This year, and partly in preparation for starting this newsletter, I found a Stephen King podcast, The Loser’s Club. If you’re interested, they dissect each Stephen King work, including movies and show adaptations. They conduct interviews and have witty and in-depth conversation about the themes and prose. If that sounds right up your alley, check them out.
One sunny morning this summer, I scrolled through the recent shows and decided to listen to an interview with a horror author I had never heard of, Stephen Graham Jones. I thought that was a promising name, so I put it on and listened to them talk about his latest novel, My Heart Is a Chainsaw. (That book is wonderful, and the review is forthcoming.)
I bought it on Audible and finished it in a few days. The writing style was so engaging, the main character so bizarre. I decided to read another book by him immediately. I was worried that he may not have much else out there, that I’d covered all the bases in the span of a week. I’m happy to say that, like Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones is incredibly prolific. He has published hundreds of short stories and around twenty-five novels, and he’s only fifty years old!
I was thrilled. Another horror writer, wonderfully creative and literary, with enough stories to keep me busy for a few years. Then I stumbled upon a second story, The Only Good Indians. It was published in 2020 and received a lot of attention for good reason. It’s my favorite book I’ve read all year.
The Summary
When four young friends go out to hunt elk in snowy Montana, they set out to fill their freezers. To be heroes to the people on their reservation. Instead, they end up haunted. They break away from their Blackfeet traditions and hunt land reserved for tribal elders. Finding an entire herd of elk, the four young guys mow them down with bullets before field dressing them, whooping and celebrating their uncanny luck. “It’s going to be a real Indian Thanksgiving,” they say.
But one elk, a young female, too young to kill, won’t die easy. Lewis has to shoot her over and over again until finally the strange yellow eyed elk cow is down. When he cuts her open, he finds milk bags and a dead calf in her belly. She was pregnant out of season. Pregnant before it was possible given her age.
He promises to use every part of her. To make her death mean something by feeding the people back on the reservation. But the game warden finds them first, and their heroic fantasies are buried. The guilt from that night isn’t.
A story of revenge and the importance of tradition, The Only Good Indians shines a light on what it’s like to be Indian today. Oh, and I can’t forget. There’s a lot about basketball in there. And the way he writes it is breathtaking. (Never thought I’d say that one.)
Gore
There are really well done slasher scenes speckled in between vibrant imagery and jolting prose. The deaths are not easy to read. The descriptions are violent and strange. An elk head woman is coming to kill the people who ended her life and the life of her calf. And she doesn’t do it nicely.
Beautiful Perspectives
The story is told from multiple perspectives. Each of the four friends, Lewis, Gabe, Cassidy and Ricky take a turn. We watch Elk Head Woman, the shapeshifting spirit of that decade old elk, bring them all to their bloody ends. Denorah, Gabe’s daughter, takes some chapters, walking the reader through the game she loves: basketball. And most beautifully in my opinion, Elk Head Woman.
The chapters where you hear this strange spirit’s perspective were absolutely riveting. I loved every moment of it. If you enjoy audiobooks, the narrator (Shaun Taylor-Corbett) for this story is Blackfeet, just like the author and his characters. He knocks it out of the park.
Social Commentary
Stephen Graham Jones brings the modern Indian reality to the forefront. The strength, the ingenuity, the humor of the characters in the book. The importance of tradition and the reality of breaking away from it in the modern world. Poverty and racism. The difficulties of Lewis’ relationship with Peta, a white woman. Addiction and friendship. A really wonderful read if you enjoy horror and you’re looking for something different. And in my opinion, the book was written to be read out loud. Get the audiobook if you like that sort of thing!
Some Spooky Thoughts
The vengeful monster in the book, Elk Head Woman, is terrifying. What is it about an animal head on a human body that is so uncanny? I listened to another interview with the author. The interviewer asked him about his office where he writes. It was visible in the video. You could see books lining shelves in the background.
He said that above his desk is a deer head, one killed by a family member on a hunt years before. As he writes, he always glances up to make sure that it hasn’t come off the wall. That the head is still facing the way it always has. He’s superstitious after all. And extremely spooky. So far it hasn’t, but he keeps watch anyway.
I'm not really a gory horror reader, but I'm intrigued enough by your glowing review that I might have to check this one out! Thanks!
I loved this book! SGJ is such a talent.