Time for another book review! I promise I read more than this blog implies.
Firstly, remember, buy off of bookshop instead of amazon! It helps everyone that way; they pool proceeds to help smaller, independent bookstores survive the amazonian (and covidian) onslaught.
Note: the bookshop.org link is an affiliate link, meaning that I may get a percentage of the book price. It’s a way to support this blog and your local b. berry writer if you so choose.
Time to review The Only Good Indians.
Like The Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion, I saw this book hyped up a bunch on twitter before I purchased it to read myself. (Social media hype—it actually works!) I also waited until the paperback came out, and to be honest, it was worth it. Not only do I prefer paperbacks, but the cover has a really nice embossed elk head on it. You can feel the antlers!
I’m a sucker for a good Midwestern and/or Native American horror story, largely in part because I spent a good chunk of my formative years in South Dakota. This takes place largely in Montana, but at least a lot of the scenery is similar, as well as the hunting culture.
I knew the very vague premise of the book going in: something bad happened in the past, and four friends must now deal with it. Standard basic premise for the genre. The first character dies in the first chapter—it’s not a spoiler, I swear, it’s in the first paragraph—and we switch POVs to the next character.
But boy, it takes that expectation and turns it on its head.
I won’t spoil much about the novel, but it does something really cool with POV and expectations at the halfway point.
The book is fairly gory, since it is a monster-fueled revenge plot, but it never felt over the top. There are strong themes of violence feeding violence, tragedy feeding tragedy—pretty important and on-the-nose considering the core cast of Native Americans. The novel is rooted in Native American culture in a way that isn’t mystifying or othering, and never confusing to an outside perspective, either. (The cast is mostly Blackfeet, with two Crow characters, and a couple of white folk because we get everywhere. That said, Peta is great.)
The monster design is spectacular. The first chunk of the novel, you are never quite sure what’s real and what isn’t, which is done expertly. (Also to note: the character Lewis never has the idiot ball regarding that. He knows something is up and jumps to the exact same conclusions the genre-savvy reader does.)
The second half of the novel, the monster gets a little more explicitly defined: Elk Head Woman. It’s right there in the name, folks. She is an amazing example of animal instincts in a human guise, down to the narrative tone used for describing her. And, not to ruin anything, but there is a “chase” scene that is right out of It Follows. As in: she walks, her prey runs, and we know she’ll win in the end despite that. It was heart-pounding!
Coming up on the climax, I was worried it was going to weaken itself, but it did a good job pulling itself around. The ending is poetic and justified. I personally was rooting for both halves—I’m a sucker for cheering on a monster on a justified revenge spree, but the human cast was sympathetic, too.
There was one question I still had at the end of the book—more of a “did I read that right, or am I not getting something?” than any open-ended lingering thoughts. It is a question I’d rather have been answered, but it in no way detracts from my enjoyment of the novel.
I’ve already recommended the novel to two of my horror friends (and my roommate, who was decidedly less enthused). I’d recommend this one to anyone reading my blog, too. The horror aesthetic is rad as hell, the monster is sympathetic and terrifying and rage-filled, and the human cast is as flawed and realistic as any of us. What more could you want in a horror novel?
