Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

335 reviews

sargasso_c's review against another edition

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Racism, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Xenophobia, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

helen_is's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, and Blood

clrouse's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

ingridelaine82's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

I had to really push myself to read this book the first half. It could be the writing style or just shifting from another book but I had to read it slowly and reread to understand. Not complex wording just talk to text speech. Once I got through the first half it did seem to get easier to consume.
Story was simple, characters were brief but good. I got a wendigo vibe from it for sure. 
I believe this is a good story for horror readers to branch out into. I did really appreciate the acknowledgement from the reader as there is clearly a whole other world of books by indigenous authors (indigenous comic con?! Yes please!).
Take your time with this one- it’s worth the patience and work for the end. Also, if you like basketball, there’s a lot of love for it here surprisingly 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

kstorm's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs and Colonisation

jully_bean's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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.

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.