Indigenous Horror is my favorite horror! There is something so chilling to read a book that’s seeped in mythology and lore, something that makes it even more believable that these monsters really do exist. This was excellent.

This was a great read for someone like me who has always had vivid dreams...and nightmares. Little by little, the dream world attempts to impress itself upon the protagonist Mackenzie's reality in horrific ways, and I was constantly wondering what dangers would befall her and her loved ones if it succeeded. Indeed, the horrors in the dreams are visceral and occasionally stomach-churning; they were one of my favorite parts of this book to munch on. However, because Mackenzie tries for a long time to avoid her guilt and grief surrounding her family, it took roughly half the novel for the plot to quicken enough for me to get into "Oh, what's going to happen next?!" mode. Still, when it got going, it really got going.

Also, probably one of my favorite book cover designs I've seen so far this year. And no, my crow tattoos do not make me biased.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-ARC!

Bad Cree, the debut novel by Jessica Johns is immediately gripping and captivating. From the first sentence, Jessica Johns weaves a story of family, self-discovery and dreams. It is a story steeped in culture and expresses dreams as authentic tools. The power of connection, the healing of family is interwoven with a creeping tension and terror. The family dynamics and relationships focus the novel and the voice of the main character is powerful. 

I love how vibrant and beautiful the story is at times and messy just like life. The exploration of grief and how it impacts each of us in different ways is brilliant. I also love the way real life blends with the supernatural in this novel, how deftly the author weaves the narrative. It is authentic and truthful. I also love the insight into the author’s own culture and how that makes the story more impactful. 

If you like supernatural horror that still holds a touch of hope, a story that is gripping and captivating, I highly recommend you check out Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. It is powerful, real, complicated but mostly it is about grief, family, and connections and all of us can understand those elements, no matter our background.

Atmospheric and creepy. I really enjoyed this book, but am unsure how I feel about it now knowing the author might be play acting as Native when she's not.

I really loved the creepiness and atmospheric writing of this book. I've already handsold several copies just by telling people it's spooky and Indigenous--it sells itself!!

On page one, a young Cree woman awakens with a crow’s head in her hand. Tell me that doesn’t get a horror fan’s blood pumping. When Mackenzie blinks, the head disappears. Was it real? Just her imagination? Something she carried over from her nightmare?

Mackenzie is still grieving her sister’s death a year ago. She’s also carrying guilt from not going home for the funeral. Soon the dreams about a night before her sister died become overwhelming, and Mackenzie travels home for help in dealing with them. I immediately loved her family – loud, occasionally obnoxious, a little pushy, and unconditionally loving and supportive. The dreams don’t stop, but at least she’s surrounded by people who can help her work through them and offer insight. The mention of Cree beliefs, customs and traditions fascinated me, and I wouldn’t have minded more.

Gold stars to the author for the creepy imagery – it really grabbed me. The crow’s head in chapter one started with a bang, but pacing ebbed and flowed for me in places. Occasionally the plot lingered too long in a certain scene, and it pulled me from the story. But not the ending. It was very vivid and atmospheric – and also bittersweet.

Bad Cree is undoubtedly a horror story, but it’s also about a loving family dealing with overwhelming grief. I’ll definitely be looking for future titles by this author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Mackenzie begins to have dreams about her sister's death that happened during a weekend at their family’s campsite. But after a dream, she wakes with a crow’s head, a crow she’d torn the head off of in the nightmare. Even more unsettling, crows have been following her when she is out in the city where she lives, settling in trees to wait for her while she's at work or her apartment. One morning she awakens from a nightmare, throwing up water from the lake near her parent’s home in Alberta and receiving threatening texts from her dead sister, Sabrina. She returns home to find the truth.

Bad Cree is an interesting horror novel where the heroine is Cree, a Native American. Cree people believe in interpreting their dreams and dreams are what is terrorizing the young woman. Is what she is experiencing dreams or are they real too? Can her culture enable her to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sabrina and can her family help her? The novel makes a great heart-pounding read where the real and not real and Indigenous symbolism strikes at the heart of it all.

Man, I really don't like when I read a book written by an author a part of a minority group - in this case, an indigenous author - and don't vibe with it. Unfortunately that was exactly what happened here with Bad Cree. It felt like a chore to read for me. Maybe it's because I don't love dream sequences in books to begin with? That is a huge part of this story.

