Spooky season may be over, but for those like me who still love a good fright, there are plenty of ways to keep the scares going. There’s just nothing better than curling up on a cool night with some hot chocolate and a good scary book. One of my favorite go-to authors for all things scary is Stephen Graham Jones. He has really been making more waves in the horror genre in recent years and deserves some more love! A self-proclaimed lover of werewolves and slashers, Jones is a Blackfeet Native American and Bram Stoker Award winning author of horror fiction, experimental fiction, crime fiction, and science fiction. While some of his first novels and short stories were published back in the early 2000s, and he’s penned his fair share of works since then, his name really didn’t start popping up in the horror conversation more frequently until The Only Good Indians was released a couple of years ago.
After a couple years of personal hardships, craziness, and uncertainty, it took me quite some time to find my groove and books that I enjoyed reading again. And even though it’s my favorite, the horror genre in particular felt hard for me to return to. It was tricky for me to find something that I could really get invested in that felt fresh and would be enough to give me the creep factor I was looking for. I stumbled on The Only Good Indians shortly after it was released in 2020, and for me, it turned out to be the perfect book at the perfect time to pull me back into the genre I love so much by reminding me why I love it. I had never heard of Jones or his books before, but the premise alone gripped me (four childhood friends being chased down by an entity bent on revenge, throwing them into a helpless struggle for their lives? Sign me up). And while the premise itself seems like it’s been done before— because it has— the writing and the story continued to grip me from the outset and didn’t let go until its inevitable conclusion. The themes of guilt and grief in the stories of these men were handled in an intimately beautiful and heartbreaking way, and I found myself hoping for the best for them while at the same time being on edge as the dread and tension continued to build.
It’s a balance that Jones manages to strike so well in his writing. The horror element feels like a callback to many tales of classic scares, and rather than being in your face with shock value (which is also included, don’t get me wrong. I’ll never look at a ceiling fan the same way again), it tends to be more insidious, creeping in from the outset and steadily building to craft a nerve-racking and often chilling and disturbing atmosphere, while also providing a few cracks where warmth can seep through. The influences of Native American culture and tradition, along with the themes of struggle of identity and self-acceptance that his characters often grapple with, give his works a sense of raw and brutal realism, which makes the creep factor all the more devastating when it’s implemented. His books are ones I like to take my time with, simply because there are so many layers to the stories he tells that I want to make sure I take in all of it, as a lot of the horror we’re given can be from a dark or supernatural place, but also one that is all too real and gut-wrenching. It’s not often I find myself creeped out and heartbroken at the same time while enjoying a good spooky read, which is why a collection of his novels and novellas have been finding a home on my bookshelf since despite all the darkness, hope manages to find a way through the cracks in his works.
Whether it’s a spin on a good old-fashioned werewolf tale, a different take on a homage to old school horror, or a bloody love letter to the classic slasher flick, Jones has certainly carved a spot of his own in the genre, and I’m glad to see his name more included in the horror conversation. His newest book Don’t Fear the Reaper, the sequel to the bestselling My Heart is a Chainsaw, was my main Halloween read this year, right in time for the resurgence of slasher films. It’s a fun ride, equally creepy and devastating, as familiar yet unpredictable as his other books have been. The Angel of Indian Lake, the final book in The Indian Lake trilogy, is expected to be released on March 26, 2024.
Just make sure to read it with the lights on.
