Bad Cree

Title: Bad Cree

Author: Jessica Johns

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Pages: 297 pages

Synopsis:

In this gripping debut tinged with supernatural horror, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.

When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow’s head in her hands, she panics. Only moments earlier she had been fending off masses of birds in a snow-covered forest. In bed, when she blinks, the head disappears.

Night after night, Mackenzie’s dreams return her to a memory from before her sister Sabrina’s untimely death: a weekend at the family’s lakefront campsite, long obscured by a fog of guilt. But when the waking world starts closing in, too–a murder of crows stalks her every move around the city, she wakes up from a dream of drowning throwing up water, and gets threatening text messages from someone claiming to be Sabrina–Mackenzie knows this is more than she can handle alone.

Traveling north to her rural hometown in Alberta, she finds her family still steeped in the same grief that she ran away to Vancouver to escape. They welcome her back, but their shaky reunion only seems to intensify her dreams–and make them more dangerous.

What really happened that night at the lake, and what did it have to do with Sabrina’s death? Only a bad Cree would put their family at risk, but what if whatever has been calling Mackenzie home was already inside?

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

Bad Cree is a Horror novel about Mackenzie, who is Cree, who is trying to live a normal life in Vancouver until she has been getting very weird dreams involving the death of her sister. The dreams are terrifying and she is learning that she can bring things from her dreams to the real world. And she is looking to survive and end these weird dreams.

There is quite a few things I like about Bad Cree (this is a 2023 release btw). I first off like the premise of having weird dreams where you bring something from the dream to the real world. That right there is a cool premise. Our main character of Mackenzie is a character that I found relatable, especially as she is still trying to find her place in the world. And when the book does decide to be scary it can be scary.

Another thing I do like is the family dynamic. The family dynamic was fun and it was interesting see how Mackenzie bounces off her family, and seeing the family relationships. Also Joli is a great friend to Mackenzie. Also it’s cool Joli brings Queer Indigenous representation to this book.

The book also does cover themes such as Grief and Loss, and Colonialism (the whole monster came out of greed as a result of the extraction of Oil in the area where the family lives) was handled pretty well.

Now I do have some criticism of this novel. And that is the pacing. The first half of the novel was really interesting and well paced as I kept flipping the pages just trying to figure out what the hell is going to our main protagonist. However it feels after our protagonist returns home the pacing of the novel slows down quite a bit. I also kind of felt the climax ended a little too quickly for my liking.

Speaking of themes, an issue I sort of had was trying to figure out what kind of themes this author was trying to tell us at first. At first, I almost thought the author was trying to raise the issue of murdered Indigenous Women. I am a person who really likes it when Horror is used to explore social issues. As right now here in Canada, missing and murdered Indigenous Women is a very hot issue as part of our ongoing conversations about Reconciliation. However that turned out to not be the case when the nature of Mackenzie’s sister’s death was revealed to us.

Also why did they cut Joli from most of the book? I liked the character! Another question: Is why didn’t Mackenzie take more advantage of her ability to take things from the dream to the real world? I think it could have been fun having Mackenzie explore more of her abilities.

Overall, for a debut novel Bad Cree is a decent Horror read. It has a good main protagonist, interesting family dynamic and the Horror and Supernatural elements make this book, a book you might want to give a read.

Rating: