Mapping the Interior

"That's how you talk about dead people, though, especially dead Indians. It's all about squandered potential, not actual accomplishments."

Mapping the Interior was my next piece I chose to read by Stephen Graham Jones. The first piece I read of his was The Only Good Indians in January 2021, and I've been blazing through his works ever since. Not once has this author disappointed me - each piece has been so unique unto itself. While the genre (so far of what I've read) has been horror, the way the story had told has always changed. Literary horror at its finest and I take such pleasure in seeing what SGJ is going to educate me on in every underlying theme he places in his stories.

This story is about a teenage Native American boy named Junior. Junior's father died under questionable circumstances when he and his brother were very young and as a result, their mother took the boys and got off the reservation. The small family was very poor, with the mother working tiring hours to put a roof over their heads. She wasn't around much to see how her boys were bullied and terrorized by the other children - not for being poor, but for being different - for being Native Americans. It was such a tragic existence.

One night, Junior wakes up from one of his sleepwalking episodes and sees a figure - his father - walking from one side of the hall into another room in full "fancydancer" dress. Junior turns inward to explore why his father was there - why now, so many years after his death - and for what purpose? To haunt? To protect? It was an absolute page turner as we experience the supernatural events with Junior and the journey he takes to discover the meaning of it all.

This novella holds a much larger story inside its pages....just like the interior of Junior's house...

Stephen Graham Jones is one of those horror authors I always come back to because his stories are dark and heart wrenching. His horror melds supernatural with real human evil in a way that’s truly terrifying. This novella is often described as a house of leaves situation, but it is not that at all! The house is not the focus here, it’s just where the events happen. Junior is 12 years old and begins seeing his dead father roaming the halls of his ramshackle home. With a disabled brother, a single mother, bullying at school, a deputy making night visits, and an aggressive neighbor with vicious dogs, Junior first sees his dad’s apparition as a good thing. But soon he starts to see the apparitions true intentions. While this book is short I found myself needing to put it down at times just to have a break from the sheer bleakness. I highly recommend this or any other Stephen Graham Jones novel.

I don't know if I was just too tired or just not in the right mood or what happened, but I didn't feel much of anything about this. It wasn't the writing; I really like Jones' writing. I liked [b:Night of the Mannequins|49246963|Night of the Mannequins|Stephen Graham Jones|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576787867l/49246963._SY75_.jpg|74693341] and nearly loved [b:The Only Good Indians|52180399|The Only Good Indians|Stephen Graham Jones|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601545259l/52180399._SY75_.jpg|71431671]. I'm thinking I prefer his longer works to his shorter ones.

There isn't a lot to say about this that wouldn't spoil it, so I'm going to leave it at my brief opinion and rating. At the root of this story, there is a lot of sadness if I stop to think about it long enough. I wish it would have packed enough of a punch for me to have wanted to really reflect on it. Maybe if I did that I would understand it more, too. There is so much I couldn't or didn't understand. I couldn't get inside Junior's head even though that's where we seemed to be most of the time. This left me feeling pretty disconnected.

2.5 Rounded to 3 Stars