Review: THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones

5 Stars

Throughout I repeatedly asked myself why I had waited until now to read Stephen Graham Jones, vowing to read everything in his prolific oeuvre. The simple phrase "new favorite author" is overworked but very true. Stephen Graham Jones is exceptional.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS is a painful novel to read. I am ashamed of the Caucasian treatment of indigenous Americans throughout history, and as the case of character Ricky Boss demonstrates (reminding me of the Wyoming Matthew Shepard case), continuing today. Just reading it is painful; living it is unimaginable.

But THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS is not Horror only because of wrong-minded people performing wrong acts, nor the main characters living trapped in a history of sorrow and seeming inescapability. It is also a story of Supernatural Horror: one in which the four main characters make poor choices, driven by their economy, need, and resentment; and all the efforts of one, Lewis, come to no avail for any of them, a decade later, at the anniversary of this event.

This is not a book you read and leave behind. This is a book you live.