The Blender Book Club discussion

The Blender's November read is Stephen Graham Jones' 2020 novel The Only Good Indians. Jones is a Blackfeet Native American who has been putting out well-regarded books at a prolific rate for over 20 years (he's not quite 50 years old and has already published 22 of them). He is known for addressing the indigenous experience by way of horror and other speculative genres, and The Only Good Indians continues this trend, following a group of four Native men haunted by something fearsome from their past. I think it will an interesting read for Native American Heritage Month and a good tale for the dreary November weather, too.

Our virtual discussion will be held on November 17 at 7 pm. The link is the same as always:

meet.google.com/ssk-ywba-syc

I look forward to seeing you all there!

(P.S.: Prospective book list for next year incoming shortly.)

Thanks Zach. Just a suggestion: A couple friends recommended The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré. After looking at the Goodreads description, it seems like it might fit well in the Blender selections.

Kathy wrote: "Thanks Zach. Just a suggestion: A couple friends recommended The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré. After looking at the Goodreads description, it seems like it might fit well in the Blender ..."

Thanks for the suggestion, Kathy! I've seen this title around but am not very familiar with it. I'll take a look and see if we can fit it in!

At 40% through, I am having a tough time with The Only Good Indians. To me, it is horrifying in a gory and upsetting way. I was expecting scary and thrilling. I am not sure if I will finish it but I am curious about the story. I’ll take a break for a couple days and see how I feel.

Kathy, I'm at 65%, and sort of agree with you. Thought the story would be scarier, but at the same time less gory (I was beyond horrified at the description of Lewis' killing of Peta and Shaney's accidental (?) death).
Even though the basketball practice scenes with Denorah seem overly detailed and a diversion, I've enjoyed them. Also like the ironic way the native friends (and Victor's son Nathan) refer to indigenous people's status in American society, and their ambivalent feelings about their neglected Blackfeet culture.

It is intense and horrific but I say try to stick it out. The Lewis stuff is the worst I think. It definitely kept me turning the pages as I had to find out what the heck was happening/going to happen!

Like several other books I've read about Indians, I didn't connect with it except in a logical way.
This leaves me wondering what it takes for me to connect with a book, or a place. I have little trouble emotionally connecting with a lot of places I've never been except for Plains Indians (I connected with Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Ceremony (Southwestern Indians).
This was a successful selection in that it got me to ask why I relate to books from some areas and not others (I don't know if subject matter makes a difference). I enjoyed the book; it was well constructed. On a literary level, it was fine.

Hi all, sorry not to have contributed much to the conversation this month (I didn't get email notifications for most of these comments) but I'm happy to see this book is generating a range of opinions--that always makes for the best discussions. Hope to see you all tonight! (Questions coming sometime before then.)

Help! I keep trying to get in to the discussion site, and get the messg "this link is invalid". ???!!

Hmm, seems to be working for everyone else so I'm not sure what's going on. You used this one?

meet.google.com/ssk-ywba-syc