I loved this. Go in cold, if you can. The less you know about the story, the more shocking it will be when it reveals itself to you!!!
Mackenzie is dealing with some heavy stuff: she lost her grandmother and her sister in a short period and she's trying to find her place in the world. Now this: she's having some pretty horrific dreams and, somehow, she's bringing stuff out of the dreams with her when she wakes up!!!
It's time for Mackenzie to go home. The juxtaposition of Mackenzie's family (full of strong females, tight-knit, very supportive) with this big bad (that I shall not mention) that tortures her in her dreams is amazing.
I loved every minute of this story and the ending is perfect. The pacing on this novel is perfect, the characters are very well developed and some of the scenes are never going to leave me. It was darn near perfect. I can't believe it is a debut.

This didn't totally feel like horror to me, but I really enjoyed it! It's more on the supernatural/magical realism side of things with a little bit of horror and family drama.

I loved the creepiness of Mackenzie's dreams and the atmosphere of the entire book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an atmospheric and creepy supernatural read that I really enjoyed. It contained many cultural elements to it that were integral to the story and I loved learning about, this was my favorite part of the story by far. The pacing was a little slow and it was lighter on the horror but it was perfect for me. I liked the ending and the overall resolution, and this author is definitely on my radar.

Thank you to PRH Audio for the ALC and NetGalley and Doubleday Book for the digital galley to review.

Love love love. Some parts felt drawn out for the sake of length; debating on telling mom and aunties or going alone x2, etc. otherwise loved it. I wish the aunties had more defining characteristics. I couldn’t tell them apart and could barely tell Kassidy and Tracey apart. Perfect read for middle school + up for Indigenous authored horror.

One of my favorite horror reads. I loved the dream horror, the atmosphere, the exploration of identity and self, the folklore, and the complicated family dynamics and relationships. Will read anything Jessica Johns writes!

I really enjoyed this one, and especially appreciated that this book based on dreams was written as a bit of dare to someone telling the author no one wants to read about dreams. I found the birds nice and unsettling.

The nitty-gritty: Less horror and more family drama, Bad Cree is a beautifully written examination of family ties and emotions, with just a touch of otherworldly horror.

I have to admit Bad Cree was almost a DNF for me, but I pushed through, and ultimately I’m glad I did. This really isn’t horror at all, although there are a couple of scenes that fit that genre. Mostly, this is the story of a family dealing with grief and loss. I think if my expectations had been different, I would have rated this book higher, but I went in expecting horror and that’s not what I got. Still, by the end I was fully invested in the dynamics of Mackenzie’s close-knit family, and the emotional ending bumped up my rating a bit.

The story takes place in a small town in Alberta, Canada and revolves around a Cree family. Mackenzie left her home of High Prairie after her kokum (grandmother) died, and she hasn’t been back since. Even when her sister Sabrina died, nearly a year ago, Mackenzie couldn’t face the sadness of Sabrina’s death, and she didn’t go home for the funeral, even though her family begged her to. But lately she’s been having strange dreams. In the last one, she dreamed she saw Sabrina being attacked by crows, and when Mackenzie woke up, she was holding the severed head of a crow. Mack knows she can’t figure out what the dreams mean by herself, and despite her reluctance, she decides to go home to her family.

Coming home is fraught with emotions and memories, though. Her sister Tracey (Sabrina’s twin) is still mad at her for refusing to attend their sister’s funeral. Mack’s mother and beloved Auntie Doreen are thrilled to see her again, but there is an underlying sense of hurt that Mack knows will be hard to mend. As the family tries to help Mack figure out the meaning behind her dreams, Mack begins to remember long buried memories of growing up in her close-knit Cree family. And when the dreams become threatening, Tracey helps her unravel the mystery of what really happened that night in the forest before Sabrina died, and how a monster from Cree mythology might be connected.

The story starts out very slow, and in fact the pace only picks up at the very end with the appearance of the wheetigo, the mythological Cree spirit who is threatening Mack in her dreams. I’ve always been a little leery of stories that revolve around dreams, so I was taking a chance on this story to begin with. Luckily, the dream sequences worked pretty well for me, but their dreamy quality didn’t do much to help the pacing, unfortunately. The first half of the book is focused on Mack reuniting with her family, and most of these scenes are very “talky,” meaning the characters talk a lot and don’t do much else. Being home brings back lots of childhood memories, and while I loved learning more about Mack’s Cree upbringing and family traditions, I’ll admit my attention started to wander every time one of these memories came up.

