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The Only Good Indians #2
Off the Reservation
Not yet published
Expected 13 Oct 26Win a free kindle copy of this book!
2 days and 07:33:56
100 copies available
U.S. only
A ragtag group of activists plan a mission to repatriate the bones of a Blackfeet boy who was sent to the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School in author Stephen Graham Jones's return to the Blackfeet reservation of his award-winning New York Times bestsellers The Only Good Indians and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.
Nate Yellow Tail is one of the survivors of the deadly revenge murders of Stephen Graham Jones's breakout bestseller The Only Good Indians. Five years after the massacre on the Blackfeet reservation, Nate finds himself in the hospital after a terrible accident that should’ve killed him and that nearly killed his best friend Sebby, who is hanging onto life in a room a few doors down.
Nate’s life is out of balance, so when he is given the chance to reset his life, and maybe save Sebby in the process, Nate steps up, again. This time it’s into a camper van that is almost as run down as his broken body, filled with three older Blackfeet, to find the bones of the lone Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where many Indigenous children were abused, and repatriate this boy home. The problem is, when they get the bones, something terrible has escaped with them.
Jones has crafted another American Indian novel for our times, shining light on the dark corners of this country’s history while also showing the desperate choices people make when they’re put up against a wall.
Nate Yellow Tail is one of the survivors of the deadly revenge murders of Stephen Graham Jones's breakout bestseller The Only Good Indians. Five years after the massacre on the Blackfeet reservation, Nate finds himself in the hospital after a terrible accident that should’ve killed him and that nearly killed his best friend Sebby, who is hanging onto life in a room a few doors down.
Nate’s life is out of balance, so when he is given the chance to reset his life, and maybe save Sebby in the process, Nate steps up, again. This time it’s into a camper van that is almost as run down as his broken body, filled with three older Blackfeet, to find the bones of the lone Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where many Indigenous children were abused, and repatriate this boy home. The problem is, when they get the bones, something terrible has escaped with them.
Jones has crafted another American Indian novel for our times, shining light on the dark corners of this country’s history while also showing the desperate choices people make when they’re put up against a wall.
416 pages, ebook
Expected publication October 13, 2026
About the author
Stephen Graham Jones
244 books16.2k followersStephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.
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Want to Read
June 29, 2026MOST ANTICIPATED 2026!!
I couldn't preorder fast enough...
Releasing 10.13.26.
I couldn't preorder fast enough...
Releasing 10.13.26.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Starred review in the July 2026 issue of Booklist and on the blog: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2026/07... (link live 7/7 at 7am central)
Three Words That Describe This Book: immersive, non-Christian possession, visceral/venerable/hilarious
Every detail matters, immersive, character centered, road trip horror, revenge horror, horror of historical racism especially as inflicted upon the marginalized people, intense dread from start that literally bursts open, possession trope reimagined, nuanced characters, exorcism of racism, intense, uneasy.
First thing first, this is a companion novel to The Only Good Indians. It is only a sequel in that it comes 5 years after the action of the first. (TOGI is 2011 and this is 2016) There are multiple povs here but our main narrator is Nate Yellow Tail-- the only survivor of the massacre at the sweat lodge in TOGI and also the on and off again boyfriend of D, the basketball player and (in my opinion) the young woman who carries the hope at the end of that book.
You can read these in any order though. Seriously. Each will inform the other.
And one of the threads here is what makes a "Good Indian" maybe even more so than in TOGI as multiple characters struggle with this-- or maybe don't but should in the case of one very sure of himself PhD holding Indian.
Okay let's get to this book. Just like SGJ took the Vampire trope by the horns and made it something totally new, a great horror novel, but also a thoughtful deep dive into the horror that is being Native in America, here he does this by taking the possession trope on a roadtrip. It is one of the most terrifying, violent, and visceral road trips ever, but it is also tender, vulnerable, and honestly, hilarious.
Like all of his novels, there is a lot of vengeance here, but the revenge is not just the Natives against an America that has caused them so much ruin (so many examples here like always) but also there is a lot of revenge here against each other in so many nuanced and varied ways.
The character building drives this story. The POV is spread around so as readers we know the characters from themselves and others. It enhances the story. Especially because most of the action is inside an RV. There are 4 Indians on this road trip. Nate high schooler, Nurse Seine (Plenty Wolf) who springs him out of the hospital (about 60), Christian-- a young man, seemingly mute, dressed as a priest, and Mooch, clearly younger than Plenty Wolf but with all white hair-- it turned white after she lost all three of her sons and her husband (not at once, but the story of their deaths is shared and for 2 in particular, they are key to the story)
Let me back up, Nate is in the hospital AGAIN (because he was after TOGI) because he and a friend break into a "Summer Indian's" reservation luxury home, they destroy it, steal a few things -- but when returning to the car, their car is hit by a gravel truck. The friend is on life support and Nate is trying to recover. But while this is an "inciting incident" to start the novel and it does come into play later -- as there are a few key twists in the second half here after they get the bones...see next paragraph
So what is the roadtrip for-- well they are driving to the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School, to grab the bones of a young boy who was murdered there and repatriate them home. Why they are each on this quest is part of the story. But they get the bones in the middle of the story that is when the book goes from a road-trip novel to a possession horror story, but they are also still on a road trip back.
When you dig into the darkest corners of history, no one is spared from unearthing the masters of the past, present, and future.
I love SGJ's writing because every single detail matters. He crafts these interesting and engaging characters-- and the 4 Indians on this RV might be some of the best ever-- provides a lot of details about them, I don't want to give them away, but one example the motorbike caught mid air and impaled into the RV's rear as a tribute to one character's dead son, that alone and the details around it ALL END UP MATTERING. That's a big thing, but it is but one example of many.
The 1988 movie WAR PARTY is also key here. You will want to look it up, find a copy, get lost in the problematic nature of it, but also, see the love/pride the characters have for it. Again it is nuanced and complicated. I hope this book allows more people to see and discuss the movie.
The Little Bighorn monument is key as well. As is the 2016 Standing Rock protests of the Dakota Pipeline protests. And very key-- 2016 is the year after the inflatable dinosaur costumes came into our world-- Not going to share more than that but note above when I said there was hilarity here. Not dark humor, hilarity.
This book is more than the sum of its parts. There is an ongoing nuanced description of what it means to be a "good Indian" but it is all wrapped up in a perfectly executed roadtrip/possession/revenge horror novel. The horror is not sacrificed for the serious discussion of the legacy of oppression on the oppressed people and in their interactions with each other.
It is Nate Yellow Tail's Last Stand-- pun intended.
A hilarious road trip horror story, a bold new, non-Christian take on the possession novel, a Visceral and vulnerable character driven story. with a 360 degree view of the horrors of oppression visible as they drive across the upper plains of American.
I have written many words here, but I have given NOTHING away.
For fans of road trip horror in the vein of The Devil Takes you Home by Iglesias or Wheat he Wolf Comes Home by Cassidy, and the possession trope as reimagined and explored by Cordova in Monstrilio-- not based on the Christian devil and exorcism rules, although cleverly one character is named Christian, carries a bible, and dresses like priest (and the reason is amazing and heart breaking when you find out the full story).
Did I mention....every detail matters? I cannot stress enough, this is what is best about SGJ's writing. He throws a lot at the reader, sometimes, it seems like it is there just to stand out and for no reason, but NO, as a reader, you know and trust ever detail will some into play-- even a clock discussed, handled, but not stolen in the opening scene. And once it reappears, you think that is it, but no.....there is more.
Also trust me not his one-- grab a blue Icee from the local gas station/rest stop. Not a Slurpee-- the off brand. Bonus if it is the blue flavor.
Three Words That Describe This Book: immersive, non-Christian possession, visceral/venerable/hilarious
Every detail matters, immersive, character centered, road trip horror, revenge horror, horror of historical racism especially as inflicted upon the marginalized people, intense dread from start that literally bursts open, possession trope reimagined, nuanced characters, exorcism of racism, intense, uneasy.
First thing first, this is a companion novel to The Only Good Indians. It is only a sequel in that it comes 5 years after the action of the first. (TOGI is 2011 and this is 2016) There are multiple povs here but our main narrator is Nate Yellow Tail-- the only survivor of the massacre at the sweat lodge in TOGI and also the on and off again boyfriend of D, the basketball player and (in my opinion) the young woman who carries the hope at the end of that book.
You can read these in any order though. Seriously. Each will inform the other.
And one of the threads here is what makes a "Good Indian" maybe even more so than in TOGI as multiple characters struggle with this-- or maybe don't but should in the case of one very sure of himself PhD holding Indian.
Okay let's get to this book. Just like SGJ took the Vampire trope by the horns and made it something totally new, a great horror novel, but also a thoughtful deep dive into the horror that is being Native in America, here he does this by taking the possession trope on a roadtrip. It is one of the most terrifying, violent, and visceral road trips ever, but it is also tender, vulnerable, and honestly, hilarious.
Like all of his novels, there is a lot of vengeance here, but the revenge is not just the Natives against an America that has caused them so much ruin (so many examples here like always) but also there is a lot of revenge here against each other in so many nuanced and varied ways.
