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A review by writerdgabrielle
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
4.0
On the surface, for purposes of finding it a home on physical shelves, The Only Good Indians is a horror novel. But there is so much more to this than abject horror. It is a supernatural tale of being driven to madness by guilt, of the madness of grief, of revenge. It is a ghost story with a corporeal ghost but it's not a possession story.
The Only Good Indians moves slowly through each scene, building the tension then turning it on its ear in ways you don't necessarily see coming. You think you know what's going to happen but then Jones flips the script and takes you in a different direction entirely.
I chose four stars for this book because while the subtly second person present tense narrative form is effective and I cannot imagine this story being as effective if told any other way, I personally struggled with immersion, at first but throughout as well. In the first two parts, the focus is on one character alone but when we enter the third segment, the focus shifts. Do not mistake this for a POV shift, however, as it is still the same narrator, the same perspective, just focused on a different target.
I imagine the narrator to be an omniscient, omnipresent elk spirit from indigenous culture speaking to their child, the Elk Head Woman, calling her to vengeance, urging her on her quest, and while I may be reading too deeply, finding meaning and symbolism beyond what the author intended, this feels very much like an allegory for colonization. Just as European settlers came to the continent, took whatever they wanted from those who were present before, and threw it away as if it were nothing, these four men, Gabriel, Ricky, Cassidy, and Lewis, took from the elk herd and threw it away, incongruent to their ancestral roots of using all of the animal for food, clothing, and shelter. The Elk Head Woman does what indigenous nations are unable to do: She took back what was stolen from her.
The Only Good Indians moves slowly through each scene, building the tension then turning it on its ear in ways you don't necessarily see coming. You think you know what's going to happen but then Jones flips the script and takes you in a different direction entirely.
I chose four stars for this book because while the subtly second person present tense narrative form is effective and I cannot imagine this story being as effective if told any other way, I personally struggled with immersion, at first but throughout as well. In the first two parts, the focus is on one character alone but when we enter the third segment, the focus shifts. Do not mistake this for a POV shift, however, as it is still the same narrator, the same perspective, just focused on a different target.
I imagine the narrator to be an omniscient, omnipresent elk spirit from indigenous culture speaking to their child, the Elk Head Woman, calling her to vengeance, urging her on her quest, and while I may be reading too deeply, finding meaning and symbolism beyond what the author intended, this feels very much like an allegory for colonization. Just as European settlers came to the continent, took whatever they wanted from those who were present before, and threw it away as if it were nothing, these four men, Gabriel, Ricky, Cassidy, and Lewis, took from the elk herd and threw it away, incongruent to their ancestral roots of using all of the animal for food, clothing, and shelter. The Elk Head Woman does what indigenous nations are unable to do: She took back what was stolen from her.