Thanks to @doubledaybooks for sending me a copy of Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. I ended up mostly listening to the audiobook, and the narrator was great. The story follows a young Cree woman named Mackenzie, who starts have unsettling dreams that creep into reality following the death of her sister Sabrina. After her dreams increasingly become dangerous, she visits home for the first time since before her Sabrina. Together with the other women of her family, they try and figure out what happened one night a couple of years ago, before Sabrina died, when they returned from a party to their lakeside campsite.

This is what I would describe as soft horror - the violence is quiet (meaning, no gory axe murders or anything like that), and contains supernatural elements of Cree legends. The horror element isn’t the only part of the story - woven throughout are family members facing their grief in their own ways, and coming together and starting to heal.

I liked this one. I appreciated the family dynamics. There was good buildup as the dreams became increasingly scary and built up a sense of dread. This is definitely a slower-paced read. I think some parts of the story could have been explored more fully - I was really interested in Mackenzie’s mom and her scavenging, and think their relationship could have been fleshed out more fully. I also felt like the climax was sort of… anti-climactic?

I would recommend this one when you’re in the mood for something spooky, but don’t necessarily need it to be fast-paced. I think it would be a good read in the fall.