Review; Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Description from Goodreads
Mapping the Interior is a horrifying, inward-looking novella from Stephen Graham Jones that Paul Tremblay calls "emotionally raw, disturbing, creepy, and brilliant."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.
My Thoughts on the Book
Even though the plot could have been fleshed out a bit more, I still felt like I was part of the family and Mapping the Interior is more of an emotional read than anything. It's also a story about identity and heritage, especially Native American. As I'm not Native American myself and even less part of the same tribe as the protagonist, a lot of the symbolism went over my head, but that's my fault and not the author's.
It's still a book worth the read though, especially as it's nice to see Native American representation in literature.
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