The character building drives this story. The POV is spread around so as readers we know the characters from themselves and others. It enhances the story. Especially because most of the action is inside an RV. There are 4 Indians on this road trip. Nate high schooler, Nurse Seine (Plenty Wolf) who springs him out of the hospital (about 60), Christian-- a young man, seemingly mute, dressed as a priest, and Mooch, clearly younger than Plenty Wolf but with all white hair-- it turned white after she lost all three of her sons and her husband (not at once, but the story of their deaths is shared and for 2 in particular, they are key to the story)
Let me back up, Nate is in the hospital AGAIN (because he was after TOGI) because he and a friend break into a "Summer Indian's" reservation luxury home, they destroy it, steal a few things -- but when returning to the car, their car is hit by a gravel truck. The friend is on life support and Nate is trying to recover. But while this is an "inciting incident" to start the novel and it does come into play later -- as there are a few key twists in the second half here after they get the bones...see next paragraph
So what is the roadtrip for-- well they are driving to the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School, to grab the bones of a young boy who was murdered there and repatriate them home. Why they are each on this quest is part of the story. But they get the bones in the middle of the story that is when the book goes from a road-trip novel to a possession horror story, but they are also still on a road trip back.
When you dig into the darkest corners of history, no one is spared from unearthing the masters of the past, present, and future.
I love SGJ's writing because every single detail matters. He crafts these interesting and engaging characters-- and the 4 Indians on this RV might be some of the best ever-- provides a lot of details about them, I don't want to give them away, but one example the motorbike caught mid air and impaled into the RV's rear as a tribute to one character's dead son, that alone and the details around it ALL END UP MATTERING. That's a big thing, but it is but one example of many.
The 1988 movie WAR PARTY is also key here. You will want to look it up, find a copy, get lost in the problematic nature of it, but also, see the love/pride the characters have for it. Again it is nuanced and complicated. I hope this book allows more people to see and discuss the movie.
The Little Bighorn monument is key as well. As is the 2016 Standing Rock protests of the Dakota Pipeline protests. And very key-- 2016 is the year after the inflatable dinosaur costumes came into our world-- Not going to share more than that but note above when I said there was hilarity here. Not dark humor, hilarity.
This book is more than the sum of its parts. There is an ongoing nuanced description of what it means to be a "good Indian" but it is all wrapped up in a perfectly executed roadtrip/possession/revenge horror novel. The horror is not sacrificed for the serious discussion of the legacy of oppression on the oppressed people and in their interactions with each other.
It is Nate Yellow Tail's Last Stand-- pun intended.
A hilarious road trip horror story, a bold new, non-Christian take on the possession novel, a Visceral and vulnerable character driven story. with a 360 degree view of the horrors of oppression visible as they drive across the upper plains of American.
I have written many words here, but I have given NOTHING away.
For fans of road trip horror in the vein of The Devil Takes you Home by Iglesias or Wheat he Wolf Comes Home by Cassidy, and the possession trope as reimagined and explored by Cordova in Monstrilio-- not based on the Christian devil and exorcism rules, although cleverly one character is named Christian, carries a bible, and dresses like priest (and the reason is amazing and heart breaking when you find out the full story).
Did I mention....every detail matters? I cannot stress enough, this is what is best about SGJ's writing. He throws a lot at the reader, sometimes, it seems like it is there just to stand out and for no reason, but NO, as a reader, you know and trust ever detail will some into play-- even a clock discussed, handled, but not stolen in the opening scene. And once it reappears, you think that is it, but no.....there is more.
Also trust me not his one-- grab a blue Icee from the local gas station/rest stop. Not a Slurpee-- the off brand. Bonus if it is the blue flavor.
Want to Read
April 23, 2026the scream i scrumpt when this approval came through🥹
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
In Off the Reservation, we meet back up with Nate, a survivor from The Only Good Indians, who quickly ends up in dire straits with his best friend hanging on for his life. Nate embarks on what ends up being a road trip from hell, full of plenty of everything that Stephen Graham Jones is great at writing.
The first half of the novel contains an abundance of character development, lots of seemingly mundane details about each of the road trip passengers. But this is where as a long-time reader of SGJ, you know to trust his process. Those details are anything but mundane, and the process continuously delivers. The halfway mark hit, my mind exploded with the shift in direction of the novel, and I was hopelessly hooked for the second act.
And what a second half it was! I felt like everything I thought I knew about the story flipped upside down. Not to say I was tricked or manipulated into it, but the book allowed me to take what I had read and see it from a different perspective. There is deceit, there is retribution, and there is atonement. Oh, and did I mention the violence? Some of the descriptions are so visceral and so vivid that I was squirming as I read them, looking at my e-reader with a side eye because I was afraid to stare it directly in the face. Well done, SGJ.
It’s worth mentioning that this is a sequel to The Only Good Indians, but it doesn’t have to be read as such. I think you could read them out of order, and not miss a thing. Although, I did find myself revisiting some scenes from TOGI as I traveled with Nate and company.
My highest recommendation. I plan to read it again immediately.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the advanced copy of the book.
The first half of the novel contains an abundance of character development, lots of seemingly mundane details about each of the road trip passengers. But this is where as a long-time reader of SGJ, you know to trust his process. Those details are anything but mundane, and the process continuously delivers. The halfway mark hit, my mind exploded with the shift in direction of the novel, and I was hopelessly hooked for the second act.
And what a second half it was! I felt like everything I thought I knew about the story flipped upside down. Not to say I was tricked or manipulated into it, but the book allowed me to take what I had read and see it from a different perspective. There is deceit, there is retribution, and there is atonement. Oh, and did I mention the violence? Some of the descriptions are so visceral and so vivid that I was squirming as I read them, looking at my e-reader with a side eye because I was afraid to stare it directly in the face. Well done, SGJ.
It’s worth mentioning that this is a sequel to The Only Good Indians, but it doesn’t have to be read as such. I think you could read them out of order, and not miss a thing. Although, I did find myself revisiting some scenes from TOGI as I traveled with Nate and company.
My highest recommendation. I plan to read it again immediately.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the advanced copy of the book.
April 24, 2026
Thank you horror gods (and your vessels on earth) for blessing me with a copy of Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones — available Oct 13!
» READ IF YOU «
🖤 want me to think more highly of you
🦌 loved the vibes of The Only Good Indians
🦖 are craving violence mixed with hilarity
🚐 have ever been on a terrible roadtrip
» SYNOPSIS «
Travel back to the world of The Only Good Indians to join Nate Yellow Tail on a fraught cross-country roadtrip, in a run-down RV with a bunch of characters who might be genuinely insane. Their mission? Rescue the bones of the only Blackfeet boy murdered at the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School. But since nothing can be quite so straightforward in an SGJ story, you better buckle up…
» REVIEW «
Oh, Nate. It’s impossible not to empathize with his particular plight, but you’ll still spend the whole story questioning his every decision. In fact, since so many of the decisions made in this story are absurd, it’s best to just lean in and enjoy the chaos. And, dear readers, easter eggs abound, so keep an eye out for those if you’re an avid SGJ fan…
Anyway, it should come as no surprise that this is a five-star read for me. I am, admittedly, not objective when it comes to his books, but I do think that this particular Jones story is a perfect complement to the time we spent with Elk Head Woman in 2020. She’s actually never left the dark corners of my psyche, but you may have a new (or additional?) specter to haunt your dreams once you finish Off the Reservation.
I don’t know how he achieved it, some 6 years later, but the tone and rhythms of this book are a perfect match to those of TOGI, so you will be dropped right back into that space and time, almost like you never left. And? Things just get wilder from there. What do superglue, dinosaurs, blue icees, studded tongues, and creepy dolls all have in common? Well, come on down and find out.
Thank you, Stephen, for always writing stories that entertain the heck out of us, sometimes scare the bejeesus out of us, and often make us look more thoughtfully at the world around us. Don’t miss this one on October 13.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
» READ IF YOU «
🖤 want me to think more highly of you
🦌 loved the vibes of The Only Good Indians
🦖 are craving violence mixed with hilarity
🚐 have ever been on a terrible roadtrip
» SYNOPSIS «
Travel back to the world of The Only Good Indians to join Nate Yellow Tail on a fraught cross-country roadtrip, in a run-down RV with a bunch of characters who might be genuinely insane. Their mission? Rescue the bones of the only Blackfeet boy murdered at the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School. But since nothing can be quite so straightforward in an SGJ story, you better buckle up…
» REVIEW «
Oh, Nate. It’s impossible not to empathize with his particular plight, but you’ll still spend the whole story questioning his every decision. In fact, since so many of the decisions made in this story are absurd, it’s best to just lean in and enjoy the chaos. And, dear readers, easter eggs abound, so keep an eye out for those if you’re an avid SGJ fan…
Anyway, it should come as no surprise that this is a five-star read for me. I am, admittedly, not objective when it comes to his books, but I do think that this particular Jones story is a perfect complement to the time we spent with Elk Head Woman in 2020. She’s actually never left the dark corners of my psyche, but you may have a new (or additional?) specter to haunt your dreams once you finish Off the Reservation.
I don’t know how he achieved it, some 6 years later, but the tone and rhythms of this book are a perfect match to those of TOGI, so you will be dropped right back into that space and time, almost like you never left. And? Things just get wilder from there. What do superglue, dinosaurs, blue icees, studded tongues, and creepy dolls all have in common? Well, come on down and find out.
Thank you, Stephen, for always writing stories that entertain the heck out of us, sometimes scare the bejeesus out of us, and often make us look more thoughtfully at the world around us. Don’t miss this one on October 13.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Want to Read
March 6, 2026SEQUEL TO ONLY GOOD INDIANS HELL YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH
unreleased
March 6, 2026THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS SEQUEL????
June 28, 2026
Off The Reservation takes us back to the world of The Only Good Indians as its companion novel that stands confidently on its own, weaving together a road trip from hell and the enduring traumas of colonial violence into something both emotionally resonant and deeply unsettling. While readers familiar with the previous novel will appreciate Nate Yellow Tail's return, Off The Reservation offers a complete story in its own right. Five years after surviving unimaginable tragedy, Nate is searching for purpose and a series of events leads him to join a small group of Blackfeet traveling to recover the remains of a child taken to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. What begins as a mission of repatriation gradually transforms into a terrifying supernatural journey where the weight of history refuses to remain buried. Jones excels at creating characters who feel richly lived-in. The cramped confines of the RV become an intimate stage for grief, humor, conflict, and compassion, allowing each member of this group to emerge as a fully realized person. Their relationships and secrets drive the novel just as much as the horror, making the inevitable violence all the more affecting. The supernatural elements are inventive and insanely impactful, offering a fresh take on possession that is rooted in Indigenous perspectives rather than usual genre conventions. Yet, the novel's greatest horrors come from the history itself. The legacy of residential schools, cultural erasure, racism, and the complex question of what makes a "Good Indian" permeate every page without overshadowing the story's momentum. Jones balances moments of genuine warmth and hilarious moments with relentless dread, creating a novel that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. Off The Reservation is another remarkable example of horror being used not only to terrify, but to confront historical injustice and the ghosts that nations too often refuse to acknowledge. Thank you Saga Press Books for getting me an ARC. SGJ fans will rejoice, as this is him at his very best. Make sure you preorder your copy wherever you buy your books. Off The Reservation publishes October 13th, 2026!
Did Not Finish
June 16, 2026I am incredibly grateful for the early access to the ARC from Saga Press and NetGalley!
I never thought THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS needed a sequel, but Stephen Graham Jones is an auto-buy author for me, so I jumped on the hype train as soon as it was announced. I like that it wasn't a traditional style sequel, more of a thread from the ending of TOGI that the author used to weave into a new story all its own.
Unfortunately, I was pretty bored for the first 40-45% of this book. I knew - I knew - that SGJ would have some incredible twist once a certain switch got flipped and I was on board for the thrill ride when it happened....until I wasn't. I gave this one until 60% to sell me on the unique possession trope, but I once again found my mind wandering and bored, so I decided to quit trying to force my way through.
It wasn't for me, but if you enjoy possession stories, especially ones that push the envelope in a different direction, then you might really like this one!
Important note: Just because this one didn't work for me doesn't mean I won't be first in line for the next published piece of Stephen Graham Jones!!
I never thought THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS needed a sequel, but Stephen Graham Jones is an auto-buy author for me, so I jumped on the hype train as soon as it was announced. I like that it wasn't a traditional style sequel, more of a thread from the ending of TOGI that the author used to weave into a new story all its own.
Unfortunately, I was pretty bored for the first 40-45% of this book. I knew - I knew - that SGJ would have some incredible twist once a certain switch got flipped and I was on board for the thrill ride when it happened....until I wasn't. I gave this one until 60% to sell me on the unique possession trope, but I once again found my mind wandering and bored, so I decided to quit trying to force my way through.
It wasn't for me, but if you enjoy possession stories, especially ones that push the envelope in a different direction, then you might really like this one!
Important note: Just because this one didn't work for me doesn't mean I won't be first in line for the next published piece of Stephen Graham Jones!!
Want to Read
April 12, 2026SO EXCITED!!! pre-ordered but might flip to audio too!
Pub date: 10/2026
Pub date: 10/2026
May 23, 2026
I was really looking forward to this novel. It is a sequel to The Only Good Indians, carrying the story of Nate Yellowtail forward. If The Only Good Indians was the vengeful spirit, and Buffalo Hunter Hunter was the vampire, then this one is the possessed. Attempting to save his best friend, Nate takes off with a motley trio in a ragged motorhome to repatriate the bones of a Blackfoot boy. This bizarre road trip is loaded with action, supernatural occurrences, and weird characters - and it wouldn’t be Stephen Graham Jones without elements of a slasher. There were some gag-inducing moments, and I was really nauseated at least once. To be fair, I wasn’t feeling great to begin with, but I want to caution anybody with a weak stomach. This one is loaded with body horror, body parts, and body fluids. There are a couple of plot points I have questions about, and urination as a plot point is a weird flex - one that really, really worked. As always, SGJ tells a helluva story with immaculate prose, nary a word wasted. The pacing is perfect, and there isn’t any time to spare for being bored. Check the trigger warnings and have fun!
This is my honest review of a digital ARC. My thanks to SGJ, Saga Press, and NetGalley for this opportunity.
This is my honest review of a digital ARC. My thanks to SGJ, Saga Press, and NetGalley for this opportunity.
June 24, 2026
This book is a masterpiece. Maybe not as much of one as Buffalo Hunter Hunter but that book is a once-in-a-generation good book. I think saying too much about plot at all would be a spoiler but this an example of my least favorite sub genre of horror and thus the four stars. I’ve been feeling for a while that Stephen Graham Jones is the smartest horror writer in the game today and this book proves that. I can’t wait to add a copy of this to the growing shelf I have of his works.
June 28, 2026
I just finished and I want to read this again, right now! Oh how I love me some SGJ ♥️
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Going into this, I had no idea it was a sequel, a part two, revenge of something you didn’t quite kill the first time around. It is and it isn’t. Really, it’s a continuation. If you haven’t read The Only Good Indians—I mean, what planet are you on?—it’s okay, you can still enjoy the hell out of this, it works perfectly as a standalone. If you have read The Only Good Indians, though, not only are there easter eggs galore, but you’ll find yourself at a crossroads of sorts, asking, “Can a part two be better than the original?” Remember Aliens? T-2? That second Godfather movie? Enough said, even though that’s like comparing a sunrise to a sunset. What I’ve found is, your favorite SGJ novel is always going to be the one you’re reading right now.
The bones of The Only Good Indians are here, kind of a blueprint, really, but the skin and eyes and mouth are totally new. We begin with theft, a trespass, to be exact, because you need a trespass to get that revenge boulder rolling down the hill, flattening everyone in its path. Two friends looking down a slope, scoping their prey, an A-frame cabin probably owned by some rich assholes. Sound familiar? Be careful who you steal from, though. There’s stealing, as in ‘thou shalt not,’ capital S, then there’s stealing like you just took too many tootsie rolls from that glass jar at the bank. What Nate and Sebby do? It’s more the tootsie roll thing, in my opinion, but they just had to smash the toilet, didn’t they. Mini buck and doe tried to warn them. Then SMASH! There’s an accident.
Hospital time. Nate’s alive and Seb’s hanging on by a shoelace. Meet Nurse Seine, the stealer of shiny stories, the magpie. Great lines here: ‘Half the stories he traded her for smokes were about his dead father. It was his main currency, was all he had to draw on for the rest of his life.’ And, ‘the horses didn’t ask for any of this.’ SGJ’s been in the hospital, for sure, the grippy socks (I always keep them) and disposable razors and rooms are spot-on, felt a bit like a rehab center. Now comes the vow, the blood pact, dull scissor-drilled dots across the forearm like a red constellation, an arrow. So much heart in this scene. Gave Exorcist 3 vibes when a dinosaur—a T. Rex, specifically—shows up. Remember those flash newspaper headlines from The Only Good Indians? They’re neon signs now, pay attention.
Time to make good on that vow of pulling Sebby out of his coma, time for a road trip! You need wheels, though, and Mooch Lomas (aside from Nate, my favorite character) has a running RV, a Sundancer. For the rest of this journey, we’re going to be in this RV, a complete world unto itself, a ‘kaleidoscope being shaken fast and hard.’ Christian’s driving, cracked rearview or not, removable studded tongue locked and loaded, Mooch is sucking down Icees, holding that ice pick, waiting for her son to land that big jump—“My husband’s in that movie!”—and Seine is playing nurse, just trying to find that boy’s bones and set everything right again. She has no idea how much superglue is in that RV. Remember that motorcycle from The Only Good Indians? the one that loved long hair? It’s kind of back again, in dirt-bike form, packed in the back of the RV like a secret passenger.
The description of that Love’s, when you really really have to pee, is perfect, and Nate, well, he kind of has a problem with pee. You’ll see. All I know is, I kept saying to him, “Man, please, just let it rip!” Buck and Doe show up again, the little people, in a diorama, and we get a great line here: “…even if she had ever been a mother, still, no arm is strong enough to stop a boy from flying away if he wants to fly away.”
There’s a chapter with a pool match, a game of nine-ball that I wanted to last as long as that game of basketball from The Only Good Indians, but alas, it didn’t. That’s just me, though. But reading, “You don’t call in nine-ball,” had me through the roof. Those two guys playing? I felt like they were tricksters, like they meant something other than what they were saying, and I’m pretty sure Doe shows up here, thick black eyeliner and all.
Remember that chapter in The Only Good Indians that switches everything up? That 40% mark where you think it’s second person but it’s really dramatic monologue? Hindsight is that chapter here, and man, it’s all high speed and sixth gear and no looking back from there. That sixth gear, alternately down-shifting with humor, POV switch (does that deftly mid-chapter sometimes), the subjunctive, and dipping into character development, it’s totally SGJ territory, and nobody does it better. He puts you in that RV. You have to look.
We pick up another passenger: The Road King; quick nod to Jason and the Argonauts. And little by little, the dominos start falling. I’m skirting spoilers here, so I’ll just say: this is the best set of characters I’ve encountered in a while. The big bad, it’s all of them, sure, but it’s also none of them. Each one is a hero in their own eyes, totally gray territory, and they’re so tragic at times. From Nate’s perspective: “It was like everything was working against him: a cat-lady with an ice pick for a magic wand, a driver who dressed like a priest but couldn’t preach, and a cousin who thought she was a weasel.” And in true dramatic fashion, they all either slowly make their way off the stage, or are ruthlessly pushed. Another great line here: “It was probably in a wagon someone else was dragging, so it would always be ahead of him. Maybe that’s all death was: people pulling things with them, unable to ever let them go.”
Off the Reservation is a bonfire some kid and his grandmother built to pull a lost hunter in, a lit cigarette set horizontally in your hand, passed over to a friend you’d do anything for. It’s two thumbs up, way up, higher than a flagpole standing on a pile of bones. It'll rip your chest open, superglue it back together, rip it open again, then suture you up with boot laces. And that bullet thing at the end? Chef’s kiss, man. “Sturrrrgis!”
Big thanks to Netgalley, Saga Press, and SGJ for such a wonderful story. Catch you on the flip-flop.
The bones of The Only Good Indians are here, kind of a blueprint, really, but the skin and eyes and mouth are totally new. We begin with theft, a trespass, to be exact, because you need a trespass to get that revenge boulder rolling down the hill, flattening everyone in its path. Two friends looking down a slope, scoping their prey, an A-frame cabin probably owned by some rich assholes. Sound familiar? Be careful who you steal from, though. There’s stealing, as in ‘thou shalt not,’ capital S, then there’s stealing like you just took too many tootsie rolls from that glass jar at the bank. What Nate and Sebby do? It’s more the tootsie roll thing, in my opinion, but they just had to smash the toilet, didn’t they. Mini buck and doe tried to warn them. Then SMASH! There’s an accident.
Hospital time. Nate’s alive and Seb’s hanging on by a shoelace. Meet Nurse Seine, the stealer of shiny stories, the magpie. Great lines here: ‘Half the stories he traded her for smokes were about his dead father. It was his main currency, was all he had to draw on for the rest of his life.’ And, ‘the horses didn’t ask for any of this.’ SGJ’s been in the hospital, for sure, the grippy socks (I always keep them) and disposable razors and rooms are spot-on, felt a bit like a rehab center. Now comes the vow, the blood pact, dull scissor-drilled dots across the forearm like a red constellation, an arrow. So much heart in this scene. Gave Exorcist 3 vibes when a dinosaur—a T. Rex, specifically—shows up. Remember those flash newspaper headlines from The Only Good Indians? They’re neon signs now, pay attention.
Time to make good on that vow of pulling Sebby out of his coma, time for a road trip! You need wheels, though, and Mooch Lomas (aside from Nate, my favorite character) has a running RV, a Sundancer. For the rest of this journey, we’re going to be in this RV, a complete world unto itself, a ‘kaleidoscope being shaken fast and hard.’ Christian’s driving, cracked rearview or not, removable studded tongue locked and loaded, Mooch is sucking down Icees, holding that ice pick, waiting for her son to land that big jump—“My husband’s in that movie!”—and Seine is playing nurse, just trying to find that boy’s bones and set everything right again. She has no idea how much superglue is in that RV. Remember that motorcycle from The Only Good Indians? the one that loved long hair? It’s kind of back again, in dirt-bike form, packed in the back of the RV like a secret passenger.
The description of that Love’s, when you really really have to pee, is perfect, and Nate, well, he kind of has a problem with pee. You’ll see. All I know is, I kept saying to him, “Man, please, just let it rip!” Buck and Doe show up again, the little people, in a diorama, and we get a great line here: “…even if she had ever been a mother, still, no arm is strong enough to stop a boy from flying away if he wants to fly away.”
There’s a chapter with a pool match, a game of nine-ball that I wanted to last as long as that game of basketball from The Only Good Indians, but alas, it didn’t. That’s just me, though. But reading, “You don’t call in nine-ball,” had me through the roof. Those two guys playing? I felt like they were tricksters, like they meant something other than what they were saying, and I’m pretty sure Doe shows up here, thick black eyeliner and all.
Remember that chapter in The Only Good Indians that switches everything up? That 40% mark where you think it’s second person but it’s really dramatic monologue? Hindsight is that chapter here, and man, it’s all high speed and sixth gear and no looking back from there. That sixth gear, alternately down-shifting with humor, POV switch (does that deftly mid-chapter sometimes), the subjunctive, and dipping into character development, it’s totally SGJ territory, and nobody does it better. He puts you in that RV. You have to look.
We pick up another passenger: The Road King; quick nod to Jason and the Argonauts. And little by little, the dominos start falling. I’m skirting spoilers here, so I’ll just say: this is the best set of characters I’ve encountered in a while. The big bad, it’s all of them, sure, but it’s also none of them. Each one is a hero in their own eyes, totally gray territory, and they’re so tragic at times. From Nate’s perspective: “It was like everything was working against him: a cat-lady with an ice pick for a magic wand, a driver who dressed like a priest but couldn’t preach, and a cousin who thought she was a weasel.” And in true dramatic fashion, they all either slowly make their way off the stage, or are ruthlessly pushed. Another great line here: “It was probably in a wagon someone else was dragging, so it would always be ahead of him. Maybe that’s all death was: people pulling things with them, unable to ever let them go.”
Off the Reservation is a bonfire some kid and his grandmother built to pull a lost hunter in, a lit cigarette set horizontally in your hand, passed over to a friend you’d do anything for. It’s two thumbs up, way up, higher than a flagpole standing on a pile of bones. It'll rip your chest open, superglue it back together, rip it open again, then suture you up with boot laces. And that bullet thing at the end? Chef’s kiss, man. “Sturrrrgis!”
Big thanks to Netgalley, Saga Press, and SGJ for such a wonderful story. Catch you on the flip-flop.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
"Wrap something in enough language, it disappears, doesn't it?"
Stephen Graham Jones is the best horror author writing today. That's been my opinion for a good number of years now, and nothing has made me come close to changing it. There's some strong competition, sure, and tastes can vary, so I understand perfectly why he's not your favourite, but for my money, there is nobody that is putting out novels of this quality and quantity – a new one every year or so on average since the pandemic hit – and my journey, like so many others, all started with perhaps his most popular work, a book named The Only Good Indians.
I was unsurprisingly excited to learn that his new release would be a sequel to one of my favourite books. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would this be an Indian Lake Trilogy-style continuation, would we be re-treading the same beats? Off The Reservation takes us 5 years on from the events of TOGI, following Nate Yellow Tail, son of the cop Victor from the original story and boyfriend of Denorah (her of the infamous basketball scene – complainers fear not, that particular framing device isn't used here). Where that book was Jones' take on the vengeful spirit trope, in the same way Mongrels tackled werewolves and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter vampires, here we get to see what the possession sub-genre of horror looks like through Native eyes – and what is possession, if not a deeply personal form of colonialism?
I won't recount the synopsis here, suffice to say this is a road trip story, taking us across country with Nate and a largely new cast of characters. The first third, maybe, while not exactly slow, felt like it was skirting around the actual story. We get to know the characters, their motivations and intertwining histories, and where this drive is ultimately taking them. I was never bored, but it doesn't exactly hit the ground running, right? Patience is a virtue, though, and one that will be rewarded. When the true narrative kicks in, it kicks hard, and from that moment Jones doesn't so much ease up on the gas until the book's final moments.
The question for me was never "Will this book be good?" It's been so long since an SGJ novel didn't sink its teeth into me and refuse to let go that I've long since stopped doubting him. It was more like, "Will this book stand as a worthy sequel to the original?" I think it does. It's very different; the condensed nature of the location and cast of the first opened up into a more sprawling one here, the way it tackles different genre conventions and refuses to imitate the beats covered before. But it felt great to journey back to this world and approach it from a different angle, seeing through new eyes. The characters are vivid, leaping off the page, rarely feeling like a plot device but more like the story is shaping around them – a common theme amongst many of them is the idea of what makes a "good Indian", what can they do to prove they are one, and how can they hold their head up and feel like they belong? The colliding themes of possession and identity are where the soul of this book lies and, for me, are what make Off The Reservation another triumph for an author who seemingly can't miss right now.
Stephen Graham Jones is the best horror author writing today. That's been my opinion for a good number of years now, and nothing has made me come close to changing it. There's some strong competition, sure, and tastes can vary, so I understand perfectly why he's not your favourite, but for my money, there is nobody that is putting out novels of this quality and quantity – a new one every year or so on average since the pandemic hit – and my journey, like so many others, all started with perhaps his most popular work, a book named The Only Good Indians.
I was unsurprisingly excited to learn that his new release would be a sequel to one of my favourite books. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would this be an Indian Lake Trilogy-style continuation, would we be re-treading the same beats? Off The Reservation takes us 5 years on from the events of TOGI, following Nate Yellow Tail, son of the cop Victor from the original story and boyfriend of Denorah (her of the infamous basketball scene – complainers fear not, that particular framing device isn't used here). Where that book was Jones' take on the vengeful spirit trope, in the same way Mongrels tackled werewolves and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter vampires, here we get to see what the possession sub-genre of horror looks like through Native eyes – and what is possession, if not a deeply personal form of colonialism?
I won't recount the synopsis here, suffice to say this is a road trip story, taking us across country with Nate and a largely new cast of characters. The first third, maybe, while not exactly slow, felt like it was skirting around the actual story. We get to know the characters, their motivations and intertwining histories, and where this drive is ultimately taking them. I was never bored, but it doesn't exactly hit the ground running, right? Patience is a virtue, though, and one that will be rewarded. When the true narrative kicks in, it kicks hard, and from that moment Jones doesn't so much ease up on the gas until the book's final moments.
The question for me was never "Will this book be good?" It's been so long since an SGJ novel didn't sink its teeth into me and refuse to let go that I've long since stopped doubting him. It was more like, "Will this book stand as a worthy sequel to the original?" I think it does. It's very different; the condensed nature of the location and cast of the first opened up into a more sprawling one here, the way it tackles different genre conventions and refuses to imitate the beats covered before. But it felt great to journey back to this world and approach it from a different angle, seeing through new eyes. The characters are vivid, leaping off the page, rarely feeling like a plot device but more like the story is shaping around them – a common theme amongst many of them is the idea of what makes a "good Indian", what can they do to prove they are one, and how can they hold their head up and feel like they belong? The colliding themes of possession and identity are where the soul of this book lies and, for me, are what make Off The Reservation another triumph for an author who seemingly can't miss right now.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The craziest road trip you will ever be on! Off the Reservation is an incredibly refreshing take on the possession trope that doesn't rely on Christianity, rather the impacts of colonialism. Full of twists and turns, the boundaries between reality and dreams & past and present, are incredibly hazy throughout. Utilizing a mix of paranormal activity, body horror and good old fashioned gore, all contained within the restricted confines of the RV. This lends to the claustrophobic tension and increasing conflict between both the characters and their demons. Off The Reservation is a very different vibe then The Only Good Indians ( which was 5 stars and one of my favorite reads of 2025 by the way). if you found the first book to be slow you will be happy to know that Off The Reservation is a whirlwind from start to finish and could honestly probably be read as a stand alone.
"Nate asked. Why do I care if he's a kid of that massacre? We're all children of what happened that day, Seine said"
Like its predecessor, Off The Reservation is very literary, reading like a bunch of character studies stitched together by the horror. These protagonists are beautifully complex and fully realized, with distinct voices when switching between their POVs (I fell in love with two characters in particular and was so emotionally invested in their character arcs). It is through this medley of Blackfeet that SGJ provides perspective on the experience of being Indigenous; trauma, grief, cycles of violence, addiction, gender identity, culture, community, family. Off The Reservation continues the conversation about what does it mean to be Blackfeet, and what does it mean to be a "Good Indian".
This is a book that makes you think and wants you to learn something. The horror is built upon the realities of history, of residential schools and massacres and wars. I consider myself to be pretty well versed on the atrocities of colonization on Turtle Island, but I am Canadian so I am always thankful for opportunities like to expand my understanding across the boarder. I think SGJ does an excellent job of reminding readers that colonialism is not just history, rather an ongoing force that influences society and policy into the present.
"They were all over at Standing Rock, waiting for the cameras to pan away so they could shoot an Indian or two. They were probably stacked fifteen deep, waiting their turn. Nobody wanted to miss their chance to bag this endangered species, mount some black hair over the fireplace."
A complaint I often see is that people find SGJ's writing hard to understand / get into. But see that's what I love most about his books. His writing style is incredibly conversational, harking back to thousands of years of oral storytelling tradition. SGJ's books force you to re think how stories should / can be written, makes you step outside of the western literature bubble that dominates the market. If you are at all intimidated by this, I highly recommend taking an immersive reading approach, listen to the audiobook while you read along. While I haven't had the chance to listen to Off The Reservation on audiobook yet, I did this for both The Only Good Indians & The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and the production has always been top notch.
* Thank you to the author, publisher & NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review. *
"Nate asked. Why do I care if he's a kid of that massacre? We're all children of what happened that day, Seine said"
Like its predecessor, Off The Reservation is very literary, reading like a bunch of character studies stitched together by the horror. These protagonists are beautifully complex and fully realized, with distinct voices when switching between their POVs (I fell in love with two characters in particular and was so emotionally invested in their character arcs). It is through this medley of Blackfeet that SGJ provides perspective on the experience of being Indigenous; trauma, grief, cycles of violence, addiction, gender identity, culture, community, family. Off The Reservation continues the conversation about what does it mean to be Blackfeet, and what does it mean to be a "Good Indian".
This is a book that makes you think and wants you to learn something. The horror is built upon the realities of history, of residential schools and massacres and wars. I consider myself to be pretty well versed on the atrocities of colonization on Turtle Island, but I am Canadian so I am always thankful for opportunities like to expand my understanding across the boarder. I think SGJ does an excellent job of reminding readers that colonialism is not just history, rather an ongoing force that influences society and policy into the present.
"They were all over at Standing Rock, waiting for the cameras to pan away so they could shoot an Indian or two. They were probably stacked fifteen deep, waiting their turn. Nobody wanted to miss their chance to bag this endangered species, mount some black hair over the fireplace."
A complaint I often see is that people find SGJ's writing hard to understand / get into. But see that's what I love most about his books. His writing style is incredibly conversational, harking back to thousands of years of oral storytelling tradition. SGJ's books force you to re think how stories should / can be written, makes you step outside of the western literature bubble that dominates the market. If you are at all intimidated by this, I highly recommend taking an immersive reading approach, listen to the audiobook while you read along. While I haven't had the chance to listen to Off The Reservation on audiobook yet, I did this for both The Only Good Indians & The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and the production has always been top notch.
* Thank you to the author, publisher & NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review. *
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Nate Yellow Tale and friend Sebby think they are breaking into the summer home of some rich white folks, but it turns out to be the house of an incredibly powerful old-school Indian. Their robbery indirectly prevents the bones of a nine-year-old boy waiting to be returned to holy ground. The instant the misguided crime is complete, their car gets pulverized by a big rig and Sebby ends up laid out in hospital bed on death’s door. After a haunting realistic vision, Nate vows to turn his life around, starting by turning this major wrong into a right and retrieving the boy’s bones in exchange for Sebby's survival.
Nate’s holy quest is carried out in his nurse's RV. Nurse Seine helped him recover from his near-fatal car collision and trades cigarettes for personal stories. Also included is Two Bulls, a silent Indian dressed like a priest who is very skilled at shoplifting and Mooch (Rita-Kills-in-the-Water) whose oldest sons died a year apart, with a third recently killed when he missed a long jump on a dirt bike. The stunt is memorialized with a motorbike implanted into the back of the RV in some type of amateur art installation. Other characters join legs of the journey, but everyone adds a piece of unique intrigue that makes the reader want to understand further.
The head trauma Nate suffered from the car accident earned him hallucinations and his ability to parse the real from imagined is limited. About half of the novel is a found family story, misfits on a quest, but it morphs into something resembling Cannonball Run. Stephen Graham Jones’ irreverent prose zips by and every scene feels filled with motion. The style is not overly frenetic (think Joe Abercrombie), but even when a character is still, it's as if we feel their intensity. There is violence aplenty and it is scripted very well. Graphic written scenes which are able to be visualized is no easy task, but just the chapter ‘For Your Next Stunt’ is worth the book. Gut-wrenching choreography, creative characters and an ‘anything is a weapon’ mentality floods every gritty scene. At one point a character reflects that maybe everyone in the RV needs an ambulance. Correction: a straitjacket. No, a headstone.
Off the Reservation might get a tad too ridiculous for some near the end, but it tries its hardest on every page to entertain. Fans of this author will devour the novel, and it will likely gain him some new readers. It also holds true to the Native American spirit present in most of SGJ's books, highlighting their culture with wild imagination.
Thank to NetGalley and S&S/Saga Press for a review copy.
Nate’s holy quest is carried out in his nurse's RV. Nurse Seine helped him recover from his near-fatal car collision and trades cigarettes for personal stories. Also included is Two Bulls, a silent Indian dressed like a priest who is very skilled at shoplifting and Mooch (Rita-Kills-in-the-Water) whose oldest sons died a year apart, with a third recently killed when he missed a long jump on a dirt bike. The stunt is memorialized with a motorbike implanted into the back of the RV in some type of amateur art installation. Other characters join legs of the journey, but everyone adds a piece of unique intrigue that makes the reader want to understand further.
The head trauma Nate suffered from the car accident earned him hallucinations and his ability to parse the real from imagined is limited. About half of the novel is a found family story, misfits on a quest, but it morphs into something resembling Cannonball Run. Stephen Graham Jones’ irreverent prose zips by and every scene feels filled with motion. The style is not overly frenetic (think Joe Abercrombie), but even when a character is still, it's as if we feel their intensity. There is violence aplenty and it is scripted very well. Graphic written scenes which are able to be visualized is no easy task, but just the chapter ‘For Your Next Stunt’ is worth the book. Gut-wrenching choreography, creative characters and an ‘anything is a weapon’ mentality floods every gritty scene. At one point a character reflects that maybe everyone in the RV needs an ambulance. Correction: a straitjacket. No, a headstone.
Off the Reservation might get a tad too ridiculous for some near the end, but it tries its hardest on every page to entertain. Fans of this author will devour the novel, and it will likely gain him some new readers. It also holds true to the Native American spirit present in most of SGJ's books, highlighting their culture with wild imagination.
Thank to NetGalley and S&S/Saga Press for a review copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I never expected a sequel to The Only Good Indians, but if we all know one thing SGJ always succeeds in, it's to deliver the unexpected.
I think the cool thing about this book is you don't necessarily have to be thoroughly familiar with the events of The Only Good Indians to enjoy Off the Reservation. The best kind of sequel (in my opinion) is one that you can read independently of the first book. In Off the Reservation we follow Nate Yellow Tail who finds himself back in the hospital again after a car accident that should have killed him (but didn't because it's hard to kill a Yellow Tail) and his best friend Sebby. However Nate woke up and Sebby did not. Nate's nurse talks Nate into joining her and two other Blackfeet on a road trip in an RV to repatriate an Indigenous boy's bones who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Hoping to save Sebby's life, Nate agrees. Unfortunately, in freeing the boy's bones from beneath the earth, they accidentally free something else they didn't intend.
Hands down my favorite chapter was Indian Evel Knievel, SGJ always absolutely crushes the villain/monster POV chapters. It actually would have been cool to have a few more of these chapters, but I did like how we flipped through many POV chapters of each of the main characters. I think this added a lot of interesting depth to the story. And the way the evil entity is ah, expelled (wink) is honestly pretty funny and genius. I was shocked, disgusted, and maybe a little annoyed when I initially read it. But now that I've taken the time to digest it, I can appreciate that, again, SGJ always delivers on the unexpected.
I will say though, it felt to me like SGJ really struggled with this story and my feelings of this were confirmed in the acknowledgements. The pacing was a little off, there were elements that didn't quite fit into the story as successfully as I would have hoped, and the ending felt a little rushed. I will say though, despite all this, I have to praise SGJ's originality and I can promise you, you've never read a story of possession like this one!
There's a lot more I want to say, but unfortunately I can't really figure out how to talk about it without spoiling the story. Appreciate everything Stephen Graham Jones does with the stories he chooses to tell us is all I'll say.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance DRC and provide an honest review, all opinions are my own.
I think the cool thing about this book is you don't necessarily have to be thoroughly familiar with the events of The Only Good Indians to enjoy Off the Reservation. The best kind of sequel (in my opinion) is one that you can read independently of the first book. In Off the Reservation we follow Nate Yellow Tail who finds himself back in the hospital again after a car accident that should have killed him (but didn't because it's hard to kill a Yellow Tail) and his best friend Sebby. However Nate woke up and Sebby did not. Nate's nurse talks Nate into joining her and two other Blackfeet on a road trip in an RV to repatriate an Indigenous boy's bones who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Hoping to save Sebby's life, Nate agrees. Unfortunately, in freeing the boy's bones from beneath the earth, they accidentally free something else they didn't intend.
Hands down my favorite chapter was Indian Evel Knievel, SGJ always absolutely crushes the villain/monster POV chapters. It actually would have been cool to have a few more of these chapters, but I did like how we flipped through many POV chapters of each of the main characters. I think this added a lot of interesting depth to the story. And the way the evil entity is ah, expelled (wink) is honestly pretty funny and genius. I was shocked, disgusted, and maybe a little annoyed when I initially read it. But now that I've taken the time to digest it, I can appreciate that, again, SGJ always delivers on the unexpected.
I will say though, it felt to me like SGJ really struggled with this story and my feelings of this were confirmed in the acknowledgements. The pacing was a little off, there were elements that didn't quite fit into the story as successfully as I would have hoped, and the ending felt a little rushed. I will say though, despite all this, I have to praise SGJ's originality and I can promise you, you've never read a story of possession like this one!
There's a lot more I want to say, but unfortunately I can't really figure out how to talk about it without spoiling the story. Appreciate everything Stephen Graham Jones does with the stories he chooses to tell us is all I'll say.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance DRC and provide an honest review, all opinions are my own.
June 24, 2026
I know a number of people, adventurous readers even, who have told me they struggle with Jones’ writing. He’s very orally-based (lots of “what?” and “yeah?” or, in one example, “he put his hands up like this” without telling you what “this” is) and his details sometimes slip into stream of consciousness. I have a learning curve with him too, but usually after a few pages I lock in and find my way into his very specific rhythms.
This one took me longer than most. I was heartened to read the acknowledgments (always good and lengthy in his novels, by the way) and see that he’d struggled in the writing of it too. Finding the shape of the thing: placing itself within a specific horror subgenre while stripping out its usual trappings, while also being an object book where the protagonist is the one most affected by the object’s effects. He set himself a tough structural job, and you can feel it in the first third. Characters take a while to become identifiable, and there’s a focus on detail I started to get lost in (I learned more about winching a bike to an RV than I expected going in, to say the least). But once I hit a particularly revelatory chapter about one of the lead quartet on this road trip, things began clicking. A spooky supernatural chapter in second person follows (a callback to The Only Good Indians, the book this one sequels), and then a bigger revelation arrives. The momentum builds from there.
By the second half, this is as addictive a read as anything Jones has produced at this point in his career, where he’s become THE critically acclaimed horror guy: Obama’s list, the Nebula, all that. It doesn’t have the clean Ghost Story-like structure of its predecessor, nor does it hit the perfection of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. But beyond its gory pleasures and unsettling moments, it sparks an ingenious idea within its pet themes that I won’t spoil. Like John Sayles’ To Save the Man last year, though, the focus lands on the Carlisle Indian School and the horror those children lived through inside its walls. Once the actual threat appears, the earlier segments clarify in retrospect, and I can’t help but be tempted to spark off a re-read eventually.
There’s also something instructive and raw about reading a book where the author seems more exposed, not on the page itself, but behind it, and it left me feeling more connected to the guy.
I deeply love Jones’ work, and I’m grateful I got to read this one early.
This one took me longer than most. I was heartened to read the acknowledgments (always good and lengthy in his novels, by the way) and see that he’d struggled in the writing of it too. Finding the shape of the thing: placing itself within a specific horror subgenre while stripping out its usual trappings, while also being an object book where the protagonist is the one most affected by the object’s effects. He set himself a tough structural job, and you can feel it in the first third. Characters take a while to become identifiable, and there’s a focus on detail I started to get lost in (I learned more about winching a bike to an RV than I expected going in, to say the least). But once I hit a particularly revelatory chapter about one of the lead quartet on this road trip, things began clicking. A spooky supernatural chapter in second person follows (a callback to The Only Good Indians, the book this one sequels), and then a bigger revelation arrives. The momentum builds from there.
By the second half, this is as addictive a read as anything Jones has produced at this point in his career, where he’s become THE critically acclaimed horror guy: Obama’s list, the Nebula, all that. It doesn’t have the clean Ghost Story-like structure of its predecessor, nor does it hit the perfection of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. But beyond its gory pleasures and unsettling moments, it sparks an ingenious idea within its pet themes that I won’t spoil. Like John Sayles’ To Save the Man last year, though, the focus lands on the Carlisle Indian School and the horror those children lived through inside its walls. Once the actual threat appears, the earlier segments clarify in retrospect, and I can’t help but be tempted to spark off a re-read eventually.
