Unfortunately I can't give this book a fair review as I only managed to get through 40%. This definitely was a situation where I just wasn't the right audience for this book and I don't think it's fair for me to post a review as I know there are a lot of people who have really enjoyed this.

For me a little slow to begin with, but when it got good, it hit hard. Loved it. Pretty dark in places, but hit that horror itch I have. Deffo a buy, check it out on audiobook if you can. Go get it.

10 years after an event that prevents four Indian men from hunting on the Reservation, they have apparently moved on and forgotten what happened. Instead, going about unfulfilling lives where both the world, and them, have low expectations of them. But the past will catch up with them, for what they did was against nature, and against tradition. It is watching them from the corner, and it will have its revenge.

Maybe it's something about me and audiobooks, or maybe this was a slightly more leisurely-narrated one, but I was really surprised when I saw that this book was actually just over 300 pages. It certainly felt like it took a lot more listening time than that required. However, the contents are certainly not to be rushed through.

This is good horror - the supernatural tied up with dark, gritty, nasty actions. Past events coming back to haunt people in inexplicable ways. It's also guilt for these actions that is also tied up in culture and tradition, which is what I found most impressive - the integration of past actions not just of yourself, but of generations, and the weight and expectation and the failure of them. The story itself is pleasingly and entirely circular.

I haven't read much - any? - own voices Native American literature that really deals with the raw guilt and nastiness and racism and internalised racism that these characters feel, which makes the incomplete title of this book the most perfect one possible - it's the world in balance deciding this, it's these men deciding this, and it's the attitude of others too.

However, it's also horrific horror. If you don't like animal abuse, or really gruesome, bloody, gory scenes - and I can't say I really do - then please avoid. This book won't make you happy. I'm a pretty deadpan reader, but I cringed. A lot.

It's also very fractured horror. The prologue sets up the story via Ricky, and then it seems as though the entire book will focus on Lewis. That idea is then suddenly pulled out from under you and 'you' become the entity, watching Gabe and Cass and switching around between these characters. I can't quite tell whether that is clumsy or clever. It makes it harder to focus entirely on the characters, but I'm quite thankful for that, as otherwise it would make even more of a distressing story.

Sadly, I was unable to download this book in time before it was archived and this I was not able to either read or review it. My apologies.

Overall I enjoyed this book, the voices were fresh and the story unlike any that I've read before, it was interesting to read from the point of view of Native Americans and get a feel for their culture, their story telling and the relationships between people and the land. The story had plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing, with some moments of horror, and a bit of heart. There is however, something that I can't quite put my finger on that stops me giving it more than a 3.5 /5. Well written, the storytelling was good, but ultimately I didn't always feel engaged by the characters.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy in return for an honest review.

There was a lot to love in this imaginative horror. It feels very atmospheric, and delves deep into a culture that is rich in history and folklore. This adds to the authenticity of the story, and created a feeling of tension that permeates every word.

However. I just couldn't connect with the characters, and the pacing is incredibly slow with what feels like unnecessary filler. At times it left me bored as I just wanted the action to ramp up. I also couldn't really get into Stephen Graham Jones's writing. Having read a previous novella from him, I'm beginning to think that maybe his writing style just isn't for me. It feels almost stream of conciois style, and I found it jarring - throwing me out of the plot. However, I'd love to explore more culturally diverse horror. There's so much history out there to draw on, waiting to be explored and I appreciate that this book peak my interest in this.

This wasn't for me, I wanted to love it but was bored from the beginning. I didn't get to the end as it has taken 2 months for me to get through what I have. There was nothing wrong with the narration but I feel this story, I would personally have digested better in physical form but if you enjoy audiobooks and can deal with a lot of info in audio format then you may find this a good format for you.

Stephen Graham Jones's The Only Good Indians is a horrifying look into identity and cultural conflict, the transformation of friendships and relationships, and the repercussions of taking an innocent life completely unjustified and how guilt lingers and festers, if ignored.

While it's hard to call most of the characters in this book 'likeable', they are definitely all dynamic and different. We see how similar upbringings influence the way we live our lives, and how your childhood never truly leaves you, shaping who you are in almost unnoticeable ways until it's too late.

Jones is absolutely brutal, too, which I love. Characters die in increasingly horrifying ways as an entity seeks revenge for the harm wreaked upon it, and even if a character is despicable, or commits atrocious acts, watching them die is still painful.

