Mapping the Interior

eBook, 131 pages

English language

Published April 29, 2025 by Tor Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-9509-2
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(1 review)

Blackfeet author Stephen Graham Jones brings readers a spine-tingling Native American horror novella.

Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, his mother or his brother, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he knew.

The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you'd rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them… at terrible cost.

1 edition

Full of Voice, Character, and Heart

Mapping the Interior is my introduction to Stephen Graham Jones's work. The story is short, odd, and full of Native American mythologies and beliefs that are introduced through the lens of a twelve-year-old protagonist. When Junior's father comes back from the dead, he struggles to explain the phenomenon, grasping at theories only a child would. The mechanics of his father's reappearance is strange, ominous, and unique—a facet that kept me engaged and theorizing 'til the end. Mapping the Interior is a solid novella full of voice, character, and heart.

I recommend this to anyone seeking a quick supernatural read.

*Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the reprint ARC.

Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Novella
  • Horror