Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

426 reviews

taratearex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was so great, it had me staying up late wanting to just keep reading and also scared I was going to have nightmares and wishing I hadn't read it at night. It's legit very scary, so creepy and chilling, and the way he drags out a scene that you know is just going to explode is such torture (complimentary). There are many threads being woven through this story and many POV's, I doubled back a few times to make sure I was grasping things, he's dropping hints and references throughout, it's worth it to stop and try to get your bearings, slow down and sink into the story. I can see how people could get lost if you're sort of passively engaging with this or aren't into trying to weave together all the pieces. I honestly can't wait for a reread. I will say the gore is hard to stomach at times and if you're at all sensitive to pet death this may not be the one for you, the descriptions can be brutal! (I know, I know I'm reading horror, but I block gore with my hands when I'm watching TV lol)

CW: racism, violence/murder/death of humans and animals (dogs, elk), very descriptive gore, hunting, alcoholism, parent death, child death, hate crime 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

drymice's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

gracecrandall's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Hate crime

More on the hate crime trigger tag

the book opens with a man dying at the hands of a small mob, mostly racially motivated. The actual violence isn't described, but the potential for it is gone over in the character's mind several times in the scene. There are other parts of the book where hate crimes of varying intensity against indigenous people are mentioned or talked about as normal occurances.

ticklemetiff's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

If you can’t handle animals brutally dying, this is not the book for you. If you aren’t a fan of basketball, this is not the book for you. It wasn’t a bad book, I just couldn’t get behind all the animal brutality. & that’s a me problem I guess. How the antagonist is set up is pretty cool, it was a little confusing in the beginning. I think switching between main characters so early on threw me off for a minute. But again, probably just a me problem. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Cultural appropriation

karlin0336's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

Read this book for our August book club meeting.

I had to really push through this one.
 Some of the content in this book bothered me (see comment in the content warning section).
Also, I never found myself connecting with any of the characters and, therefore, had a hard time caring what was going on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Racism

Soooo many dogs died gruesomely in this book, and it was just really sickening and upsetting to read.

niddy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

vi0letskies's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Murder, and Sexual harassment

kellsbells374's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In terms of craft, I think this book is really well done. I have two things that held me back from giving this 5 stars. 
1. The pace felt a little off at times. I think it came from switching between "protagonists" but it took me out of the story a bit. 
2. For a book that had sortve a revenge plot where a female character was exacting revenge on men who did something shitty, there certainly were a LOT of women who got killed (horribly) as collateral damage. I feel like that maybe fit the horror genre but it kept making me frustrated because I couldn't relate to the "antagonist" destroying all these women almost as pawns or punishment for the men. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism

refrejarator's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The first I've ever read by Jones. Holy hell. It was devastating, it was brutal, and painted a horror story vastly different from any I'd ever read before. Had me freaked out from the first chapter, which is very rare for me! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Book is written from perspective of Blackfeet Native Americans and therefore includes racism, police brutality, and the impact of genocide and colonisation that is still felt by Indigenous peoples today.

rawbdeeni's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail