Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - Bad Cree

You know you’re reading an excellent horror novel when you have nightmares after reading the first 30 pages. This was both thoroughly haunting and creepy but also a very sad and moving portrayal of a family trying to heal from the deaths of two of their members.

Content warnings: Graphic depictions of: body horror, blood and gore, cannibalism, violence, grief

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spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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literallyjustjo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

It's dark, it's spooky, it's everything the synopsis says it is. I highly recommend reading this book. Just not late at night and especially not while camping. You'll thank me later.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Until the (excellent) ending the horror content was a little slow for me, but I loved the warmth and healing of the family relationships. They all felt like real people to me. It was also really refreshing to read a book that so completely centres women (and one nonbinary person) and their relationships to one another.

Raven Reads has not steered me wrong yet. Highly recommended.

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mshiiken's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Y'all, this book is magic. It's an incredible debut and I'm thrilled to see what Jessica Johns puts out next. If you want a story about family ties, healing from trauma, and deeply scary stuff, this is the book for you.

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readthesparrow's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

As you read this review, I want to give you a caveat. While I did not enjoy this book very much due to the issues I had with pacing, structure, and character, I don't think it's a bad book. It just didn't fulfill what I was looking for in an adult book, a horror book, or a mystery/thriller.

I'll start with the things I did like. The parts of the narrative that focused on familial relationships, memories, and the effects of death and grief were extremely well-written and memorable. My favorite part of the book is when Mackenzie describes

hearing the sound of her kokum shaking a can of coins after her death, and her memories of the adults playing card games with the kids in the next room over listening. In fact, everything to do with the memories of her kokum and the way Mackenzie's family handled her death

were beautifully done, with fantastic prose and good pacing.

Her relationships with her family were also the stand-out part of the book. Her having to navigate the complicated threads of being hurt, hurting others, and trying to heal were realistic, with miscommunications and mistakes from characters that felt natural. I loved that at the end of the book not everything had been wrapped up in a neat bow. Mackenzie acknowledges the mistakes she made with her family and wants to work on healing.

CHARACTER

When I started Bad Cree, I was confused. I avoid requesting YA titles on Netgalley because they are usually not for me, and I don't want to give a negative review of something I know I am not in the target audience for. The prose style, the character's maturity, and the structure of the book all came off as YA to me. When I finished the book, it wasn't until I was writing this review that I realized it was supposed to be an adult book, which surprised me. It felt like I was reading a YA.

It being adult fiction makes sense, to some extent; the main character is, I believe, in her 20s, and her cousin is a year younger, her sister older. While most of the time they act their age, there are moments that seem incredibly immature out of nowhere. For example, when Mackenzie begins to have her dreams, instead of turning to Google, she decides that the best course of action is to watch a bunch of Marvel movies, take notes on them, and then examine herself for bug bites. This was weird and distracting from the narrative--one of those things that took me completely out of immersion--and while I'd expect that kind of thing from a YA, I wouldn't expect it from an adult book. Maybe if it was an adult book about her being able to crawl around on walls, sure, but for supernatural dreams? Why not go with movies about dreams and dreaming instead?

Later in the book, when the three figure out what exactly is haunting Mackenzie, they decide to

try and bring it out of her dreams.

They do this with no solid idea of what it can do or how to kill it. The thing is, they have access to Google. They Googled to try to figure out what the creature was! All they had to do was add another keyword to the search! It's basic common sense! But they didn't do that for some reason completely unfathomable to me, even after Mackenzie asks how they're going to kill it.

Look. Adult characters can be immature, I understand that. In fact, adult characters should be immature at times. There are other moments in Bad Cree where they are immature, struggle with feelings, or make bad decisions in a way that was natural and made sense. But there are moments where the immaturity are so jarring that it takes me completely out of the narrative and feels out of place with previous characterization.

