Rating : ★★★☆☆
I have complicated feelings about this book, ones that are not entirely satisfied - but positive. I read this after it was highly recommended by my two favorite booktubers, it’s a book repeatedly promoted over and over again in horror TBR’s - so of course, I had to check it out.
The Only Good Indians is a book from multiple points of view, about four men, of the blackfoot tribe, who must confront a dark part of their past. This past comes in the shape of an antagonist - a woman with an elk-shaped head. This book takes a long while to unravel, but never does it feel tedious. I absolutely loved the cultural significance of the characters, and how they all related differently to tradition. However, this book is likely to not scare you. It isn’t very scary, though it takes influence and elements from horror.
I think, in a self defeating way, it was not scary to me because it made me sympathetic to the antagonist and although all the characters very much feel like real people, they also deserved what they got to an extent. Most of them do not even feel bad about what transpired, and all of them did not learn their lesson or keep their promises. I was propelled forward through the book by my own curiosity to the antagonist, as the author did an amazing job writing them. There are even small chapters where it is from the antagonist’s point of view, which just made me even more sympathetic towards them. The only parts that made me uncomfortable was the animal cruelty, which is a warning if this is a trigger for you - it would be best to avoid this book.
Regardless, I felt like I enjoyed this book for what it was - and am very glad to read something so original in a genre that is oversaturated with cliches. I never predicted anything in the plot, and was surprised often. It’s just not one that will make you think hard or much about it after you finish it.
(Spoilers)
I hate, hate, hate. HATED the level of animal cruelty, but it is done very well. Never does it feel tasteless, it’s just hard to stomach as an animal lover. There is an elk that gets basically tortured because they are all horrible shots, and the main character’s are terribly selfish. They decide to mow down an entire herd, not even checking who they are shooting. They end up cutting a poor baby from the one of the elk’s bellies that is still somewhat alive. It’s horrible. Also, Lewis, when his dog is dying after being suspended from a leash and suffocating - does not even go to comfort the animal, though he explains why. There’s another scene where a bunch of dogs are massacred, and Cassidy is just like ‘oh wow that sucks’ about all his dogs being dead but is somehow PISSED about his money being gone from a container. Basketball plays a lot into the culture of minorities, especially Native Americans - but I did get sick of hearing detailed basketball moves.
It can be a slow burn, a very slow one but once it picks up you cannot stop it. Lewis, and almost all the main characters are unreliable narrators due to the influence of the antagonist. You become horridly paranoid, just like them - and don’t trust anything. You’re forced to watch as all them descend into madness and kill everyone around them. The only part that really got a reaction from me, besides the animal cruelty scenes lol, was when Lewis decided to kill Shaney by breaking her damn neck with a motorcycle belt. I was like - what the fuck, why the hell did you do that with no evidence Lewis? I feel like for as intelligent as Lewis is, even in his paranoia would not have done such a thing so quickly. He would have figured something out, and we should have been playing cat and mouse for a few chapters - which is not what happened. It was disappointing.
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