Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Book review by Rebecca Beardsall

“This. Read it. You’re Welcome.” – this was the short but accurate review I posted on Instagram this morning for Jessica Johns’s novel Bad Cree. The novel’s story takes the reader into the magic, horror, and wonder of dreams – and the secrets hidden there. The first two sentences, the ones that usually make or break a book, certainly did not disappoint in Johns’s novel: “Before I look down, I know it’s there. The crow’s head I was clutching in my dream is now in bed with me” (1). Throughout the novel, the reader follows Mackenzie as she dips in and out of dreams revolving around her dead sister Sabrina – as the crows gather around Mackenzie, watching and waiting.

While dreams play a large role throughout the novel, the heart of it lies in family and deep ancestral ties rooting one person to the next for generations. And for Mackenzie’s family, it is in the dreams — a common gift they all share but keep hidden from each other for fear of being misunderstood. Mackenzie, living far away from her family, confides in her friend Joli about her dreams. Joli encourages Mackenzie to connect with her Aunties for help. After a series of near-death dreams and text messages from her dead sister, Mackenzie starts questioning what is real and what isn’t. About the text from Sabrina, Auntie Verna replies: “Our ancestors and spirits have been speaking to us in a million different ways for thousands of years. You think they would have a hard time figuring out texting?” (71).

Mackenzie realizes she can’t manage this on her own and goes home, which starts the journey for the matriarchal line to learn about how the dreaming abilities sit within each of them. But the only way they can get to a point where they can help each other is to stop hiding behind lies and secrets. It is in the opening up of past experiences, not merely the stories told again and again around the dinner table, that the women are able to start to figure out what they are dealing with… and learn what they need to do to stop it.

Johns’s exploration of how a family dynamic is a mixture of hurt, guilt, and love, added with the mystery of the dreams, compels the reader to push asides one’s dreams and read well past their bedtime so they can finish the book—sleep can wait.

Rebecca Beardsall (MA, Lehigh University; MFA, Western Washington University) is the author of two memoirs: The Unfurling Frond (Forthcoming – fall 2023) and My Place in the Spiral. Find her at: rebeccabeardsall.com