STRUCTURE/PROSE

This was another thing that led me to think Bad Cree was a YA book. Not to say the prose is bad, but more so that it echoes elements of YA horror I've read before; exposition dumping, skipping over/summarizing important dialogue scenes, and a lack of intense or tense horror elements consistantly being built up throughout the narrative in favor of most of the horrific elements being sprinkled in then rushed through in the last two or so chapters.

There were several places where exposition could have been handled differently and, in my opinion, far more effectively. For example, there is a moment at the beginning after Mackenzie wakes from a dream. After she wakes, the narrative backtracks and summarizes all the dreams before this one. She then calls her friend, Joli, and they talk about the situation. Instead of having the exposition dumped into the narrative, why not have it naturally explored in conversation? As a reader, reading Mackenzie explain it to another person would be far more engaging and understandable, and what she tells and what she keeps private would show a lot about not only Mackenzie or the situation but also her relationship with Joli.

Another spot this happens is with the plan to

pull the monster out of Mackenzie's dreams.

Kassidy and Tracey suggest the plan mid-chapter, Mackenzie agrees to consider it, and at the beginning of the next chapter she has agreed to it. As a reader, I want to see her thought process. I want to see her weigh the options, consider

the danger the monster could pose to her family in the house, try to come up with a plan. Instead she just agrees to it withou doing any of that. Halfway through that chapter she asks what they're going to do if it works. The plan is, and I quote, that they'll just "jump it." Mackenzie asks if it's that simple, her sister is like "maybe," and Mackenzie just accepts that as an answer. They've confirmed at this point it's dangerous, and they believe it is responsible for Sabrina's death. They know Mackinzie can be harmed in her dreams. They don't even grab weapons or try to arm themselves. They don't google "how to kill monster."

It just seems bizarre that they don't do any of the obvious, basic things that this kind of plan would naturally lead to, which takes me out of narrative immersion.

HORROR

While I certainly loved the imagery in places, and liked the final confrontation with the monster, the overall use and effectiveness of horror elements in Bad Cree left something to be desired. I didn't get the intensity of feeling--of being stalked, of being watched,

by something wearing your sister's face

--from the narrative. Especially when

the creature claims it has already been stalking Tracey, from which we only get the mushroom scene and then the flannel is burned and that element is solved immediately. It would have been far more interesting had its influence on Tracey been more gradual, more tense. For example, if had it been impossible or harder to burn the flannel (as that would have put extra pressure on in the final confrontation).

The only moments of horror we get are usually restricted to the dreams, save for at the very end. While her dreams are certainly interesting, the ways in which they encroach upon and prophysy the real world are more interesting, and I would have loved to see the boundaries between dream and reality played with more.

The monster's presence is not a terribly strong one, which I felt was a little disappointing. The monster is, obviously, connected heavily with grief and greed and misery. The descriptions of grief hanging in the halls of the house, of running under the surface, are wonderful. So why doesn't the monster do the same? Why does it not influence anything besides her dreams? I feel that the horror elements could have used a lot more development and intensity. The novel is described as "gripping" and "horror-laced," neither of which I found particularly accurate to my reading experience. I never felt as though any of the characters were actually in any danger from the monster, whether that be physical, mental, or emotional, not in the same way I was convinced of the pain they had in their relationships and the loss they felt.

From pretty early on in the book, I didn't think the narrative would end unhappily. Part of that was because I thought it was YA. When they

went to confront the monster, I didn't doubt that they would succeed without losing or hurting anyone in the process. For me, there was no feeling of tension because the tension and threat had been kept so solidly in the dream world up until that time I sincerely doubted the monster's ability to actually pose a threat. And I was right; Mackenzie killed it, without a scratch on her, her cousin, or her sister. Yes, two of them got hypnotized, but not in a way that was actually terrifying.

Were there horror elements in the novel? Yes. Is this novel a horrifying novel? No, not really.

If this book's premise sounds interesting and you want an excellent book exploring grief, family, and loss, Bad Cree might be for you. But I can't say this book will ever be one I'll recommend as a horror, thriller, or mystery novel. It just doesn't quite tick those boxes for me. Maybe it will for you.

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