The Only Good Indians- My Review
“The whole world hurts, you bite it. Don't you?”
The Only Good Indians is my second Stephen Graham Jones novel, with the first being The Buffalo Hunter Hunter which is perhaps my favorite vampire novel ever. So coming into this I was pretty excited, firstly because it’s by an author I really respect and second because the premise; a bunch of men being hunted down 10 years after massacring a group of elk, was very intriguing to me. I will admit though that this one didn’t quite hit like TBHH, but it’s still good.
To start the character work is pretty good despite this being a pretty short novel. Each of the four male characters who work as the victims to this folklore style horror monster are given enough personality and likability to make you invested in them, despite the fact that you don’t really spend much time with any of them in particular besides Lewis. Watching them die over the course of this novel because of their mistakes was heat wrenching at times, and I felt like you could feel for all of them. The writing of course really helps in this regard and I love SGJ ‘s very unique writing style which blends post modern elements with native oral tradition. It really pops off the page as you read it and makes the story or interesting imo. Finally the horror elements, when they happen are pretty damn well done. There’s a decent in the first section of this novel which is basically Murphy’s Law times ten and it’s absolutely horrific to read. I do wish SGJ leaned more into the ambience and general sense of dread throughout this novel , but that’s really personal preference.
The thing that hold me back from loving this though, is the somewhat meandering pace of this book mixed with the ending. There are parts of this novel, despite it being so short that just felt like padding or just didn’t really work for me. I also thought the ending just didn’t really work, yes it’s symbolic and thematically sound but it just didn’t make for a very good conclusion in my honest opinion.
Overall I liked The Only Good Indians, but unfortunately it just didn’t blow me away like the Buffalo Hunter Hunter did. I think with some more tension throughout and the monster being more direct this novel would’ve worked better for my personal tastes. I will say that SGJ is one of the writers who I can totally understand why he doesn’t work for everyone, but having said that, I’m interested to see how much I like his other novels because if nothing else they are unique. 8/10