Savage Lake by Nick Medina Review: The Rules Won’t Save You

Nick Medina’s fourth novel, Savage Lake, follows a mother and her horror-obsessed teenage son who return to a family cabin on Torchlight Lake after the father’s death. A roadblock on Native land traps them there for weeks. The story alternates between the present and 1999, exploring a family secret from that year involving the mother’s brother. Oscar, the son, applies slasher film rules to his situation, unaware he is in the wrong narrative. The novel combines slasher tropes, Anishinaabe lore, and themes of grief and family deception. Medina incorporates multiple horror elements—a ghost story, Bigfoot hunt, and cursed water—but centers on human cruelty and racism. The title references the word settlers used for Indigenous peoples, while the Sabe creature draws from Anishinaabe teachings about honesty. The reviewer rates it five stars, calling it Medina’s finest work and comparing it to Stephen Graham Jones’s My Heart Is a Chainsaw.

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