There’s also something instructive and raw about reading a book where the author seems more exposed, not on the page itself, but behind it, and it left me feeling more connected to the guy.
I deeply love Jones’ work, and I’m grateful I got to read this one early.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
5 stars
This is pure, concentrated Stephen Graham Jones and a possession story only he could write. His voice as a storyteller is unique and unmistakable and I could not love it more.
In Off the Reservation, it is 2016, five years after the slaughter on the Blackfeet reservation from The Only Good Indians. Nate and his best friend Sebby are "liberating" some items from an empty vacation home when thing start to go wrong. The end of part one made me gasp out loud, literally like a jump scare on the page. That's when I knew this story was about to take me on a ride, and I wasn't wrong.
We follow along with four main characters on a road trip, maybe vision quest, to find and return the bones of a Blackfeet child who died at an infamous Indian Industrial School. Among then is Nate, who barely survived the accident that left Sebby clinging to life in a coma, the nurse who took care of them both, a strange, tall maybe-priest named Christian, and Mooch, a grieving mother who travels with her dead son's motorcycle and a cell phone that he may or may not be calling her on from beyond the veil. The group comes in contact with an evil force that seeps into things, first slowly then brutally fast.
I was enthralled from the beginning and couldn't wait to see where this story would take me. It was confusing, heartbreaking, horrifying, gross, serious and comical and sometimes everything at once. The body h0rror was intense, so be prepared. There is one element I have found in all of the books I've read by this author that resonates deeply with me, which is the way mothers are portrayed, and the depth of their love and connection to their children. When SGJ was writing about the children of the Indian Industrial School, he broke me with a few sentences and I will never stop thinking about it. Never.
If you are a fan of SGJ, you are going to love this book. If you wanted more after finishing The Only Good Indians, I think you'll love this book. If you are looking for a unique possession story with plenty of body horror, read this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is pure, concentrated Stephen Graham Jones and a possession story only he could write. His voice as a storyteller is unique and unmistakable and I could not love it more.
In Off the Reservation, it is 2016, five years after the slaughter on the Blackfeet reservation from The Only Good Indians. Nate and his best friend Sebby are "liberating" some items from an empty vacation home when thing start to go wrong. The end of part one made me gasp out loud, literally like a jump scare on the page. That's when I knew this story was about to take me on a ride, and I wasn't wrong.
We follow along with four main characters on a road trip, maybe vision quest, to find and return the bones of a Blackfeet child who died at an infamous Indian Industrial School. Among then is Nate, who barely survived the accident that left Sebby clinging to life in a coma, the nurse who took care of them both, a strange, tall maybe-priest named Christian, and Mooch, a grieving mother who travels with her dead son's motorcycle and a cell phone that he may or may not be calling her on from beyond the veil. The group comes in contact with an evil force that seeps into things, first slowly then brutally fast.
I was enthralled from the beginning and couldn't wait to see where this story would take me. It was confusing, heartbreaking, horrifying, gross, serious and comical and sometimes everything at once. The body h0rror was intense, so be prepared. There is one element I have found in all of the books I've read by this author that resonates deeply with me, which is the way mothers are portrayed, and the depth of their love and connection to their children. When SGJ was writing about the children of the Indian Industrial School, he broke me with a few sentences and I will never stop thinking about it. Never.
If you are a fan of SGJ, you are going to love this book. If you wanted more after finishing The Only Good Indians, I think you'll love this book. If you are looking for a unique possession story with plenty of body horror, read this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Some books scare you. Some books haunt you. And then there are the rare ones that quietly slip under your skin, settle into your bones, and linger long after you've convinced yourself you've moved on. Off the Reservation is one of those books.
I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review, and this was an effortless five-star read.
Stephen Graham Jones continues to prove that horror isn't just about monsters or bloodshed—it's about grief, memory, identity, and the things we carry even when we desperately want to leave them behind. The horror here feels intimate. It creeps rather than lunges, building an atmosphere of unease that becomes almost suffocating as the story unfolds.
Jones has a way of making the familiar feel alien. His characters are flawed, layered, and achingly human, which only makes the darkness surrounding them more effective. Every conversation feels loaded with meaning. Every quiet moment seems to conceal something waiting just beyond the page. I found myself constantly questioning what was real, what was imagined, and whether it even mattered by the end.
His prose remains one of my favorite aspects of his writing. It's sharp without feeling forced, poetic without becoming inaccessible, and filled with observations that stop you in your tracks. There were multiple moments where I found myself rereading passages simply because they hit with such emotional precision.
This isn't horror that relies on cheap scares. It's psychological, melancholic, and deeply unsettling. It trusts the reader to sit with uncertainty, and that trust pays off in a story that feels richer the longer you think about it.
When I finished the final page, I didn't immediately pick up another book. I just sat there, letting everything settle. That's always the sign of something special.
Stephen Graham Jones continues to be one of the most compelling voices in modern horror, and Off the Reservation is another reminder of why I will read absolutely anything he writes.
Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press, for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review, and this was an effortless five-star read.
Stephen Graham Jones continues to prove that horror isn't just about monsters or bloodshed—it's about grief, memory, identity, and the things we carry even when we desperately want to leave them behind. The horror here feels intimate. It creeps rather than lunges, building an atmosphere of unease that becomes almost suffocating as the story unfolds.
Jones has a way of making the familiar feel alien. His characters are flawed, layered, and achingly human, which only makes the darkness surrounding them more effective. Every conversation feels loaded with meaning. Every quiet moment seems to conceal something waiting just beyond the page. I found myself constantly questioning what was real, what was imagined, and whether it even mattered by the end.
His prose remains one of my favorite aspects of his writing. It's sharp without feeling forced, poetic without becoming inaccessible, and filled with observations that stop you in your tracks. There were multiple moments where I found myself rereading passages simply because they hit with such emotional precision.
This isn't horror that relies on cheap scares. It's psychological, melancholic, and deeply unsettling. It trusts the reader to sit with uncertainty, and that trust pays off in a story that feels richer the longer you think about it.
When I finished the final page, I didn't immediately pick up another book. I just sat there, letting everything settle. That's always the sign of something special.
Stephen Graham Jones continues to be one of the most compelling voices in modern horror, and Off the Reservation is another reminder of why I will read absolutely anything he writes.
Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press, for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Stephen Graham Jones is probably my favorite contemporary horror writer working right now. No one writes like him. He keeps producing masterpiece after masterpiece, and OFF THE RESERVATION is no exception.
It’s not exactly clear whether “sequel” is the right word, but the book does follow a character from THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, extending that reservation world in a way that feels both continuous and fully self-contained. You don’t need prior context for it to work, though there’s added depth if you’ve spent time in his broader fiction.
I’ve seen people describe Jones’s writing as “difficult,” and that’s fair on a surface level - but what draws me in is precisely that quality. The fragmented flow, the looping sentences, the way thoughts arrive mid-formation rather than fully formed. It’s stream-of-consciousness, yes, but also carefully controlled - almost musical in how it builds and circles meaning.
There’s a constant shifting of register in his prose that I don’t see many writers manage: conversational and grounded one moment, then suddenly lyrical, elevated, and unsettling the next. It creates a rhythm that can feel disorienting at first, but eventually becomes hypnotic. It takes a little time to lock in - there’s an initial resistance to the style - but once it clicks, the momentum is undeniable. The voice carries you forward.
I’ve heard Jones called the Faulkner of horror, and I understand why. Not just for the fragmentation or density, but because voice itself becomes structure - style isn’t decorative, it’s the engine of dread.
OFF THE RESERVATION reinforces what his best work already suggests: Stephen Graham Jones isn’t just experimenting with form - he’s using it to build a different kind of horror entirely.
It’s not exactly clear whether “sequel” is the right word, but the book does follow a character from THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS, extending that reservation world in a way that feels both continuous and fully self-contained. You don’t need prior context for it to work, though there’s added depth if you’ve spent time in his broader fiction.
I’ve seen people describe Jones’s writing as “difficult,” and that’s fair on a surface level - but what draws me in is precisely that quality. The fragmented flow, the looping sentences, the way thoughts arrive mid-formation rather than fully formed. It’s stream-of-consciousness, yes, but also carefully controlled - almost musical in how it builds and circles meaning.
There’s a constant shifting of register in his prose that I don’t see many writers manage: conversational and grounded one moment, then suddenly lyrical, elevated, and unsettling the next. It creates a rhythm that can feel disorienting at first, but eventually becomes hypnotic. It takes a little time to lock in - there’s an initial resistance to the style - but once it clicks, the momentum is undeniable. The voice carries you forward.
I’ve heard Jones called the Faulkner of horror, and I understand why. Not just for the fragmentation or density, but because voice itself becomes structure - style isn’t decorative, it’s the engine of dread.
OFF THE RESERVATION reinforces what his best work already suggests: Stephen Graham Jones isn’t just experimenting with form - he’s using it to build a different kind of horror entirely.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Part fever dream, part road trip, three parts scary and all heart, Off the Reservation was a frightening yet emotional tale of both belonging and letting go.
