(![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija Mar. 18th, 2021 12:33 pm)
rachelmanija Mar. 18th, 2021 12:33 pm)"You're just making that up!" Cassidy tells him. "Everything that's Indian, you just make it up!"
"Shit, somebody's got to," Gabriel says.
Ten years ago, four young Blackfeet men went on an elk hunt. Something went wrong, but not the usual sort of wrong I've ever read in a horror novel before: they didn't accidentally shoot another hunter and cover it up, like they might have in a thriller or realistic horror novel, or trespass on an Indian burial ground or Indian curse, like they might have in supernatural horror written by a non-Indian author. What actually happened was different, a wrong that had to do with their particular culture and lives.
And then they moved on. Two of them stayed on the reservation, and two of them left. But the ten-year anniversary is up, and their past is coming for them...
The Only Good Indians works on every level: as a horror novel that revels in the tropes of horror (chapters have titles like "The House That Ran Red" and "It Came from the Rez"), a clever reconfiguration of those tropes, a vivid portrait of a specific place and people, and exploration of cultural loss and identity.
It's violent, gory, often darkly comic, with lots of likable or at least very human characters (many of whom die), some very scary scenes, a really cool ambiguous monster, and some absolutely bravura pieces of writing. It starts out very male-centric, but there's a major female character who comes in later and instantly rocketed to a place in my all-time favorite female characters.
Warning for lots and lots of gory animal harm. It's central to the theme/plot, but I skimmed some parts due to extreme gruesomeness. Other standard horror warnings apply, plus depictions of racism. No sexual violence.
Lewis slowly tipping into paranoid madness was one of the creepier depictions of that which I've read. The spinning blades of the ceiling fan through which the truth may or may not be revealed, the cementing of his suspicion of Shayney because she hadn't read the fantasy books, the moment when he remembers that elk have ivory teeth... Brrrrr!
On a lighter note, I adored the "Andy" fantasy series and wish I could read it. It was delightful. And also slipped sideways into horror when Lewis remembers Andy being reborn as a mammoth fetus and there's no way to tell exactly when Lewis started remembering things wrong - a theme in his whole section. (I assume he stomped Harley himself, but when exactly did he become an unreliable narrator? Always?)
I loved everything about Elk Head Woman. Monsters who have a legitimate grievance but go too far are the best kind. I couldn't believe Jones had the writerly chutzpah to switch to her POV, but he really pulled it off.
I loved the whole sweat lodge sequence. It was so vivid and human and mythic all at once, with the men and boy awkwardly navigating a ritual they partly take very seriously and partly don't, which has an absolute reality of its own even when it's just a bunch of doggy sleeping bags and a resentful kid.
Especially, I loved the exchange I quoted at the start of this review, which is so key to the themes: being Indian isn't a static tradition, it's something that was created by people and is still being created by people, a living past and present and future, in which myth and reality are one. At the end, Nathan really does become Blood Clot Boy, and Denorah's present heroism becomes a story told in the future, in which we see her future, and how Gabriel lives in her reckless smile, and her next greatest action isn't winning a game, but a fist raised and an offering made, a gesture of respect and grace.
The flip side of horror is transcendence, like the fearfully and wonderfully altered worlds in the movie Annihilation and the book The Girl With All the Gifts, or the abandoned lot that holds the rose that contains the sun in The Waste Lands. The ending of The Only Good Indians is transcendent.
Excellent reading by Shaun Corbett-Jones. (I always like audio performances in the audio books I review, because if I don't, I don't last more than a couple minutes and switch to the text version.)
The Only Good Indians
"Shit, somebody's got to," Gabriel says.
Ten years ago, four young Blackfeet men went on an elk hunt. Something went wrong, but not the usual sort of wrong I've ever read in a horror novel before: they didn't accidentally shoot another hunter and cover it up, like they might have in a thriller or realistic horror novel, or trespass on an Indian burial ground or Indian curse, like they might have in supernatural horror written by a non-Indian author. What actually happened was different, a wrong that had to do with their particular culture and lives.
And then they moved on. Two of them stayed on the reservation, and two of them left. But the ten-year anniversary is up, and their past is coming for them...
The Only Good Indians works on every level: as a horror novel that revels in the tropes of horror (chapters have titles like "The House That Ran Red" and "It Came from the Rez"), a clever reconfiguration of those tropes, a vivid portrait of a specific place and people, and exploration of cultural loss and identity.
It's violent, gory, often darkly comic, with lots of likable or at least very human characters (many of whom die), some very scary scenes, a really cool ambiguous monster, and some absolutely bravura pieces of writing. It starts out very male-centric, but there's a major female character who comes in later and instantly rocketed to a place in my all-time favorite female characters.
Warning for lots and lots of gory animal harm. It's central to the theme/plot, but I skimmed some parts due to extreme gruesomeness. Other standard horror warnings apply, plus depictions of racism. No sexual violence.
Lewis slowly tipping into paranoid madness was one of the creepier depictions of that which I've read. The spinning blades of the ceiling fan through which the truth may or may not be revealed, the cementing of his suspicion of Shayney because she hadn't read the fantasy books, the moment when he remembers that elk have ivory teeth... Brrrrr!
On a lighter note, I adored the "Andy" fantasy series and wish I could read it. It was delightful. And also slipped sideways into horror when Lewis remembers Andy being reborn as a mammoth fetus and there's no way to tell exactly when Lewis started remembering things wrong - a theme in his whole section. (I assume he stomped Harley himself, but when exactly did he become an unreliable narrator? Always?)
I loved everything about Elk Head Woman. Monsters who have a legitimate grievance but go too far are the best kind. I couldn't believe Jones had the writerly chutzpah to switch to her POV, but he really pulled it off.
I loved the whole sweat lodge sequence. It was so vivid and human and mythic all at once, with the men and boy awkwardly navigating a ritual they partly take very seriously and partly don't, which has an absolute reality of its own even when it's just a bunch of doggy sleeping bags and a resentful kid.
Especially, I loved the exchange I quoted at the start of this review, which is so key to the themes: being Indian isn't a static tradition, it's something that was created by people and is still being created by people, a living past and present and future, in which myth and reality are one. At the end, Nathan really does become Blood Clot Boy, and Denorah's present heroism becomes a story told in the future, in which we see her future, and how Gabriel lives in her reckless smile, and her next greatest action isn't winning a game, but a fist raised and an offering made, a gesture of respect and grace.
The flip side of horror is transcendence, like the fearfully and wonderfully altered worlds in the movie Annihilation and the book The Girl With All the Gifts, or the abandoned lot that holds the rose that contains the sun in The Waste Lands. The ending of The Only Good Indians is transcendent.
Excellent reading by Shaun Corbett-Jones. (I always like audio performances in the audio books I review, because if I don't, I don't last more than a couple minutes and switch to the text version.)
The Only Good Indians
From:
no subject
Also, Denorah is just the best. I would happily read a whole spin-off series of Denorah books.
From:
no subject
Killing an entire herd of elk, trespassing in land reserved for elders, killing a pregnant cow, leaving the meat to rot: those are all very real transgressions in-context, and I think Lewis is right that Elk Head Woman noticed when the last of her meat was thrown out rather than eaten. Her vengeance is hugely overkill, but she was wronged and does have a right to justice and healing.
I also want a Denorah spin-off series. I love her.
From:
no subject
My eyes just got SO BIG.
From:
no subject
But they're not the sort of wrongs that would generate a horror novel in other cultural contexts.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I really love your book reviews. Thank you so much for sharing them.
From:
no subject
Thank you! That's great to know.
From:
no subject
From:
**
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject