Maik Goth recommends Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians (2020).

"Taking its title from the racist slur "The only good Indian is a dead Indian", Jones’s award-winning novel asks what it means to be a Native American in the early 21st century. Himself a Native American from the Blackfoot Nation in Northwest Montana, Jones forges the story of four Native Americans whose violation of a hunting taboo comes back to haunt them. Personal histories here are rife with guilt, grief and generational trauma. The Only Good Indians excels at portraying Native American life at the crossroads between the old generation and the new, with the former attempting to lead a life in accordance with their heritage (however remote) and the latter eking out a new place in American society.  A case in point is a sweat-lodge ceremony where the drumming comes from a cassette tape, and where father and son argue about the term Native American. And if that sounds all-too-serious, here comes the twist: The Only Good Indians is a horror novel, and a superlatively exciting and creepy one at that. In it, a past guilt seeks bloody revenge in the form of a — sorry, I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you, here. But rest assured it’s as wild and gory as it is thought-provoking and insightful. Let’s just say that the sweat-lodge ceremony does not end well. Those who pay attention will notice how subversively Jones engages with genre features and narrative devices. And if you like this, read Mongrels (2016), Mapping the Interior (2017) and My Heart Is a Chainsaw (2021)."