A Blackfeet named Good Stab. A gluttonous Lutheran pastor. A 400+ year old “CatMan” with a grudge. Be prepared to experience a vampire tale like never before….

When Pastor Arthur Beaucarne’s journal is found lodged in the wall of church during modern day construction, it’s soon discovered that it contains a detailed confession like no other. When the pastor’s great-great granddaughter begins to ask questions as to why the Pastor suddenly disappeared in 1912, she soon finds that she may be getting more than she expected.

From there, we travel back to that time to Miles City, Montana, where a ghastly scene unfolds with a very unusual death. Someone - or something - is bleeding the townspeople dry. When Blackfeet Good Stab suddenly shows up at the pastor’s sermons and wants to share his confession, Beaucarne soon comes to suspect that he is behind it all - but is he?

This story then goes even further back, and submerges the reader into an exquisitely detailed account of Good Stab’s life from boyhood on, unfolding a truly heartbreaking and horrifying tale of death and revenge. This is also a journey of grief, putting the reader on the front lines of the atrocities that took place against the indigenous nations, the land and its beautiful creatures.

Filled with lore and legend, superstition and suspense, mystery and murder, guilt and gore, I can say without hesitation that I loved every word, every incredible detail of this historical masterpiece. Jones pulls you in, locks you in and doesn’t let go - and while you’re unpeeling and unpacking all of the layers, he makes you feel it all.

I can’t stop thinking about this and probably won’t for some time. This is my new favorite from Dr Jones.

This chilling historical horror novel plunges you into the stark landscape of 1912. Most of the narrative is from a journal of a Lutheran Priest, Arthur Beaucarne. It is tellings of a confession told to him by Good Stab, a Blackfeet man. It is of a vampire haunting the Blackfeet reservation. Getting revenge for his people who were tied to a brutal massacre of 217 Blackfeet.
A combination of horror and historical fiction that is chilling and thought provoking. It did lull at times and I also had moments of confusion. But this is definitely an interesting take of vampires.

Truly amazing, I think its his best yet, it had echoes of anne rice, loved the mesh of history and signature dark humour of SGJ, this is dense, but that's not a criticism, it felt like a much longer book, again not a criticism, rich and decadent and I was fully absorbed the entire time whilst reading

I've been really interested in native americans' history recently, and i've always been a big fan of the horror genre—wether it's a book or a movie—so this was just perfect for me.

The story is told beautifully, and I also found the more historical parts very interesting. They shed light on profoundly sad events of America's history, and it is what makes it, in my opinion, an important read and I recommend it to anyone (even if they don't like horror) to read it.

It is far from a light and easy read, though. It is complex and heavy, and I would advise everyone to read a bit about the maria's massacre and to check the trigger warnings of this book prior to reading it.

However, i found it a bit confusing sometimes, and i had to go back and re-read many passages because I just kept forgetting what had happened, and a lot happened.

This book gave 100% Stephen Graham Jones. I love how it combined the horror of history with native Americans and a side of dark humor. His books always keep my attention

What a story. There are so many ways I can describe this novel: tragic, horrific, scary, morose, thrilling, violent, informative, epic - but the most apt description, I think, is simply that it's a modern-day classic. Or, rather, it's destined to be one, and to take its place alongside such towering horror works as Stephen King's The Stand or Dan Simmons' The Terror.

Stephen Graham Jones takes readers back to 1912, where a gluttonous pastor in Montana is approached by an enigmatic Blackfeet tribesman with an aversion to sunlight, who wishes to tell the pastor of his history - a history that may connect the two men in unexpected ways.

The book features the most unique take on vampires I have read in a long time, if ever. I won't spoil it here, but the author's blending of traditional vampire traits with other horror elements works very well, and he uses it to good effect.

The exploration of this time period is unsettling, and the idea of a Native American vampire roaming the Montana plains seeking revenge on both buffalo hide hunters and the creature that turned him into a monster is unsettling - from a supernatural perspective, and even moreso from a history perspective.

The characters of Good Stab and Arthur Beaucarne are deeply flawed, with both suffering their own regrets and addiction issues. In more ways than either would care to admit, they are alike, and neither is the "good guy" in this situation. The story is told from both character's perspectives, and both have a unique voice that draws you in.

There are incredibly thrilling moments, as well (moments with a cannon and with a buffalo stampede come to mind). And beyond all that, for someone who is not Native American, the book is very informative about things like the Blackfeet's culture and beliefs.

My criticisms are minor but affected the book from getting the perfect 5-star rating. The pacing can drag a bit, with multiple large passages dedicated simply to Good Stab surviving on the plains. There are chapters that are long, taking over an hour to read in some cases, where things play out slowly.

The ending is a bit overdrawn, and Stephen Graham Jones had the opportunity to end the story on an absolute gut-punch but decided to push through a few more chapters in order to wrap up a third, minor character's storyline. Don't get me wrong, the ending is still good, but there's a missed opportunity to really leave the audience in an emotional bind.

Absolutely check this novel out, especially if this sounds up your alley. At 448 pages, it's a bit of a commitment, but one well worth taking. The author has produced his best work yet, a story that serves as an effective vampire tale, but even more effectively as a reflection of American history and one of its darkest corners.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC!

4.5/5

🦬🩸🏹Unvergänglich🏹🩸🦬

"What I am is the Indian who can't die. I'm the worst dream America ever had. "

What a journey this book was!

Interview with a vampire meets American Buffalo and collides with John Wick.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2025, and not only did it live up to the hype. It surpassed it.

It reads epidosodically, a slow burn, world building and historically rich narration in journey entries from the journal of a sweet toothed Lutheran Pastor Arthur Beaucarne aka Three-Persons, in the late 1800's that goes from documenting his mundane life to the increasing disturbing "incidents" in his community of Miles City, Montana. One day, he meets a "Indian", Good Stab, who comes to service on Sunday, and soon after, he begins to record his story. The journal is later found by a day worker and given to his granddaughter, Etsy, in 2012. And the story takes off.

It was so good and immersive, the narration and language took me a little to get used to, but it is part of the journey and immersing into the book itself. If you wish for a simple read, with no note taking it, this book isn't for you. There will be notes on history, names, places, and soooo many quotes.

My two favorite ones were the one in the top and later on this one.

"You can't stop a country from happening, Good Stab."

"But we were already a nation," he said up to me. "We didn't ask you to come.

If you enjoy a historic read, a good world building and immersive, and heavily cinematic, I recommend this.

I already have loved all three prior books I've read from Stephen Graham Jones, and this makes the fourth one, five starts all.

I would love to thank NetGalley, Saga Press, and Stephen Graham Jones for the privilege to read and review this e-book ARC! Can't wait to read more!

“The depravity of man’s heart knows no floor, and everyone in this hard country has a sordid chapter in the story of their life, that they’re trying either to atone for, or stay ahead of. It’s what binds us one to the other.”
THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones is beautifully harrowing and I do not feel worthy of being able to review it. I humbly present the following but just know that my words are incredibly inadequate.
It all begins with a construction worker finding an old journal hidden away at a demolition site. The fragile journal is taken in to be studied and we get to read the story along with the great-great-great granddaughter of the journal’s author. This epistolary story tells of a pastor in a small Montana town in 1912 and the confession of Good Stab, a member of the Blackfeet Nation.
SGJ has created remarkably realistic characters and setting which make it all the more difficult for you to let go. I found myself wondering about Arthur and Good Stab any time that I could not be with them. I savored this book, not wanting to rush the agonizing horror as it was unfolding. I audibly gasped a few times while things fell into place for me.
The prose is timeless and it was so easy to get lost in the story. I became comfortable with the names that the Blackfeet used and the story played before my eyes like a cold dream.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is an intricately involved weaving of layers and layers of confession from one who is fully owning their guilt and from one who is icing in denial. This is probably my new favorite from Jones.

Coming March 18th from Saga Press

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephan Graham Jones shows us why he’s one of the most innovative voices in horror today. This isn’t just another vampire story, it’s a unique collection of historical fiction, horror and social commentary.

The writing is lyrical and visceral, immersing readers in a world where the lines between predator and prey blur in unexpected ways.

What sets this story apart is that it reimagines the vampire mythos through an Indigenous lens, transforming familiar tropes into something richer and more meaningful. Every scene builds tension, every detail matters, and by the end, you realize just how masterfully Jones has pulled the threads together.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is an absolute must-read.

DNF I’ve tried 4 times to read this and have fallen asleep each time. This is incredibly dry and boring and this is coming from someone who loves history and grew up in the largest native population in the Midwest and worked at my colleges indigenous museum. I got about 14% in before I gave up. There are no vampires yet but I’m guessing the story would be bland anyways as I’m not reading a book but reading the alleged MC’s great grandfathers journal. Synopsis is a huge let down to what this is.

This was a dark and dense novel, got sorta weird towards the end, in a creative writing type of way. I really appreciate this type of storytelling, and while I might not have understood everything that was happening, it was very good.

The story of Arthur Beaucarne and Good Stab told in an epistolary style took a bit to get used to, it almost seemed like jumbled journal entries but there is method to the madness. Reflecting on the history of Blackfeet and the Pikuni people, tragic and violent suffering of Native Americans in general cannot be diminished. Being killed just for who they are or what land they occupy, just because the white man wants it. It hurts. The details of the violent themes were very gruesome at times and I had to pause my reading couple times.

While the historical aspects are inspired by realistic events, the horror fiction really is a presence of its own. I found those parts very engaging and had me theorizing about reincarnation and the blood connections in Etsy’s chapters. Very mind bending stuff.

Do not skip the acknowledgements, I really liked learning about Jones’ inspiration behind the story, the research and certain plot lines, very creative. 4.5⭐️

The writing style is unique and definitely takes some time to get into, but once you do, the stories become deeply engaging. The premise is captivating, and the descriptions and setting are immersive and intriguing. Though I didn't connect with the characters right away, I could see their potential and the emotional depth that might unfold as the story progresses. It's a book that requires patience, but the reward is certainly there for those who stick with it. I'll definitely consider picking it back up in the future!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
I would say that this is Jones’s most surprising work to date, but that would a lie: Stephen Graham Jones constantly surprises me with the breadth and depth of his storytelling. What this is is his most ambitious work to date. Marketed as a Lutheran pastor’s recounting of the confessions of a sunglass-wearing Blackfeet man, Good Stab, in early 1900s Montana, this novel is part historical fiction—centering on the Marias Massacre—and part vampire horror; it also is part nested narrative. A one hundred year old journal finds its way into the hands of Etsy Beaucarne, a university professor in communications and journalism. In the transcription of the manuscript, she comes to realize the connections between Good Stab’s confessions and her own great-great-grandfather’s quest for absolution. Many thanks to @sagapressbooks for the ability to read early with this ARC.

a modern master of horror and literature has given us such a gift with this story. so frightening and timely.

Every time I think I have read Stephen Graham Jones' masterpiece, he produces another heartfelt, heartrending, heartswelling novel that I love, admire, and agonize over deep into the night. With The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, SGJ dives into historical fiction for a vampire story unlike any other. At times the language and imagery were so beautiful it felt like I was watching an opera. I told my daughter this book also reminded me of a dark telenovela because it's about revenge, which in the face of genocide, is really a cry for justice. I'm blown away by this author's genius. As per usual, his acknowledgments made me tearful.

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians is a chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones."

Yes to revenge for those who deserve it the most.

Set in 1912 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a gruesome historical horror novel about a Lutheran Priest, Native Americans and a man turned into a monster.

I found Stephen Graham Jones’ writing to be quite addicting here. This is not a typical type of story for me, I don’t read historical horror, but it was a captivating story. Reading about the Native Americans stories made me want to dive into the history on my own time. Some of this story is based on the Marias Massacre in 1870, I would suggest reading about that before or during your reading of this novel. What drew me to the story was the vampire and he did not disappoint. He was a terrifying, horrific monster and some of his chapters were difficult to read. There are some really horrific scenes in this story. What made them more scary was some of it is based on real events. I liked reading the journal articles from the lutheran Priest’s perspective and how he navigated dealing with the vampire.

This is a long book that is sometimes difficult to get through. Some of the violence meshed together a bit and the end was a little strange for me, I could have done without the chapters with the journalist at the end. Overall, if you are up for a wild ride are a Stephen Graham Jones fan then I would pick this up.

