The Only Good Indians
“Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.”
GoodReads
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a book review here, I tend to blow through them so fast that I often forget to review them or sometimes any strong feelings I might have had. It doesn’t help that I’ve been on a kick reading books on the history of Conservation in North America and it’s genocidal and racist roots. This book is different.
This is the first book by Stephen Graham Jones I’ve come across but it won’t be the last. I discovered this title after experiencing a burnout due in large part to the aforementioned genre I found myself reading. I wanted to get into some more light reading, and especially stories by and focused around BIPOC persons. For obvious reasons this book hit both those criteria. But I can’t pretend that I put any thought into picking this title, truth is I checked the audio book out from my local library’s app based solely on the title and the cover art. It wasn’t until after I placed the hold that I looked up the title on GoodReads.
By and large most of the reviews seemed to be by non-Natives. They complained about everything from the plot, to the story telling, to the use of Blackfeet language. It was pretty clear that most of these readers were unfamiliar with current Native culture, our slang, and our stories. I can’t fault them for this though, we are very under represented in pop culture and it’s not often you come across such an acclaimed piece of media that is so unapologetically Native.
Everything from the story to the speech patterns to basketball, this book brought to a home I’ve never actually been to. It conjured up feelings of sitting around with my rez born friends shooting the shit, talking about our hunting plans, their last game of hoops, and the less than optimal siding on my trailer house. For me this book was like a life raft in year that’s been isolating at best and apocalyptic at it’s worst. I have a feeling other diaspora separated from Indian Country will feel the same. If you’re a non-Native don’t fret! This story is compelling and gruesome and everything you want in horror fiction. You just have adjust your world view a little bit, and accept that stylistically the narrative is from a different culture.
I don’t want to talk too much about the storyline or how things are revealed because that will alter your perception of the narrative. But I welcome discussion in the comments and we can talk about our favorite bits there.