Reviews with content warning for Stalking - The Only Good Indians

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The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

54 reviews

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

4.0

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones is an Indigenous horror that explores indigeneity, family, friendship, revenge, and guilt as a four men cannot escape a vengeful elk spirit.

There's so much to say about this book, about the way it challenges stereotypes and explores the line between past and present, justice and revenge, and tackles everyday racism and generational trauma. Jones does an excellent job using perspective and blending realism with horror to pull the reader in. There's some really gruesome scenes that I needed to skim over - this book is unflinching about blood and death. Yes, multiple dogs (and people) die in this book.

I did find a few parts slow and the pacing a bit choppy. There's a lot of details, particularly about basketball near the end. There are also parts that are a bit hard to follow because the blend of reality and magic/horror elements. This is definitely a book to sit down and focus on.

I had a really great conversation with my book club, and I'm so glad we read this for the spooky season.

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biobeetle's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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embee007's review

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dark emotional 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

4.75

"Indian stories always hoop back on themselves like that, don’t they? At least the good ones do."

After a slow start, there was some small sections where I was on the edge of my seat, but the rest of the book was a constant state of dread, with a cloud of foreboding hanging overhead.

"It’s a good day to die. I will fight no more forever."

I frequently couldn't decide if I wanted to read & know what happened next, risking nightmares, & the same decision at the end of the next chapter, or wait until it was morning.

"His whole life he’s been looking in the wrong places. Why should tonight be any different?"

I ultimately finished the book just after 4am, because I had to keep going at one point.

"This is all you really need, isn’t it? Just one good friend. Somebody you can be stupid with. Somebody who’ll peel you up off the ground, prop you against the wall."

I don't want to expand on the blurb & write a spoiler...you're either interested in the premise or not, I'm reviewing the horror aspect. It is gory, there is body horror, animal deaths, human deaths, it is gruesome

“We’re from where we’re from,” she says back. “Scars are part of the deal, aren’t they?”

Representation: Indigenous MCs are mostly from the Blackfeet & Crow tribes

"Wouldn’t that be the best revenge? Death is too easy. Better to make every moment of the rest of a person’s life agony."

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goblintrash's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

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sargasso_c's review against another edition

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

3.5

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livlamentloathe's review against another edition

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dark inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Absolutely brutal.

I’ve owned a copy of this book for at least a couple years and it was finally time. I listened to the audiobook—the narration was killer. I even had to slow my usual speed cause there was just SO MUCH happening in every line that I couldn’t follow it all.

Everything leads into something else and it was just BRUTAL. I can’t think of another word right now. I finished the first 3rd and came home in a daze. This is a book you cannot predict. I couldn’t even begin to conceptualize where it was going next. Even as you know, you cannot possibly KNOW. Jones is a master of horror. I don’t know any other horror writers who so often stick the landing. And not only stick it but… I don’t really know basketball well enough to finish that out. The final scene is everything.

Content Warnings

stephanieluxton's review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

A lot of dogs die or are injured in this book. They don't all die at the same time to it's not like ripping off a bandaid. It's actually pretty upsetting.

Without giving too much away, this book is about a few native american friends who broke a rule while hunting 10 years ago and now an entity/elk/person/vengeful spirit is hunting them down for revenge. This book follows each of the four friends as they encounter the vengeful spirit.

Something this book did well was giving a unique perspective into the characters lives. It haven't read many books about modern day native americans/indians but I felt the characters were written well. Nothing felt super political.

The story starts off with mysterious things happening to Lewis and it's a lot of fun watching his paranoia grow. Then the story gets dark and something crazy happens.

Basically all the main characters are killed violently. I actually enjoyed how shocking this part was.

T

The second half of the story introduces Lewis's old friends in more detail. Some of the pacing gets weird here. This is when I stopped having fun reading. Theres a lot or time spent talking about basketball even though it's not very relevant. When we start to see the spirit, what I was imagining in my head while reading was so goofy that I couldn't feel scared or appreciate any tense moments.

The spirit is described as a woman with an elks head and I kept picturing a woman wearing one of those goofy plastic horse masks chasing the characters.

My biggest problem with this book that is

that I didn't feel like there was any justice. None of these characters deserved to die.

Now to spoil the general story so that I can elaborate on my previous sentence:

Four indian friends go into the woods 10 years ago to hunt elk but all the elk are in an area of the woods that is restricted to them. It's near the end of the season so they decide t go and find a large herd. They kill multiple elk and Lewis kills one that has eyes that almost look human to him. She fights to live but he kills her and finds out the elk was pregnant. He vows to use evey part of the elk as a sign of respect and remorse. They are discovered and kicked out of the woods, forbidden from hunting ever again by the elders on the reservation. 10 years later the spirit of the elk (disguised as a human or elk/human hybrid depending on the day, begins hunting them and killing them one by one. She doesn't just kill Lewis, who was her killer. She (directly or indirectly) kills Lewis, his dog, wife, and his friend from work. They she kills the other men who were on the hunting trip as well as their dogs and basically anyone else they care about or who just happen to be in the area at the time. None of these people were evil. Most of them were just living their lives the best they knew how to. It's not a satisfying tale of revenge.

In the end, I have no idea what exactly this book was trying to say. I also have no idea why it's named what it is.

Content Warnings

pipettesandpages's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones follows a group of friends who committed an act that betrays their culture, traditions and their elders. While some of these characters are more haunted than others from this event, all will be subjected to atone for the act committed in their youth.

This book had me picking my jaw up off the floor so many times! Jones has created this raw and gritty story on what happens when a tradition is broken and the attempts to run away from it. While you are with some of the characters more than others, each one is met with a horror that I could not imagine encountering. Watching this characters descend into madness was both horrifying and intriguing.

The first several chapters in the book is slow, but once it hits the fan, the book is so action packed and unpredictable in the best way possible. I love how Jones weaved Blackfeet tradition throughout the story. I want to read more of his work!! I will warn that there is extremely graphic events involving animals and those parts are the hardest to get through. I was not initially warned about this going in.

I know many of the complaints about this book is the way in which it was written. It is a very relaxed way of story telling, almost like someone is telling you ghost stories by a fire. I ultimately think this way of telling the story only highlights Indigenous traditions as well as making you feel like you are present in the moment.

Content Warnings

insideunder's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

corrieroe's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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