Thank you to Saga Press for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Nobody writes like that Stephen Graham Jones. That’s not hyperbole, just simple fact. Jones’s voice and style is unique, and his stories unfold in an intensely conversational way, utilizing stream of consciousness, occasional tangents, and prose and dialogue that can prove circuitous and sometimes confusing until an act or deed provides clarity (or the reader just figures it out on their own). As a Blackfeet Native American writer, Jones brings the oral tradition of Indigenous storytelling to his writing, and in doing so has carved out a distinct and special space within the horror genre, writing books that are unlike anything else out there.

His style makes for a comfortable bedfellow with the epistolary technique, with The Buffalo Hunter Hunter unfolding across a series of journal entries from 1912, many of which concern the life of Blackfeet Indian Good Stab and the events of 1870 and the years following that made him the undead man he is. Good Stab has come to the church of Lutheran pastor Arthur Beaucarne, who records the confessions shared with him over a handful of months. The overarching mystery, of course, is why Good Stab has chosen Beaucarne as his confessor and what unites these two men, especially as skinned corpses are discovered in the snowy banks around Miles City, Montana.

On the surface, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a revenge-driven vampire story. The afflicted Good Stab hunts the mountains and prairies for those who have attacked his people and who are hunting buffalo in an effort to eliminate the Native’s dependent on the animals for their survival. There’s plenty of bloody violence, of course, befitting a 21st Century vampire book, but there’s a heck of a lot more going on between the covers here.

What The Buffalo Hunter Hunter really is, is a piece of history being told through the lens of slow-burn historical horror. It’s America’s story, of land stolen, of murders committed, of genocide enacted in the name of white supremacy, as told by the victims of a nation founded on their blood and tears. As one character writes late in the proceedings, “This is an Indian story…and you’re on Indian land whether you admit it or not.” And the vampiric Good Stab, well, he’s “the Indian who can’t die…. the worst dream America ever had.”

Jones’s latest certainly arrives a timely moment with contemporary American politics being what they are. Right-wing school boards and Moms Against Literacy orgs across the country have, for years now, been working to strip history classes of actual historical content and ban books from their libraries in an effort to help make white America even more coddled and unchallenged by facts, the existence of other races and cultures, and the sins of our forefathers. Rather than confront the multifaceted truths of America’s heritage and legacy, the answer of these fascist-loving nutjobs is to sanitize and whitewash the past and silence everyone else. All of which helps make The Buffalo Hunter Hunter a necessary and vital breath of fresh air, as well as a reminder about the power of truth in fiction and the importance of reading diverse voices. It’s awfully crazy that in order to get a better understanding of American history in 2025 and the horrors inflicted upon Indigenous peoples we have to turn to a vampire book, but that’s where we’re at nowadays in post-truth USA where simple facts are decried as woke and evil.

There’s a necessary and righteous undercurrent of anger at the (un)beating and deeply empathetic heart of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter as Jones challenges readers to confront one’s complictness in a violent and ugly past. This may be Jones at his absolute best, too, reminding readers of just how potent a literary powerhouse he can be. By the time he lays all his cards on the table late in the game, it’s one hell of an emotional sucker-punch that has been preceded by a number of incredible moments that eventually give way to startling revelation. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter has long, sharp teeth to sink into readers, but more importantly, it forces you to think and feel. If you disagree, you might want to check your pulse.

Stephen Graham Jones writing vampires? Well, yes. Absolutely. This book had me in a chokehold, I couldn't put it down. It's gripping, raw, and incredibly intense. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a fascinating character study. Stephen Graham Jones has such a talent for writing characters that feel real and grounded in reality, even when they might be something otherworldly. I wish I could read this again for the first time.

*The Buffalo Hunter Hunter* by Stephen Graham Jones is a dark, gripping read that mixes history with horror. Etsy, a scholar, finds an old journal written by her great-great-grandfather, a priest who vanished in 1912. The journal tells the story of Good Stab, a man seeking revenge for the 1870 Marias Massacre. The book is bloody, intense, and full of twists. It’s a fresh take on vampire lore that’ll keep you hooked and leave you thinking long after you finish.