I've noticed in Stephen Graham Jones's other work that the way he treats violence, never tries to sugar coat it, and builds up to it as well, is just incredible. Even though so much of the violence is calculated by a single character, there are also moments of sudden violence, unpredictable and visceral, to the point you're shocked it happened, and that it's over already. He's unrelenting in his pace once the death starts.

The audiobook is incredible for this book. It's engaging, and the narrator gives so much personality to the characters he's voicing that only adds to your investment in their lives.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I think it was a me thing and not the book. The start is a bit slow, building tension, I really enjoyed the second part of the novel.

I had quite the nightmare experience of listening to this book. I had broken the screen on my phone and had to send it to be fixed after using it for a week without being to see the bottom half of the screen. For whatever reason, my old 5 generations back phone didn't want to play one chapter. Would play the chapter before and after it but the app was crashing completely when I went to play it. I got my current phone back and n0w I can play all the audiobooks (if I could download them).

I do hope Netgalley app stops having major issues so that my audiobook reviews don't have to have a disclaimer about the weird way I ended up listening to them. Of Course, this one did happen right as the climax was starting. I probably would have finished the book that night otherwise.

This is a supernatural revenge horror which is not my favourite, the whole getting revenge by killing innocent by standards is not my thing. Sure, get that revenge, even if its kinda petty, but leave the randoms out of it. I don't hate this, it's not The Woman in Black levels. This is definitely better, especially with the why. It's just off-putting the way it starts, but it definitely got better as it went.

This book is pretty graphic in gore details. I'm a not big fan of gore for gore sake but I do think this has its place in the story. Though, you might want to check out the Trigger warnings (at the bottom of this review).

The point of view is interesting. Its appears to be in the third person for most of the novel, parts are probably in third person, but is actually in the second person. It's not that noticeable if you hate the second person and it definitely works for the novel.

The voice actor is good and quite calming, which may be an odd thing to say about a Horror book. The acknowledgement is included and voiced by the author which is fun. I do always read the acknowledgements in books and I don't enjoy that audiobooks, as a rule, don't have them included for whatever reason. They don't even have the author notes a lot of the time. So this was definitely nice for it to be included.

This book is own voices for Native American rep, there's only one significant character who isn't and is mainly set on a reservation. I'm no one to comment on that part of the book, but it does touch on the experience of being indigenous in the USA including police brutality and microaggressions. Horror and Social commentary go hand in hand together. Several essays could be written on the way Native Americans have been treated in horror, never the stars, more the explanation.

This book mostly deals with grey characters, either from their past actions or what they end up doing over the course of the novel. I really like grey characters since most of us are grey (or completely evil). I end up caring about what happened to these characters. The characters are personified well.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Elk Skin. While this book is not my favourite type of supernatural horror, it is still a good book and there are parts that I found really great. I've seen that Stephen Graham Jones has some short stories collections which sound intriguing so I will probably read them next.

TW: Hunting (guns); Dog bite; Animal Death (including Dogs); Hate Crime; Murder; Death; Racism; Police Brutality; pregnancy; fetus (imagery); Violence; Gore (involving teeth);

This is a gripping revenge story that had me hooked from start to finish. I loved the gothic themes, it was very chilling.

The book was written extremely well and narrated beautifully.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook to review via Netgalley.

This was such a good and fascinating read and I loved the writing from start to finish! The setting was so captivating and I loved it.

hiya, I'm so grateful to you for approving this request <3 unfortunately, I had to stop reading this because I found some of the descriptions too gory and gruesome and it's hard to skip them in audiobook format! I can only apologise that I didn't review this properly.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a complimentary eARC for review purposes*

I really struggled to get into this book. I think that I'll need to pick up a physical copy to fully understand it but I am glad I persevered as I really enjoyed the ending.

I found the concept really original and i do feel like I got an insight into Native American life
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My first audio book with netgalley so this was one to pick! Jeepers I hadn't been out much since lockdown and I take this on the bus and almost do a mini scream through the mask and scare the woman in front of me. This is one twisted author! Maybe even more scarier on the audio version as the reading and voice really fitted the story.

Certaintly unique - I liked parts and hated others but what a ride! - we need more Native American representation and this has already been compared to There There. Now I haven't read that yet so I can't say but it's definately got a touch of Stephen king about it.

The horror parts freaked me out but the native american parts were utterly fascinating. - i have to sit in the middle with this one though as one cancelled out the other.

