Bad Cree is the debut novel of nehiyaw (Cree) writer Jessica Johns. The novel has been shortlisted for 2024 CBC Canada Reads. The reviews I read described Bad Cree as creepy, haunting and terrifying. I have been in the mood for creepy books lately, so this novel sounded good to me. Although it has some interesting aspects to it, Bad Cree turned out to be an underwhelming story.

Bad Cree is about a twenty-something nehiyaw named Mackenzie who left her small northern Albertan hometown after the death of her kokum (grandmother) as she can’t cope with her grief, and she thought running away would help. She has been living in Vancouver for a few years, living in a shitty apartment and working a shitty job at Whole Foods, isolating herself from her family by not going back for a visit, even when one of her older sisters, Sabrina, dies.

Mackenzie has vivid dreams, and she can bring objects from her dreams back with her when she wakes. As the one-year anniversary of Sabrina’s death approaches, Mackenzie’s dreams become terrifying as they involve the body of her sister, Sabrina. When Mackenzie almost drowns in one of her dreams and begins receiving text messages from someone claiming to be Sabrina, she realizes that she needs to go home to Alberta and ask for her family’s help with putting a stop to the dreams.

The best part of Bad Cree is Mackenzie’s homecoming. There is something about returning to my own hometown and seeing how it had changed since I last lived there, how much smaller it seems compared to when I was a kid. With Mackenzie’s homecoming, the reader sees through her eyes what a northern Albertan town is like, with its boarded-up businesses, run down houses and impoverished citizens, all products of the oil companies that take their money with them when they leave and leaving environmental desecration and broken promises in their wake. Then there is Mackenzie’s family, close-knit and loud, people always coming and going, the aunties making food for everyone, everyone sitting around the kitchen table drinking and playing cards or crib. It reminds me so much of the family gatherings of my own childhood that Mackenzie’s family home is rendered vividly for me.

The problem with Bad Cree is that it feels rushed, and therefore the characters and familial relationships are underdeveloped. It doesn’t make sense that Mackenzie didn’t go home after Sabrina died. It doesn’t make sense how many secrets her close-knit family keeps from each other. Why is Mackenzie’s mother unusually cold and standoffish compared her open and caring sisters? Why does Mackenzie’s dad barely have a role in the story? Instead, the story’s focuses too much on nehiyaw beliefs in the afterlife and the importance of dreams, which means Bad Cree does not balance the two parts of the story very well. I feel that the supernatural element of the story was built up too much and then it ended too easily to be satisfying.