While I have listened and loved many of Stephen Graham Jones stories in the past this was the first one that I have read with my eyeballs. I have heard from others that his conversational style of writing can be difficult to adjust to, but I didn't have any trouble. Perhaps it is because I am auditory learner, but I could hear the voice of Nate in my head immediately and I couldn't imagine the story being told in any other way.
Of course, Nate is not the only POV character, but I didn't have any difficulty adjusting as the chapters switched from character to character. I loved how each voice had distinctive traits that made them easy to identify.
I was lulled into a false sense of security in the first part of the book, I was expecting a horror novel, but initially it felt like a redemption story. It was funny and full of found family. Don't worry, it doesn't last you get the horror story you are promised, and it is only made more exciting after you know and care about the characters in harms way.
I think the story stands on it's own even if you haven't read Only Good Indians, but I can't see why you would want to. Both stories are beautiful and scary.
I would love to know more about the characters in this world, but part of me thinks that the survivors have been through enough and it would be a shame if they ended up in another SGJ novel.
Thank you to the author and publishers for an Advance Reader Copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I can not tell you how excited I was to receive it.
While I have listened and loved many of Stephen Graham Jones stories in the past this was the first one that I have read with my eyeballs. I have heard from others that his conversational style of writing can be difficult to adjust to, but I didn't have any trouble. Perhaps it is because I am auditory learner, but I could hear the voice of Nate in my head immediately and I couldn't imagine the story being told in any other way.
Of course, Nate is not the only POV character, but I didn't have any difficulty adjusting as the chapters switched from character to character. I loved how each voice had distinctive traits that made them easy to identify.
I was lulled into a false sense of security in the first part of the book, I was expecting a horror novel, but initially it felt like a redemption story. It was funny and full of found family. Don't worry, it doesn't last you get the horror story you are promised, and it is only made more exciting after you know and care about the characters in harms way.
I think the story stands on it's own even if you haven't read Only Good Indians, but I can't see why you would want to. Both stories are beautiful and scary.
I would love to know more about the characters in this world, but part of me thinks that the survivors have been through enough and it would be a shame if they ended up in another SGJ novel.
Thank you to the author and publishers for an Advance Reader Copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I can not tell you how excited I was to receive it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Only Good Indians was a book that I read pretty recently, after I had already well established Stephen Graham Jones as one of my all time favorite horror authors. I loved it, and when I heard there was a follow up coming out, I jumped at the chance to read an early copy.
Off the Reservation brings us to five years after the massacre that Nate Yellow Tail survived. He and a group of Blackfeet road trip to Pennsylvania to the site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to bring home the bones of a Blackfeet boy who died there so long ago. In true Jones fashion, there is so so much more to this story. They bring something else back... and it is hungry.
The depth we go into the characters is always one of my favorite aspects to his writing. You get to know them each in a way where you feel a connection with them. As you learn who they are, what motivates them, what holds them back, you are that much more embedded into the story.
This book gave me chills. A book that can make you feel so deeply, then turn around and make you feel completely unsettled. This is yet another captivating novel from Jones that I highly recommend!
Off the Reservation brings us to five years after the massacre that Nate Yellow Tail survived. He and a group of Blackfeet road trip to Pennsylvania to the site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to bring home the bones of a Blackfeet boy who died there so long ago. In true Jones fashion, there is so so much more to this story. They bring something else back... and it is hungry.
The depth we go into the characters is always one of my favorite aspects to his writing. You get to know them each in a way where you feel a connection with them. As you learn who they are, what motivates them, what holds them back, you are that much more embedded into the story.
This book gave me chills. A book that can make you feel so deeply, then turn around and make you feel completely unsettled. This is yet another captivating novel from Jones that I highly recommend!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
One of today’s foremost horror writers, Stephen Graham Jones delivers another knockout with Off the Reservation, the sequel to The Only Good Indians. The novel picks up five years later and follows Nate, one of the sole survivors of the Duck Lake massacre, who was only fifteen at the time. Now older, Nate and his friend Sebby are involved in a devastating accident that sends him on another mission to restore balance to the karma of the reservation—and perhaps the world itself—while trying to save Sebby’s life in the process.
Much like The Buffalo Hunter Hunter reinvented the vampire, this novel reimagines the mummy mythos, presenting a chilling new form of possession that exists outside the typical religious framework. Fans of horror and thrillers alike will devour this unmistakably five-star masterpiece from one of the brightest voices in contemporary literary horror. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster publishing for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Much like The Buffalo Hunter Hunter reinvented the vampire, this novel reimagines the mummy mythos, presenting a chilling new form of possession that exists outside the typical religious framework. Fans of horror and thrillers alike will devour this unmistakably five-star masterpiece from one of the brightest voices in contemporary literary horror. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster publishing for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was a trip, both literally, and in the best way. The story has a dreamlike, surreal quality that kept me slightly off balance, never quite sure what was coming next. By the middle of the book, I was completely hooked and along for the ride.
Nate’s reason for taking this journey felt pure and genuine, which made me love the friendship between Sebby and him even more. I also appreciated that everyone on the trip had their own story and reason for being there. Each character brought something interesting to the journey, and together they created a story that felt bigger than any one person.
This storyline is a roller coaster, and you’d better hang on tight or you’ll get left at the loading dock. There are twists, turns, mystery, gore, historical references, and several moments that genuinely shocked and surprised me. I always enjoy reading books from Native American perspectives, and this one delivered a story that made me think, made me feel, and kept me turning pages. Another solid read from Stephen Graham Jones!
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance review copy for consideration. All opinions are my own.
This book was a trip, both literally, and in the best way. The story has a dreamlike, surreal quality that kept me slightly off balance, never quite sure what was coming next. By the middle of the book, I was completely hooked and along for the ride.
Nate’s reason for taking this journey felt pure and genuine, which made me love the friendship between Sebby and him even more. I also appreciated that everyone on the trip had their own story and reason for being there. Each character brought something interesting to the journey, and together they created a story that felt bigger than any one person.
This storyline is a roller coaster, and you’d better hang on tight or you’ll get left at the loading dock. There are twists, turns, mystery, gore, historical references, and several moments that genuinely shocked and surprised me. I always enjoy reading books from Native American perspectives, and this one delivered a story that made me think, made me feel, and kept me turning pages. Another solid read from Stephen Graham Jones!
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance review copy for consideration. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
First of all, thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free e-copy of Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones for review. Off the Reservation is a wonderful expansion of TOGI world, taking a character from it, Nate Yellowtail, and giving him his own story. The novel perfectly replicates the hazy, hallucinative atmosphere that dominated The Only Good Indians. Jones's strong suit has always been his incredible character development, which is on display with the way Nate is rendered. Nate is thrust into a quest to right an unjust wrong and bring home the bones of a child who died at the Carlisle boarding school with an oddball group of characters. The first half of the novel is very slow, but the dynamic between Nate and the others as they travel to the school kept me engaged completely. Once at the school, the novel picks up a bit and heads into darker territory until it ends in a completely satisfying way.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. *** Stephen Graham Jones does it again. When I saw that this was a sequel to Only Good Indians, I was overjoyed. To get the ARC, obsessed. It didn't take long for me to read it like it was air and I was suffocating. Nate Yellow Tail gets himself into trouble but Yellow Tail's are hard to kill. This character is brought over from the previous novel as one of two survivors from a gruesome massacre. Here he's using his seeming invincibility to rob a vacation home just off the rez. If on;y he has really seen the warning signs, him and Sebby wouldn't end up in that hospital. In true Jones fashion, this is just a crumb of the cookie to come, with twists and turns and all sorts of messed up, a perfect next step to the masterpiece of Only Good Indian. Holey moley.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Every time I sit down with a book by Stephen Graham Jones, I know I’m in for a wild ride, and this one was no exception. While it serves as a sequel to The Only Good Indians, I don’t think you necessarily need to have read the first book to enjoy it, though it does add some helpful context for certain background characters.
I always find myself slowing down when reading this author because the story really demands your full attention. I absolutely loved this one, and the eerie, haunting imagery he creates is incredible. I enjoyed every minute of it and already can’t wait to do a tandem read with the audiobook once it’s released.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press | S&S/Saga Press for the ARC for this book! One of my most anticipated reads this year.
I always find myself slowing down when reading this author because the story really demands your full attention. I absolutely loved this one, and the eerie, haunting imagery he creates is incredible. I enjoyed every minute of it and already can’t wait to do a tandem read with the audiobook once it’s released.
Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press | S&S/Saga Press for the ARC for this book! One of my most anticipated reads this year.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book required me to slow down and digest the writing, which is not a bad thing at all. It was very descriptive, immersive, and just deep. I would call this more of a slow book. It took a while to get to the action and after the beginning, it slows down a lot, but it's worth the build up later on. I have been anticipating this book, so I was happy when I was approved to read the ARC. The character development was well done. Most of the major and side characters had deep, detailed backstories and have developed throughout the book, and even when we do meet them, it is a reason why they were the way they were. This book is a true horror novel. It becomes dark, gory, and can be disturbing to some. Loved it as a person who reads and watches a lot of horror.
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