Off the Reservation
By Stephen Graham Jones.
Some journeys are about finding your way forwards. Others force you to confront everything that should never have been left behind.
Off the Reservation returns to Nate Yellow Tail five years after the events of The Only Good Indians. Now twenty, Nate is struggling to find direction when a horrific accident leaves him injured and his best friend fighting for his life. When an opportunity arises to help repatriate the remains of a Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Nate joins four older Blackfeet on a journey across America.
What begins as a road trip to right a historical wrong gradually becomes something far more disturbing, because when the group finally retrieves the boy's remains, they aren't the only thing making the journey home.
The first half takes its time, and initially I wondered where some of the smaller conversations and everyday details were leading. Stephen Graham Jones spends a considerable amount of time allowing us to simply travel alongside this unusual group, learning their personalities, relationships and histories. Having read his work before, though, I knew better than to assume any of those details were there without reason.
That patience pays off enormously.
Around the halfway point, the story shifts in a direction that completely changed how I viewed what I'd already read. Suddenly, details that had seemed incidental took on new significance, and I found myself mentally returning to earlier scenes and reconsidering what I thought I understood.
The second half was easily my favourite. The horror becomes much more prominent, the violence is incredibly visceral and the entire journey takes on a different meaning. There were descriptions that genuinely made me squirm, yet the brutality never felt included simply for shock value.
What makes this particularly powerful is the history underpinning everything. The repatriation of a child's remains from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School isn't merely a convenient reason to send the characters on a road trip. Questions of cultural erasure, displacement, responsibility and what it means to bring someone home are embedded throughout the story.
I also really liked returning to Nate. He's older than when we last encountered him, but survival hasn't magically given him direction or peace. His search for meaning gives the journey an emotional weight beyond the supernatural horror, particularly as ideas surrounding guilt, retribution and atonement become increasingly important.
There is humour here too, something I always appreciate in Stephen Graham Jones's writing. Even while travelling towards increasingly horrifying territory, the conversations and personalities within the camper van provide moments of warmth and levity. It makes the group feel real, which only increases the impact when things begin going spectacularly wrong.
Although Off the Reservation follows The Only Good Indians, I don't think reading the previous book is essential. There are connections that returning readers will recognise, and knowing Nate's history certainly adds another layer, but this story is strong enough to stand independently.
The structure won't work for everyone. You have to be willing to trust that the quieter first half is laying foundations for something much bigger. For me, that investment was rewarded with a second half that completely transformed the experience.
Unsettling, violent and deeply rooted in Blackfeet history, Off the Reservation combines supernatural horror with a journey about identity, responsibility and bringing home what should never have been taken.
Thank you to the team at Titan Books for including me in celebrating for publication day! The book is out now and available to purchase.
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