Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Only Good Indians

Overall this book was great. Thrilling, mysterious, gruesome all mixed together with the supernatural. I would have rated it 5 ⭐ except I found the climax basketball scene so absolutely boring and not fitting with the rest of the story at all and it took away a lot of the tension and scariness of that scene for me. Also the gratuitous animal cruelty and death was difficult to get through but I understand it did mostly have purpose for this book.

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snwalsh's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

3.75

I liked the voice and found the switch between perspectives interesting (except for when the Elk woman's perspective would pop up in second person randomly within a paragraph). There was way too much basketball, in a way that needed to be heavily edited down and distracted from the storyline.

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sidekicksam's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

4.5

"The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

Wow.

I've seen people gushing about this book, and all of it is true. SGJ writes with a pen so sharp, it'll slash you. The complexity and layers of the story, which do not complicate the reading experience; this book is a marvel.

And it's scary AF!!! I've more than once expected to see it lurking in the dark. It's gore-y, bloody and creepy and definitely a future re-read.

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koldglaze's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

This book comes off as an author who really wanted to write about motorcycles and basketball, but was paid to write horror. The monster was good, but unfortunately, we learned more about technical terms for motor cycles and basketball than the lore of the monster. Seriously, there were CHAPTERS dedicated to these things, that overall, didn't play into the story of monster out for vengeance. If you don't have experience with these hobbies be prepared to skim through these large sections or the book or stop every other sentence to look up jargon to understand what the author is talking about.

I'm just very disappointed with how much praise this book has received. I enjoyed learning about the Blackfeet's culture, but would have preferred more lore building.

Spoiler

Why was only this elk back for vengeance? Surely, other pregnant elk have been killed before?

Spoiler

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emadisonc's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

For them, ten years ago, that’s another lifetime.
For you, it’s yesterday.

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aidareads's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

4.5

a solid 4.5 star read! i really enjoyed practically everything about this book, except from: 1) the fact that it took me around the first 20% of it to actually understand what was going on and wanting to know more and 2) the parts where basketball became so emphasized (i get it's a narrative device, but still). apart from these, i liked pretty much everything: dynamic writing style, funny scenes for some comic relief, very graphic gore for the spooky vibes, and an animal-ish entity seeking revenge after being killed? sign me the hell up! and i also liked how the author introduces notions like native american tradition and urban indians (e.g. "growing up traditional", knowing how to perform certain ceremonies such as a sweat, etc.) and i loved the ending as well! PLEASE check trigger warnings before reading this, though <3

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winter_loves_cookies's review against another edition

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I can’t do graphic animal death.

Spoiler

I read some of the spoilers and it says that the dog gets trampled to death later. But before that I was reading and got to the point where the dog accidentally hangs himself on a fence and is in a bad way. The main character also imagines taking the dog out back and shooting him with a rifle to put him out of his misery.

At that point I had to call it for my own mental health. But the story is intriguing and the writing is excellent. I was listening to the audio book and the narrator does an excellent job.

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missmali's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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