Reviews with content warning for Murder - Bad Cree

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

11 reviews

annes_09's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

Holy fuck man.
A bone chilling thriller. I couldn't put it down, even when it made me freaked out of my shadows at night.
But all in all, its a story about family and love and forgiveness. I would recommend to anyone.

Truly, the only reason I couldn't give it 5 stars is because thrillers aren't my absolute favourite genre. But if they are, you will love it.

Content Warnings

avibrantmind's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

A slow build that I couldn’t put down, as the tension swept me up. A glimpse into a home where family members care for each other amid grief and the trauma of an attack on a loved one. It’s filled with nightmares, mystery, and a touch of the eerie, yet it remains undeniably beautiful.

Content Warnings

prairieraven's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

A book about the powerful elders and Aunties and community connection and the bonds between family and community. This is a beautiful and cryptically dark story about a Grief stricken young Créé Woman haunted by her dead sister, plagued by nightmares and followed by crows. She starts bringing objects from her dreams back to reality with her and she realizes she's in more trouble that she thought. The book is gripping, haunting and layered with connectivity with profound character growth.

Content Warnings

kelly_e's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.25

Title: Bad Cree
Author: Jessica Johns
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 4.25
Pub Date: January 10, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Beautiful • Haunting • Layered

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8.

Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. As Mackenzie’s life spirals into a living nightmare—crows are following her around and she’s getting texts from her dead sister on the other side—it becomes clear that these dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Bad Cree was already on my TBR, yet it definitely got bumped up the list after landing on the 2024 Canada Reads shortlist. Marketed as a horror, I really wasn't quite sure what to expect, but a few bookish friends told me it wasn't 'horror' in the typical sense of the genre.

With poetic writing, I was instantly hooked by the opening scene of this deeply atmospheric and urgent story. Advancing at a slow meander, it was absolutely disturbing and unsettling at times, yet each of the characters were so real, leaping off the page. There is so much beyond the brutality - an underlying thread focusing on familial (particularly female) bonds, grief and generational trauma. Delving into the very real horrors POC continue to face as a result of systemic oppression, the social commentary never takes over.

I really appreciated getting to know more about Cree traditions and customs, the connections to the spiritual and natural worlds, and the role of dreams. Jessica Johns does a fabulous job portraying the isolating nature of grief - not only from death, but from the impacts of industrialization and colonization as well. Everything was just very well done to not detract from the plot.

Bad Cree is an exceptional and gripping debut from a rising Indigenous voice. It took me by surprise, and I will be keeping an eye out for what Jessica Johns is working on next. I suspect this one will fair quite well in the upcoming Canada Reads debates happening March 4th-7th. If I had to pick a winner, this would likely be it. Regardless of how it does, I definitely think this is one book all Canadians should read.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for something different
• realistic horror enthusiasts
• anyone looking for a new author

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"One thing they don’t tell you about when someone you love dies because of a sickness is that death happens in a million different ways in the lead up to the actual moment."

"That might be the worst thing about death: it doesn't stop anything. The world keeps moving, even though the pain is just as real as the day it settled in."

Content Warnings

mollymisek's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

This ends up being equal parts chilling and heartwarming, but the heartwarming bits take awhile to surface. I especially loved the Auntie characters and the focus on estrangement / reuniting with family after loss. Johns could have leaned harder into some of the horror aspects, but this is definitely approachable for those who wouldn’t always veer toward scary stories.

Content Warnings

maresuju's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

glutenfreemaggie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

shadestate's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What a wonderful, raw exploration of grief, community, and guilt. How avoiding deep pain doesn't make it disappear. It just gets a chance to linger and fester. I loved how Mackenzie, the main character, was deeply flawed.

Anxious, avoidant, pushing people away because she feels like a burden. Unable to ask for help. Falling into the trap that pretending you're okay is the same as not making your loved ones worried. Yet still loved by her family and friends. Because we all have our flaws, the bad.

A five of cups book at its core. Definitely want to reread this late October, when I think the pages will speak even more than they did now, at the start of spring.

Content Warnings

anapthine's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was incredible. Just everything about it was amazingly done: the characters, the setting, the emotion and the plot. I was hooked: perched on the edge of my seat having to find out what will happen next. Johns clearly poured out their heart and soul into this book, emphasising the importance of indigenous voices: how they should be listened to and not ignored. The stories of generations and the Cree woven into this beautiful story. Some parts of it made my spine crawl, with it not being predictable and you always wanting to find out more.

Mackenzie has dreams of her dead sister, which begins to become more real forcing her to return home after leaving years ago. Crows seem to follow her - like some impending doom. Are these just dreams or is there more to it? What do they mean?

This is a must read. I have never read anything like it, and I doubt I ever will again. Jessica Johns is a beacon of indigenous voices and they will be heard.

Content Warnings

azurae's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Haunting, chilling, incredible book by indigenous author Jessica Johns. I don't often read horror, but this book gripped me.

Content Warnings

More...