The Only Good Indians - Tense Horror to Turn You Vegetarian
What an incredible, unforgettable read. I've never read anything like it, which might be saying more about me than the book, but I am still grateful and spellbound.
It starts as a real horror story, zeroing in on a man named Lewis. Lewis is haunted by his past, particularly a hunting trip on the reservation he left years prior, to be with the woman he ended up marrying. Events in Lewis' life start taking turns for the worst and he seems to be descending into madness. His mind links connections from that hunting trip and what is happening to him in the present in some form of pareidolia that actually makes sense while you're sharing the experience with him. It's terrifying how relatable the connections he makes are and I found myself questioning my own sanity a lot. Like, what if I went through something like that? Couldn't I just as easily see those signs and read into those situations in the same manner that could lead down a very dark path? That's good writing. Stephen Graham Jones sums it up perfectly here, "These are the kind of wrong thoughts people have who are spending too much time alone. They start unpacking vast cosmic bullshit from gum wrappers, and then they chew up it up, blow a bubble, ride that bubble up into some even stupider place."
I loved the darkness, humor, and hard-hitting truths pertaining to stereotypes that the author included in this book. "Ricky, sitting in the orange doghouse trailer for that interview, had nodded yeah, Blackfeet didn't care about the cold, and no, he wouldn't leave them shorthanded in the middle of a week. What he didn't say was that you don't get cold-resistant because your jackets suck, you just stop complaining about it after a while, because complaining doesn't make you any warmer."
The descriptions are poignant and unsettling, often outlining moments of no return in the lives of the characters, "But there is bright red aerated blood - a spattery stripe bisecting the garage, going from floor to wall to ceiling then down the other wall again. It's a line between who Lewis used to be and who he is now." You can't help but read a line like that and just sit back and let the enormity of the statement sink in. You can't help but make connections to the earth-shattering moments you've experienced yourself. Another line that just bowled me over that pertains to the same topic is, "This is a thing he did, a thing he's definitely done." Whether you've accidentally destroyed your Grandmother's heirloom teapot, broken up with someone, buried a family member, or put down a pet, those words apply and will always apply. They are timeless, irreversible, and universal.
This all really just addresses the first half of the book. The second half of the book is told from the perspectives of everyone else involved with Lewis, and it changes tone and feeling while still tying in with that hunting trip that went awry. This side of the story is deeply riddled with the generational information passed down from indigenous peoples, and it connects that to the hive-mind, collective unconscious of the elk they hunt and how they learn and adapt through their own generations. The parallels of fear, learning, and family are painful, "Knowledge of this day lodge in the herd, got passed down like what headlights meant, like how those blocks of salt aren't for elk tongues in the daytime, like how the taste of smoke means to walk somewhere else slowly, head down, feet light." However, there are also beautiful parallels that invite you to see things with new eyes, "The water that ran through that rocky bottom was already trickling through their heads. From its taste they knew exactly where it came from in the mountains, and its whole story getting here."
This book is fantastic. I felt like I went on a real journey with all of the characters. I felt real terror and disgust, fear, sorrow, and hope. It checks all the boxes. Truly, you must read this.
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