overall just not my cup of tea. I love a good horror book, but this one just didn't work for me- end of story. I thought the book started on a high note, and really grabbed me but then it lost me, and I never found my footing with this again.

We all can’t love the same book, and this is the case here. I am in the minority on this one, so give it a try and decide for yourself.

The book does have an amazing cover.

Thank you to Gallery, Pocket Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Only Good Indians is about four young men that killed a herd of elk on land they had no business hunting on. Several years after the elk massacre, Lewis still can't help but feel guilt over what happened and is convinced that one of the young elk is after him to get revenge. When the people Lewis and his childhood friends care about are dying, it's clear something is after them and no one is safe.

This book had its ups and its downs. I was about 1/3 of the way through the book before I felt something interesting was finally happening, however the momentum doesn't carry throughout the book. There's a lot of parts where there's too much detail about things that don't help support the plot and just feel like they're there to fill space. There were a few parts where I could skip pages and not feel like I was missing anything. The gore and violence against animals didn't bother me at all, but if that's not something you're okay with, you might want to skip reading this book. Those parts get descriptive. I thought the ending tied the story up nicely, but it still felt like the rest of the book was lacking something.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A true tale of horror, revenge, and suspense from a unique perspective. When tradition is violated and a horrible crime brings down a curse on four Blackfeet young men, their lives will be upended by a force hell-bent on their destruction.

Absolutely dripping with atmosphere and starring fascinating characters whose perspectives always drew me in and kept me interested, this book is an easy reccomend for fans of horror and other works by Stephen Graham Jones.

A little ways into this, I began to think, "I've read an awful lot of zombie animal books lately." I needn't have worried that this one would be the same as the others: it's very different, and very good. Four young men, full of hubris and disdain, massacre a herd of elk they find grazing in the men's Native elders' hunting grounds. One of the elk is young and pregnant, and though she may be dead, she does not forget or forgive. Ten years later, with one of the men already dead, the other three begin to meet their fates at the hands, feet--hooves--of the young elk, who takes on bodies and identities and does what she feels necessary for retribution. Along the way, the author offers insight into modern Native American culture, the ways in which indigenous Americans have been robbed and segregated, and hurt by white governments, and what it means--maybe--to be Indian. I recommend this highly as a thriller, a ghost story, a meditation. It's gruesome and gory and marvelous.

** spoiler alert ** Thank you to Simon and Schuster for taking a bit of a chance on me for this arc. Unfortunately, this was not for me.
TW for animal cruelty, animal abuse, poaching, GORE (barbaric cutting a fetus out) death, and just some general bad stuff happening to elk.
This is about a group of Blackfoot men departed after an event they no longer speak of. One by one, each of them are killed by some unforseen entity.
I found this story so gory and graphic, which was not the right horror thriller to start out with. But I did enjoy the poetic writing, locations, and descriptions of certain elements.
I would definitely watch this if it became a movie, but it just didn't translate well for me on page.
That being said I'm rating this a 3/5 stars. Just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't mean someone else won't. I'm just a bit more sensitive to animals and their essence than I thought.
I do want to add that I'm probably rating this low because I'm Lakota and we believe in only taking what you need when it comes to hunting. My family hunted for survival vs for sport so I had a hard time resonating with these characters due to my own life experiences.

I am really happy for Stephen Graham Jones and I hope that the next thing he writes I will enjoy more.

‘The Only Good Indians’ is a horrific tale about four rebellious Native American teenagers, Gabe, Cass, Ricky, and Lewis, who decide to have an elks Thanksgiving for their reservation, Blackfeet Nation. Drunken with murder and rage, the teens kill a herd of elks. As the teenagers cheer about the massacre they caused, they start to cut up the elks to bring the meat back to their reservation, only to discover an innocent pregnant young elk, was among the elks killed. Terrified of the curse they just imposed on themselves, they bury the young elk and her baby, except for her head.
Fast forward ten years, the now four Native American men are haunted by the curse of the young female Elk. Slowly one by one, the “Elk head woman” takes her revenge on each of the four-man by meticulously and slowly killing each one of them and everything they hold dear.

Of course the title caught my eye, but when I heard the description, I knew I had to read this. My pueblo has so many stories about respecting the animals you hunt, and I had devoured the graphic novel Deer Woman earlier this year, so I was thrilled when Netgalley gave me an early digital copy.

At first I had a hard time with the flow of this novel. First of all, a lot of the story isn't explained, only hinted at for the first quarter, so even though I had an idea of what had happened to four Blackfeet men, best friends from childhood, on the weekend before Thanksgiving, I didn't really know what was going on. At some point it becomes clear, and then the story picked up for me.

One of the great things about this book is that the main characters aren't terribly likeable. Four Indian men, who drink, shoot elk illegally, and sit around feeling sorry for their lot in life hits much too close to home (men like Lewis, Gabe, Cass, and Ricky are some of the many reasons I didn't marry an Indian man), yet the story is written in a way that you are conflicted on who to root for. You don't much like the men, but you can see they are doing their best with what they have, and the elk spirit is so sinister that it's hard to feel sorry for it. Another great thing about this book is that it is not dumbed down for non-Native audiences. Stephen Graham Jones sets the story at a pace that requires you to keep up, and the easiest way to keep up is to not expect to understand every little detail. There were many, many things that I didn't fully understand, since my people are Tohono O'odham, and Pueblo, not Blackfeet, but I don't need to fully understand every tiny unexplained detail to get a great thriller. I loved that Jones let the atmosphere of the story take over, instead of explaining every piece of Native myth, and taboo.

This is very much a modern allegory, one that could be turned into a story the Blackfeet will tell their children around hunting season for years to come. Denorah's unexpected role at the end is a reflection of the role of Indigenous women everywhere.