The Only Good Indians

Fresh and frightening. My ONLY problem, was that it was a little hard to follow at first with the switching perspectives, I thought I was reading short stories for a bit. But I personally file that as my problem, not the authors.

this book was beautiful. untangling the story was a slow and steady burn, but manages to shock the reader with unforseen turns along the way. i love a horror read not bent on grossing me out. i also really enjoyed the cultural context; i have not been exposed the perspective of modern native people and it made the perfect backdrop for this story. highly recommended.

I really wanted to like this book and to be honest there is some really good imagery and commentary. However, as someone who wanted to read a horror book based on native American culture, oh my god did I get so much BASKETBALL. I dont know what it is about the author but every freaking character plays basketball in this book and as someone who 1. Isn't interested in sports and 2. Just wanted to read a reservation style horror novel, this really grated on my nerves. It wasnt the fact that basketball was in the book or that one character loved basket, but it feels like the author spends half of the book writing about basketball and having the characters play it for no real reason than to give them something to do. After reading one third of the entire book, I actually put it down. I was so annoyed and had just wanted the author to get on with the story but it was not worth wasting my time. Big fan of basketball or sports and don't mind reading about it? Sure. You like your horror novels with tons of distractions? Sure. But for me, this book was a disappointment.

Overall I enjoyed reading this story. It starts off kind of slow but the creepiness starts to show up as each page is turned. The writing is good and it keeps the reader engaged even in the quiet parts of the book. I loved the characters and Stephen Graham Jones does an excellent job making characters the reader can connect with and like. The real horror doesn't kick in until about 20% of the way in and I was definitely disturbed. It went from slow creepy build to outright horror. And you see it coming and start thinking, "Oh the horror! Don't do it!" Exactly what one looks for in a horror book. The book is basically made up into three sections that all tie together. Each one has that same concept; slow build and then horror. The third section of the book was probably my favorite although the level of detail of a basketball game did get a little long for me. Overall I enjoyed this book. It's a pretty short read and would recommend for the good writing and good story telling.