A review by danielles_reads
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Wow, this was wild. This was my first book by Stephen Graham Jones, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Ultimately, it was mysterious and intriguing enough to keep me engaged, and I loved the ending, but the style and extreme amount of violence and gore was not for me.

I'm a character-driven reader, and all four of the main characters seemed interchangeable to me. I kept getting them confused and forgetting who was who. Ricky and Lewis in the beginning of the book even start out in very similar situations: moving out of the rez, being called "Chief" in a group of white coworkers, and imagining fake newspaper headlines. Then I couldn't keep Cass and Gabe straight. But I think that's more due to this book being a splatterpunk kind of horror rather than the social / atmospheric horror I prefer. The emphasis was more on the themes of Indian life in the US, the cycle of violence, and respect for nature, plus the shock factor, rather than real character development.

I thought Lewis' part was super interesting, as his descent into delusion (or not?) was so engaging. I was so convinced by what he was seeing but was still so surprised how far he took the situation into his own hands
by killing Shaney and his wife, wtf!!
Plus all the little details like the fantasy novels he likes to read, and dynamics with his coworkers.

Gabe and Cassidy's section felt a little more aimless (which was a big reason I kept confusing them). Plus there was a LOT more talk of basketball, and while I was clueless most of the time (I know nothing about basketball), it didn't seem to really add much to the story. It mostly felt like stalling to get to the big gory scene.
And man, it was so gory...! The string of deaths felt so over-the-top, especially since there was so much collateral damage (with too many innocent women affected). Plus Cassidy was so stupid for putting his money in a nondescript thermos under his truck (??), which led to so much disaster independent of the elk woman. I also didn't like how Nathan and his dad somehow survived their death scenes that seemed extremely final just to move the plot along. None of the women got dramatic "they're alive!" scenes either... was that intentional?
It was all just too much for me--not necessarily because I'm sensitive to violence, but because the sheer amount of it felt so cartoonish.

I really did like Denorah's section, even though she also focused a bit too much on basketball for my taste (
and how did Elk Woman get so good at basketball anyway? lol
). Her fear felt so palpable and tense, as did her emotions after
realizing her dad had died.
Her and
Elk Woman
had an interesting dynamic. I also liked the second person sections about the elk, which made the whole thing seem so much spookier as well as totally justified from her point of view. So eerie!

I was going to give this a flat 3 stars since I recognize it's good but not really my style, but I did really love the ending. I love how poetic it is,
ending in the same location as where the whole story started, at the lake. I love that one of the MC's daughters is the one who stops the cycle of violence from continuing, as another Indian (I think? her stepdad's race was never confirmed) man with a gun tries to kill more elk. And I love the weird supernatural birth of yet another calf that the Elk Woman could protect, as the human "calf" she was going to kill protecting her.
I couldn't think of a better way to end this wild and violent book. What a mind Jones has.
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