Bring on more audio books from netgalley though!

Let me just say: WOW! This was an amazing listening experience. The narrator and the production are just perfect, and the book itself is extraordinary. I thought I knew where the story was headed, but lo and behold, halfway through and I was completely thrown.

I loved being immersed in the Blackfeet stories, mythology, customs and beliefs - I knew very little about the tribe before the book - and this book has opened my eyes to a new and very interesting part of their culture. I love a very well written book (like this one!) where I also feel like I’m learning something, experiencing something I haven’t seen before without it ever feeling like I’m being force fed. Thank you for this experience!

Again, the narrator and narration is flawless, and though I also have a copy of the book, I preferred listening to this story. Highly recommended!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen in return for an honest review.

3.5 stars

The concept of this book is so cool, the mixing of horror and thriller elements with a story of 4 native american men who've taken different paths since an event that happened to them all is really interesting.

I think the first part (with Lewis) was the strongest though, I really enjoyed that perspective and I also thought the horror elements were the most powerful in that part when things were more mysterious, it felt more like magical realism or something, and it really did the revenge thing well, but in the 2nd part the horror element becomes more physical and therefore less scary. I also wasn't sure about the way later in the book it has a 2nd person narrative, I don't know whether that was to build the atmosphere but I just didn't think it really worked for me.

The writing style was sometimes a little hard to follow at points but overall, it was atmospheric and compelling and I dunno, I wasn't planning on doing it to begin with but now I'm even less likely to shoot an elk. Anyway, more good representation and own voices in genre fiction please!

After reading an article that called Stephen Graham Jones "the Jordan Peele of horror literature" I was really looking forward to The Only Good Indians. Sadly, Jones' novel never quite lived up to its eerie premise. Then again, this may the case of 'it's not the book, it's me' or maybe I have just become inoculated to horror fiction (the last horror books I've read—The Bright Lands, Revenge, Empire of Wild—did not elicit any feelings of fear or anxiety in me).
Anyhow, just because I did not find The Only Good Indians to be a particularly good piece of horror doesn't mean that I would want to discourage others from reading it (if you are thinking of picking up this book I encourage that you read some of the many positives reviews here on GR). So, before I move onto my criticisms, here are some positives.
Jones' is an undoubtedly imaginative writer. It is refreshing to read stories that do not implement Western myths, and the vengeful deity at the heart of The Only Good Indians is inspired by the Native American myth of Deer Woman. I appreciated the way Jones' calls out stereotypes about Native Americans (for example by having his characters fear that they will become another 'statistic' or that their behaviour will fuel harmful stereotypes). There was also a brief scene in which Jones contrasts the views and attitudes of younger and older members of the Blackfeet tribe. Jones' use of repetition and onomatopoeias (such as: “the story her stepdad told her isn’t the real story, isn’t the one with feet on the ground and smoke in the air, bang bang bang.”) could also be quite effective.

And now, onto the things I couldn't bring myself to enjoy (mild-spoilers below).
The pacing...is kind of all over the place. Maybe I approached this book with the wrong exceptions but I wasn't too keen on the way Jones' structured his story. The four friends mentioned in the summary are not at the core of this story. We have one chapter focusing on one character, then we spend quite some time with another character, and then we move to two other characters. While I understand that geography was in the way of our deity's hunt for these men, I do think that weaving their storylines together would have created some more suspense. By the time we move to the last two characters, we know what will happen (and yes, surprise surprise, it does happen). Their stories felt kind of disjointed, their relationship with each other a mere echo. The story never builds a momentum but rather it thrusts us in scenes in which shit has already hit the fan. Take Lewis. From the very first page we meet him, he's kind of lost it. There is no slow descent into madness. Because we only see him at his worst, I never had time to care for him. There were quite a few chapters that cut off before a scene had reached its zenith, and we are only retroactively told of what came next, so that the narrative lost a lot of its urgency.
The characters...well, they are kind of the same man. They are kind of messy, selfish, not too bright. They articulated themselves in the same exact way, they had no real interests or drive, they kind of just exist. When having sex with his girlfriend Lewis makes a joke about going "bareback" which yes, Lewis himself admits is a "stupid joke" but that this joke re-appears later on...yeah, it didn't make me feel particularly sympathetic towards him. The only time he showed some depth is when he acknowledges his own conflicted feelings about being with a white woman (and of the possibility of fathering children outside his community). Other than that, Lewis remains a static character. I think that making his story a bit longer, and of slowing down his mental breakdown, would have made him a more dimensional character. The other two guys were mostly forgettable (one is a father, the other one has a girlfriend).
The female characters were hard to digest as they would have been far more at home in a novel published in the 80s. They are physically and emotionally strong, paragons of strength who when needed can transform into sexy temptresses (which begs the question: why would they ever choose to be with or flirt with these four walking-disasters?).
The younger characters were less one-dimensional but they play such small roles that they didn't really make a huge impact on the story.
Now, onto the most disappoint thing of this book: the horror element. Jones' horror relies on gory descriptions. I didn't feel chilled or disturbed by the content of this book. While I do find scenes that depict violent deaths (blood and gore galore) to be somewhat disgusting, for the most part I was unshaken by Jones' reliance on splatter which would have more in common with B-horror movies than Peele's Get Out. These explicit scenes were not very shocking or terrifying, in fact, they had the opposite effect as their gaudiness could be unintentionally funny.
The final section was corny as hell, and didn't really fit with the rest of the novel.

