I am a huge Stephen Graham Jones fan. I still have nightmares of the Elk-Headed Woman from The Only Good Indians. Jade Daniels may be one of my favorite heroines of contemporary literature. And the Buffalo Hunter Hunter? Left me SHOOK. So you can imagine my delight on discovering an e-arc for Mapping the Interior on my NetGalley shelf. Originally published in 2017, this appears to be a re-release for 2025 with a new cover.

The setup of this novella is fantastic. A 12 year old boy sees what looks like his dead father moving through his house, and from there things begin to unravel. What follows is part ghost story, part coming of age, and part meditation on family and generational trauma. Of course with a little gore thrown in.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and the author for offering an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Themes That Linger

At its’ heart, this book is all about family. It digs into the curses you inherit from parents, but also the love. The boy’s father is both a presence and an absence, and the story wrestles with how much we carry from the people who came before us.

Style and Pacing of Mapping the Interior

If you have read Jones before, you know his writing style varies to fit the book. The Angel of Indian Lake trilogy relies upon clipped, frenetic language, but lots of it. Meanwhile, The Only Good Indians focus on saying more with less. My favorite example of Jones’ mastery of tone, however, is found in The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. The ways in which Jones swapped tone to support the varying narrators was masterful.

In Mapping the Interior, Jones’ lack of hand-holding really forced me as the reader to lean in. It felt much like a fever dream at times, in some of the best ways possible. This is part of what made this little (BIG!) story so intense, but it also left me feeling a little lost at times. The novella format means there is no room for explanation. Blink and you might miss something. It is the kind of book that begs for a reread, and I have a feeling it will click more for me the second time around.

My Reading Mood

I have to be honest. I struggled getting through this a bit. Surprisingly, I didn’t LOOOOOOVE it. Part of why I struggled might just be me. I was in a bit of a slump when I read this and I wonder if that affected how I connected to the story. With Jones, I usually finish a book feeling gutted and impressed. With this one, I mostly felt confused and like I needed to read it again. It was still compelling, but not the knockout I expected.

Final Thoughts on Mapping the Interior

Mapping the Interior is haunting, sad, and full of the kind of layered horror that Stephen Graham Jones does so well. I did not love it as much as I hoped, but I can absolutely see why it has such a following. Definitely worth reading if you want a quick, heavy dose of Jones’s particular brand of horror. I am giving it a 3.5 out of 5, with the caveat that I plan to reread it when I am in a better reading headspace.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5