A Voice & Vibe Book Review
Bad Cree. Jessica Johns. 2024.
Debut. Horror. Indigenous fiction. Canadian fiction.
Haunted by dreams of a dead sister and pursued by a murder of spooky crows, an isolated Cree woman must reunite with the women of her fractured family to battle a supernatural entity born of generational trauma and industrial greed.
The story is told in present tense from the female protagonist’s point of view and fliwd fluidly through reality, memories, and dreams. In doing so, Bad Cree respects indigenous traditions which recognize dreams as equal in value to memories of lived experiences.
In the early part of the story, the author creates two distinctive emotional vibes for her protagonist. Grief, guilt, and powerlessness dominate when she is alone—when moments of horror are most likely to occur—while sisterhood, security, and empowerment emerge when she is surrounded by other women.
In the end, these dual vibes prove to be more than simply coincidental. They support an ending that reverses a key horror-story trope.
AUTHORS – I write short book reviews that focus on voice and vibe. They are useful to querying authors searching for comp titles. There are more like this on my website.
REMINDER – If you follow my reviews, you already know this. I have a policy about reviewing debut novels. Provided I finish them, I always rate debut novels with maximum stars, regardless. When I don’t finish a debut novel, I don’t review it. No exceptions. And I don’t review books I don’t pay full price for.