Must-Read Indigenous Horror for Native American Heritage Month

My Heart is a Chainsaw was a massive success when it released earlier this year (and for good reason!), so it was an obvious choice for this list. But if you’ve already read it, consider substituting this with one of Jones’ other fantastic horror titles. Any of Jones’ books would make an excellent addition to your TBR. Jade Daniels has always been an outsider in Proofrock, a small lake town she grew up in that is now slowly being over run by gentrification. In her anger and her loneliness, Jade turns to horror for comfort, letting herself get lost in a world of masked killers and revenge. But when Proofrock’s wealthy newcomers begin dying in bizarre ways, Jade realizes that there is a familiar pattern to their deaths. A pattern that only she can see, and that may foretell a massacre in the making.

If you’ve been in the market for a werewolf novel with a folk horror twist, I highly recommend Dimaline’s Empire of the Wild. Joan’s husband Victor disappeared almost a year ago, following an argument, and she has been searching for him ever since. One morning, after stumbling into a revival tent in a Walmart parking lot, she encounters a man with Victor’s face, his voice, and none of his memories. The man claims to be a charismatic preacher called Eugene Wolff, who has been ministering to the local Métis population, and he’s never heard of Victor. If Joan wants her husband back, she will have to find a way to remind him who he really is, before the true mission behind Wolff’s ministry comes to light.

I shamefacedly admit that I still haven’t read Moon of the Crusted Snow, and from what I’ve heard, I am absolutely missing out on an amazing survival horror novel. Moon of the Crusted Snow is set in a small northern settlement trying to survive what may well be the end of the world. Anishinaabe has gone dark. They have completely lost contact with the outside world, and a long, dark Arctic winter is setting in. Then, even as their own society begins to fail and their supplies run short, strangers begin to arrive from the catastrophe in the south that left Anishinaabe a flagging beacon of life for the unexpected refugees. In the fallout from the disaster, a group of young friends will have to embrace Anishinaabe tradition if they hope to survive the scarcity and chaos and help their community withstand such dark, uncertain times.

I wanted to include Elatsoe on this list for those of you who – like me! – love to mix fantasy with dark elements in with your horror titles. Though I wouldn’t discount how creepy this book can be! Set in an alternate America whose history was shaped by magic and monsters, Little Badger’s book is about the titular heroine, Elatsoe, a young woman with the ability to conjure the ghosts of dead animals. When her cousin is murdered, Elatsoe sets out to use her powers to reveal all the secrets hiding behind Willowbee’s charming small town façade and unmask her cousin’s killer. But what she discovers may go far beyond the death of her cousin, and come to threaten Elatsoe’s entire family.

Technically, Taaqtumi (an Inuktitut word meaning “in the dark”) is an anthology of own voices horror short stories from Alaska and Canada, but I really wanted to include it on this list. It’s a phenomenal anthology and a must-have read for the dark winter months. Featuring award winning authors Richard Van Camp, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Aviaq Johnston, and more, Taaqtumi is made up of tales of the darkness and the cold, from zombies to mysterious doors, to post-apocalyptic towns deep in the Arctic. I have always loved fiction set in the Arctic. Something about all that ice and snow, and nothing for miles but freezing winds and the blinding whites and blues. It’s the best of isolation and survival horror, all rolled into one.