As I previously said, although I did not have a very high opinion of The Only Good Indians I wouldn't discourage others from reading this novel. I don't think I would have finished this novel if I'd read the book myself. The audiobook narrator gives a really good performance and he definitely kept me from DNFing this.

Good but slow start.

It is an enjoyable listen, the narrator is a great story teller and really helps you follow the story.

However my book reset about a third of the way through to the start. Sadly it wasn't the first time it happened so I have given up on it - sorry! I do usually keep up to date with book marking it so if it happens I have a rough placemark, but its been on all day today without me doing so.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to it.

My first experience of this author, and listening to a book rather than physically reading it. That, I'm sure, impacted on my ability to settle into the story as it is such an unfamiliar way of reading for me.
When I started this I really didn't know what to expect. I, like many, have heard the rest of the phrase this title is taken from, and the pre-release info makes it clear this is not a book for the faint-hearted. I have little experience of the background of the characters this book focused on, so I was definitely nervous about missing something or doing the author a disservice through my own ignorance.
The book opens with a frankly unsettling scene, resulting in the death of an Indian man outside a bar. There's mention of elk, and I really did have to go back and listen to the start again as I thought I had misheard something! We then switch our focus to another character, Lewis, who we learn was part of a close-knit group of four young men who did something so awful that even after leaving his reservation he lives with the guilt. We learn this event took place ten years previously, and it's something to do with the strange and unsettling experiences of him imagining he now sees an elk-headed woman in his front room.
Initially I have to say I found the narrative of this quite hard to follow. We jump from event to event and there's a muddling of time-frames that left me quite confused and even wondering if I could get through this. I don't honestly know if this would have been any different reading...and looking at other's responses to this, perhaps not.
If you've decided to pick this up and read it then you're likely to have done a little research. We know the story focuses on the awful events that took place ten years before our book opens - where Lewis and his three friends venture onto a section of the reservation that is only meant to be accessed by elders and butcher a number of elk. They are punished, and alongside their feelings of guilt they have to contend with the expectations of others because of who they are. Now, ten years on, something has returned to get revenge.
The book was dark. We had graphic descriptions of dogs being mutilated, elk being shot and people being killed. As the book progressed and there was talk of the elk-head woman I wasn't sure if this was going into supernatural territory or whether some kind of breakdown was being described. During the narrative we switched viewpoints from Lewis to the elk as well as the daughter of one of the men involved in the original event.
Once we were back on the reservation and following Cassidy and Gabe, I was surprised at how funny parts of this book were. Thought I'm no basketball fan, I was completely gripped by the character of Gabe's daughter who really made this into something more than I was expecting. The final scene, though definitely not one I want to dwell on, was also more uplifting than I was expecting.
Thanks to the publishers, Saga Press, and NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

This book really got under my skin. The Only Good Indians is a deep dive into the psyche of 4 men who are haunted by a shared traumatic incident in their adolescence. I loved how the plot is kept tight and focused with enough left to your imagination - this is what I look for in a good horror story. The character development was so nuanced and involved that there was a point in the story in which I had become so immersed in Lewis's point of view I had to pause and take a step back. I listened to this as an audiobook and Shaun Taylor-Corbett's performance is brilliant and he is fast becoming one of my favourite narrators! Thank you to the publishers for giving me access to this audiobook.