On the other hand, I loved the strong bonds among family members and the interactions between Mack and her sister, mother, aunts and cousins. There was such a joyful feeling to the story once Mack arrives at High Prairie, even though the pall of Sabrina’s death still hangs over the house. Being together and helping each other through the bad times is what her family does, and I loved the way they embraced Mack’s arrival, treating her as a family member even though she hasn’t been supportive lately. And the author doesn’t sugar coat the characters’ emotions and reactions when Mack comes home. Each is upset with her to varying degrees, because to them, her refusal to come home for the funeral was a betrayal. Mack has some very uncomfortable conversations, especially with her sister Tracey, and I appreciated that the author made these interactions so believable.

I liked many of the characters. Mackenzie is a young twenty-something woman who doesn’t know exactly what she wants, but she knows that being around her family only makes her grief over her dead sister worse. I also loved her best friend Joli, a non binary character who isn’t in the story much but has a big presence when she is. We get flashbacks of Mackenzie’s childhood and times spent with her kokum, and I loved those scenes. Kokum is nurturing and sweet and tells wonderful stories and teaches the three sisters about the local plant life. In a nice change of pace from other books I’ve read lately, there aren’t any horrible, villain-like characters. These are all just regular people trying to live the best they can.

Johns infuses her story with Cree mythology and beliefs. For example, dreams are extremely important to Cree people, and often predict the future or give warnings. Mack’s cousin Kassidy has had prophetic dreams her whole life, and one of her aunts dreams only in certain colors, which gives her hints about what’s coming. And then there’s the wheetigo, a spirit who feeds on greed and misery. The author ties its presence to the oil industry in High Prairie, illustrating some of the injustices done to indigenous people over the years. The brief moments when the wheetigo takes center stage in the story were unsettling and creepy, and I only wish it had been more of a focus. 

Even though Bad Cree wasn’t exactly the story I was expecting, I’m glad I read it. Jessica Johns’ thoughtful and emotional depiction of Cree family life was nicely resolved at the end and gave me a warm glow.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

I think the writer is talented, and there is a lot of interesting imagery. I did think the relationships between the women in the family were great to read. Something about this wasn't for me though. I can't put my finger on it. I'll still recommend it to customers and will be looking forward to her next book.

This book is WONDERFUL. Beautifully written and paced just right, I will read anything Jessica Johns writes from now on. I've been trying to read more horror books written by Indigenous authors, written about Indigenous characters and I am so glad I read this one. The story holds power and beauty to go along with a fantastic story about death, loss, and the strength of family.

This is promoted as horror, but for me, the family elements turned out to be much, much more of a draw than the creepiness. And that was fine and dandy! The relationships between grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters, and cousins is the real lifeblood of the story, as far as I’m concerned.

Thanks to Doubleday Books for the Advance Review Copy.
Only my 4th book read so far, I can already confidently say that this will be in my top books of the year. This is the type of book you put on your bookshelf, highlight and recommend to all your friends. Following Mackenzie, from her nightmarish dreams where she brings things back to her interactions with her estranged family following the death of her sister, this book will have you quickly thumbing through the pages to see how it all ends.

The writing in this is wonderful with it's slowly building menace that is heavily influenced by Indigenous stories that have been passed down. While these stories may not be familiar to most readers it is not a requirement to understand what is going on. The sense of community that is displayed in the story is wonderful with the highlight being Mack's Aunties. Their strength and displays of love are what drive the story and what make you care what happens to everyone.

Themes of disconnection, trauma and grief are distributed along with connection, forgiveness and healing in this tale that also has moments of visceral horror. Fans of Stephen Graham Jones will adore this story. Highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Ugh. I was intrigued by this one initially, but it fell flat for me. It’s advertised as being in the horror genre, but it’s definitely more a character study on grief. I liked the native folklore and appreciated getting to learn more about the Cree culture, but the pacing of this story just left me so bored about 80% of the time. Sheer curiosity to find out what was really going on was the only reason I didn’t DNF this one. If you go into this book knowing it’s more literature than horror, you might enjoy it. There was a lot to like, but for me, I was expecting something else and so this one was disappointing.

My rating: 2.5/5 stars