Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Bad Cree

Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

30 reviews

heresyourletter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

As someone who’s struggled to transition from YA to adult fiction, I often struggle to find adult-oriented books I enjoy.

But from the get-go, I was transfixed by Bad Cree. The fast-paced, unceasing tension; the creepy, unsettling dreams; the bonds between the main character and important women and non-binary people in her life — it was all an utter delight (which isn’t normally something I’d say about a horror book!)

Content Warnings

prairieraven's review

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

brotestantethic's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to like this one a lot more than I actually did. The positives: the characters are fleshed out well, and the central themes of sisterhood and cultural belonging are overwhelmingly present.

Unfortunately, the strong themes are diminished by poor execution. The pacing is dreadful — there is a long chunk in the middle of preparing for a big fight that is anticlimactic, derivative, and most importantly only a couple pages long. There are also some pretty solid gore scenes, but not enough to classify this as horror. Overall, the plot might have been strong if the writing was not so disappointing.

Content Warnings

mikki_9's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

alexxrose's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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