It’s not hard to find a vampire story these days, but it is hard to find one that hits you like this.

There’s not another vampire I can remember reading about, or watching on screen, whose story felt as personal as this one. So often we see a vampire story only through the eyes of the people that live in fear of those nocturnal monsters. They’re stories of us vs. them, humans vs. something that left its humanity behind long ago.

But we experience so much of this story through the eyes of the vampire, the nachzehrer The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. We see how Good Stab tries so desperately to hang onto the man that he was. We see that he can’t, not entirely. Not after how he’s been changed, not with the way the world he lives in is changing around him. We see the pieces of himself that he has to sacrifice, the lines he has to cross. We see why he does it all, what drives him to become a terror. And we’re reminded that fangs and a thirst for blood are far from the biggest reason that a vampire can be so terrifying. Because Good Stab is far from the only monster in this story, and far from the worst.

Reading this story feels a lot like walking through some desolate, abandoned, western town. You know the feeling if you’ve ever wandered through any abandoned place, like you’re surrounded by ghosts. There’s the ghost of who Good Stab once was. There’s the ghost of his people’s past, when they were still striving. There’s the ghost of what America used to be like when the buffalo used to roam as free as the native tribes, before the white man came and changed everything. It’s desolate and bleak, a heavy weight that settles on you as you read.

Fans of Stephen Graham Jones will recognize him at his best in this novel. The creeping, unsettling horror that he does so well. The struggles that the indigenous people have been faced with ever since Europeans decided to make America a colonized land. It’s all here, everything that makes him a master of his craft, a gory treasure sandwiched between these covers. It’ll sink into you, it’ll eat at you, and it’ll be worth it.

Stephen Graham Jones does it again in the historical horror novel, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed how everything flowed in the historical period. I enjoyed the use of vampires and how the story unfolded. It had that element that I was expecting and was glad everything had that feel that I was looking for.

An excellently written novel for those who like their horror along the lines of Blood Meridian or The Terror.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

SGJ hits the high note EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. This was historical fiction and horror told partially through an interview lens, diary entries, and anecdotes and I absolutely loved it. I found this to be complex but in the absolute best way and the layers of the story were so impressively written that I just flew through this book. I really have a deep appreciation for Jones' commitment to telling Indigenous stories but the cinematic element that he weaves into the story make it compulsive and impossible to put down. This was his best work yet, in my opinion. Five stars.

Holy moly I started this book and didn’t stop until I reached the ending. SGJ has written good books in the past, but this - THIS - is on another level. Not only does he bring something new to the vampire genre, but I do believe he’s written a vampire classic. This is going to be one of the most talked about books of 2025. Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read early!

Stephen Graham Jones has done it again. This book is an absolutely masterpiece. Taking the vampire mythos and making it completely his own, Jones has made a vital piece of fiction that should be read, studied, and passed down for generations. This book brings in a tragic real life incident and just builds so much around it, creating a Shakespeare level revenge story that absolutely wrecked me in the best possible way. Shortlisted for the best book of 2025.

I will never shut up about this book. NEVER. SGJ knows how to use the dagger, then dig it in and twist it. There is so much to unpack here but this book gets all the stars from me. Thank you so much to Saga Press books for sending me a manuscript ARC copy a couple of months ago. Also thank you NetGalley for the eARC. For those SGJ fans out there, you do not want to miss this one so check it out when it publishes March 18, 2025.