Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Mackenzie wakes up from a nightmare with the bloody head of a decapitated crow still in her hand. This is one of many dreams – part visions, part memories – that begin to haunt the reality of the young Cree woman as the anniversary of her sister’s death approaches. In her chilling debut novel, Jessica Johns, member of Alberta’s Sucker Creek First Nation, addresses the impossibility of escaping cultural and familial trauma as we follow Mackenzie from Vancouver back to her home community in High Prairie, where her worsening nightmares force her to confront her own pain and the shared nature of loss.

After an electrifying start, Bad Cree slows down significantly. Most of the novel lacks the urgency that drives the first few chapters, and that would be expected from such a stirring premise. But although the pace never quite picks back up to where it started, the novel remains satisfyingly eerie, atmospheric, and intriguing. The slow-burn horror allows for a more in-depth exploration of the themes and devices that make Bad Cree a notable intervention into the genre and an accomplished debut: rich in dark folklore-inspired imagery, this is a novel about grief as a bond, inherited trauma through a cultural lens, and refreshingly intersectional sorority; with remarkable representation and a large cast of female characters at the core of the story.

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Scribe, 9 Feb