"I watch as moss spreads over its limbs and mushrooms sprout out of its eye sockets and the rotting holes of flesh in its face. I try to brace myself, to keep the earth from taking me, too,but I stay holding on to its hands, now just bones."

Dreamlike and deeply horrific, Bad Cree is a fantastic, wonderful and insanely grotesque piece of Indigenous horror fiction. Steeped in wildly fascinating Cree culture and lore, this twisted tale of fractured family dynamics and folkloric wonder really brings a unique and refreshing perspective to the table. Bad Cree is utterly mind-blowing in its ability to balance both brutality and beauty, it's also such an authentic feeling story. The text features a heavy focus around dreams, and highlights massively their importance in Cree culture. There's a whole lot to love about this book, the compelling mystery, the phenomenal characterization, the fabulous writing and the gruesome, gory horror. Even the quiet parts of this novel are told with passion and intensity.

Coming of age horror is far from played out, the market might be getting a touch saturated, but, Bad Cree proves that there's still plenty to be explored within the sub-genre. It's all very hallucinatory, hazy and vague. The story flows between dream sequence vignettes and super harrowing horror scenes, what an absolute delight it is. Bad Cree gets dark, and gross very, very quickly, from the first few pages a rather grim tone is set, and what follows can only be described as an unrelenting nightmare. The writing, both beautiful and matter-of-fact, manages to deliver a sharp, almost blunt tone while also being descriptive and interesting. As with most horror novels, it's typical in its slow burning nature, however, the story itself is unrestrained and distinctive.

 

It's a novel completely fueled by grief, which, makes it an emotionally exhausting and entirely devastating reading experience. Aside from the pitch perfect storytelling, the super interesting premise and the almost surrealist approach to it all, one of the biggest strengths of this book is within its characters, Johns has created some very real, very human feeling characters, which only serves to embolden the authenticity and rawness of the story. She manages somehow to balance all this brilliance, while also allowing Cree culture to shine through, it's a pretty special thing. This novel is simply outstanding. It's charming, delightful and above all else, horrible and disgusting. This here is Indigenous fiction at its very finest.

"Before I look down, I know it's there. The crow's head I was clutching in my dream is now in bed with me. I woke up with the weight of it in my hands, held against my chest under the covers. I can still feel its beak and feathers on my palms."