[Review] - The Only Good Indians
The Only Good Indians
Stephen Graham Jones
The Only Good Indians will be released in the UK on 21st July, 2020, from Titan Books.
Four young men hunt on a section of the reservation they really shouldn’t be on. Their actions towards a herd of elk that night will haunt them for years to come.
This is a tale of man versus nature, of a group of young men doing something reckless, likely done by men before them, and will be done after... but something about this night is different. The Only Good Indians is immediately engaging, with the four characters vivid and distinctive from one another, each with their own ideas of what they want out of life.
That sounds like a minor, minimum requirement thing, but honestly in some books with multiple main and POV characters, the voices and personalities blur together, and Jones avoids that here. You have the guy trying to escape the reservation, the guy who did escape, and the two left behind, one on the verge of settling down and the other who can never really cling onto anything – love, family, friends – for long.
There are problems these men face unique to their setting and upbringing, and there are other elements familiar to anyone who grew up in a small town. At times, it felt like I was reading about people I knew, even though I’m from a town on the south coast of Wales, UK. The guys reminded me of my brother, and his friends, five years (give or take) older than me, who I saw go from reckless, stupid teenagers to reckless, stupid young men.
At its core, the characters are what make this book effective and powerful. Because even when they’re messing up and thinking irrationally, or making the wrong decisions, we still care about what happens to them.
One of the things I really liked, too, was specifically in relation to Lewis. When things start going strange, he doesn’t explain it away, he doesn’t convince himself there’s a rational explanation. Instead, he links it to what he did in the past, and searches for a way to solve the seemingly supernatural mess he’s in.
The horror underlines everything here, the tension present on every page. It’s hard to turn away from events as they unfold, easy to get caught up the story and characters and racing to discover how it ends.
A strong, solid book. A fantastic Man versus Nature story. One definitely not to be missed. But a warning – animals do not fare well in this tale. Proceed with caution.
Grade: A
Review by Elle Turpitt
@elleturpitt
I received this e-book from Titan Books via NetGalley for review consideration