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zakcebulski 's review for:

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
3.25
challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was my first foray into the literary world of Stephen Graham Jones, and I think that it was a strong start, albeit there were sections that I did think dragged ever so slightly.

The story takes place from the point of view of a group of four friends- Lewis, Ricky, Gabe and Cass who are members of the Blackfoot tribe. They are all tied together with their participation in an event predating the story by 10 years, which has ripple effects to the present-day story.
The event is when the group of four sneak on to the Elder's section of their reservation and massacre 9 elk, leaving most of the remains of the elk behind.
One of the worst parts about this event is that one of the elk was a pregnant elk- whose death is especially brutal and upsetting to read through.
One of the group- Lewis- takes it upon himself to bury the fetus of the elk. This is the origin of the hell that these characters will all exist in and will pay dearly for.

The being that seeks to get vengeance upon the four is an absolutely terrifying entity known as the Elk Headed Woman- a woman... with the head of an elk. Now, initially I thought "are we really supposed to feel that elk are scary?". I have never, and I mean this, been more humbled, because this entity is truly scary. It preys on the fear I have of body mutilations and perversion. This being is also able to assume the form of different people, which plays into the story later.
This being is fucking brutal man.

Lewis has since moved off of the reservation and is married to a white woman named Peta. This fact plays heavily onto his consciousness and his social identity.
Lewis is the character who we spend the most time with, with the lion's share of the story taking place from his point of view. He has a tremendous amount of guilt regarding the massacre of the elk, which leads to him having visual hallucinations of an elk. Lewis becomes more and more paranoid which culminates in him murdering his friend and coworkers- Shaney- a Crow woman- and staging her death as an accident. He then kills his wife Peta in a similarly brutal fashion as he thinks that they are both the elk. Lewis is then gunned down by law enforcement.

Previous to this, the story starts off with Ricky- the character who we know the least about. He is introduced at a bar, and while he is there, he is chased down by patrons and beaten to death unceremoniously after seeing a visual of the Elk Headed Woman.

The last two friends- Gabe and Cass- have remained on the reservation as well. They are hosting a traditional ceremony known as a sweat or sweat lodge. Wherein the men will go into a special lodge which will be heated more and more with fire and hot rocks. The idea behind this is to have a time for prayer and meditation to undo the negatives and cleanse the mind and body.
However, while here the EHW shows up and kills the firetender. She then sews discord amongst the friends in a way that was very reminiscent of Leland Gaunt from Stephen King's Needful Things. The friends then engage in fighting which culminates in all of their deaths.
The story turns to Denorah- final girl and daughter of Gabe who plays a game of basketball with the EHW who is disguised as Shaney. Now, this part of the story I did not like. I felt that it went on for far far too long and I was disinterested throughout.
I think the idea of this scene was to show the gradual degradation of the EHW's disguise? But, fuck man, I think the basketball scene could have been cut down just a smidge. This scene slammed on the pacing brakes, for me, in a bad way.
Eventually the EHW reveals herself and chases Denorah through the wilderness until she arrives at the site of the elk massacre. The police arrive and attempt to kill the EHW, but, Denorah stops them from killing her and repeating the cycle of violence. An elk calf is found buried where Lewis buried it 10 years earlier- alive. The story ends with mother and calf returning to wilderness.

I thought that the commentary of this book was very interesting, especially the parts pertaining to cultural and racial identity. There are many discussions surrounding what does it mean to be "Indian" or Blackfoot and what does it mean to appreciate one's heritage. I thought that these were some of the more introspective and interesting sections to be sure.
I also have to feel that there is a reading of this book that stems from man's raping and destruction of nature, and the disrespect of it. I think that this ties in with the partial abandonment of cultural backgrounds as the gang of four opts to forgo the respect their elders had/ have of nature, and kill elk with reckless abandon, for nothing more than sport.
I think that what makes this book so well done is that the story has a social commentary that is cutting as it is blatant. I thought that these aspects were fascinating to read as this is not a cultural identity which I have read up to this point, and, as such, it was interesting to learn about. It is woven within the pages of this story in such a way that it is not able to be ignored. Jones writes it with such expertise that it is praiseworthy, as he balances the commentary with the pacing of the story, and the horror therein. 

All in all, I thought that this book was fun, sad, and absolutely fucking brutal. The kills and violence in this book are well written in a way where you have to visualize what is going on. I think that that is cause for praise for the author's writing. 
I am interested in reading more by Stephen Graham Jones, as I feel that he has a ton of potential to become an author that I have a great affinity for. This book had a lot of strong points, and a few not so strong points. The story is one that we have seen the basic bones for, with a different skin on it if you have read a good amount of horror, it is sort of by the numbers. But, I think that the setting and the characters were interesting enough to carry the story through to the end. 

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