Conventions In The Only Good Indians

The Only Good Indians is a horror novel written by Stephen Graham Jones, published in 2020. The novel explores the themes of guilt, trauma, and revenge, as a group of Indigenous men are haunted by a vengeful spirit, Elk Head Woman, after recklessly hunting and killing a group of elk. The novel uses several horror conventions to create a psychological impact on the readers; the most notable conventions are terror, horror, and its companion: Terror, a feeling of foreboding and suspense, works to heighten the impact of horror, which is the release of terror. In this essay, I will discuss how the success of the horror convention in The Only Good Indians depends on terror, and how the novel, overall, challenges the horror subgenre through the superlative

While horror is often thought of as the release of terror, Jones challenges this notion by utilizing disgust in his writing to prolong the feeling of terror. The novel often and vividly describes acts of violence, from the horrific death of animals (the hunting scene and Harley) to the gory killings during the sweat lodge massacre. The reader may find it extremely unpleasant since these descriptions frequently include sensory images, such as the sound of flesh tearing or the smell of blood and rot. Once Lewis believes it is Shaney who is impersonated by Elk Head Woman and takes action, there is a passage that is arguably the best example of Jones’ use of disgust in his novel:
An instant after her neck breaks, the top of her head scalps off and her forehead tilts loosely down into the rear wheel, the spokes shearing skull as easy as anything, carving down into the pulpy-warm outside of her brain. It’s greyish pink where it’s been opened, and kind of covered with a pale sheath all around that, the blood just now seeping into the folds and crevices. (Jones

For example, to complete Louis’ character story, immediately after Peta’s death, he notices something struggling in her stomach and cuts her open “using the same dull knife he used to pry Peta’s teeth out,” which is also “the same one he used to carve open [the] young elk ten years ago” (151). Finally, at this moment, the suspense of who the Elk Head Woman is is revealed. Though it is an elk calf, it fits into the convention of a monster—or something strange where it is not supposed to be, creating a shocking reveal. Now, had the examples of terror and disgust previously mentioned not occurred before leading up to this scene, its effect would not be as jarring. If anything, it would possibly break immersion and cause confusion for the reader. However, this is not the case, luckily, and the ending of Louis’ story evokes a lasting