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by Stephen Graham Jones
A tale of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (2/26/2026)
I finished The Violin Maker's Secret and Project Hail Mary! Both great novels. I just started The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. I hope to finish it this weekend to get into some more bookclub reads. Also, how does everyone get their book to pop-up in "Books Mentioned in this...
-Supertalya
Books to read
i am a huge fan of the Stieg Larsson series, which led me to Jo Nesbo, although I haven't a lot of his works, I do like them. I am blessed to have a lot of close friends who also love reading so we do pass around a lot books between us all. But I also just happen to stumble across things that per...
-Leslie_T
"Form and content strike a delicate balance in this work, allowing Jones to revel in his distinctive voice, which has always lingered, quiet and disturbing, in the stark backcountry of the Rez. Jones hits his stride with a smart story of social commentary—it's scary good." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This novel works both as a terrifying chiller and as biting commentary on the existential crisis of indigenous peoples adapting to a culture that is bent on eradicating theirs." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A heartbreakingly beautiful story about hope and survival, grappling with themes of cultural identity, family, and traditions." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Subtly funny and wry at turns, this novel will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course." - Buzzfeed
"The best yet from one of the best in the business. An emotional depth that staggers, built on guilt, identity, one's place in the world, what's right and what's wrong. " - Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box and A House at the Bottom of a Lake
"I like stories where nobody escapes their pasts because it's what I fear most." - Terese Marie Mailhot, New York Times bestselling author of Heart Berries
"The Only Good Indians is scary good. Stephen Graham Jones is one of our most talented and prolific living writers. The book is full of humor and bone chilling images. It's got love and revenge, blood and basketball. More than I could have asked for in a novel. It also both reveals and subverts ideas about contemporary Native life and identity. Novels can do some much to render actual and possible lives lived. Stephen Graham Jones truly knows how to do this, and how to move us through a story at breakneck (literally) speed. I'll never see an elk or hunting, or what a horror novel can do the same way again." - Tommy Orange, Pulitzer Prize finalist of There There
This information about The Only Good Indians was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stephen Graham Jones has been an NEA fellowship recipient, has won the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, a Bram Stoker Award, four This is Horror Awards; and has been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award. His work has also been named one of Bloody Disgusting's Top Ten Horror Novels, and he is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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