The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
By Stephen Graham Jones
Copy of ebook provided by Netgalley

First thoughts on beginning the book: This is going to a very bad place. Yep, it went there. Oh wait, Look it goes even further.

Final impressions: Incredible storytelling on it’s own even without the horror. Deeply unsettling.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is deeply unsettling.

It is not my daughter’s vampire. No sparkles here.

No delicate pin pricks on the throat.

In fact, no throat.

Clues to Good Stabs nature are revealed in small pieces, each adding adding to the sense of inescapable doom.

The book is an absolute horror.

It is a return of the classic horrifying vampire, not seducing by beauty, seducing as a predator.

Note: Do yourself a favor. Read both the “Dear Reader” and the “Acknowledgements”. Both contain a wealth of information about Dr. Jones creative process

Recommend: Yes. Exceptional storytelling. Horror on many levels.

Ratings:
Characters ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I will be using The Book Club Journal by Weldon Owen as my templates for my reviews from here on.

@Netgalley #StephenGrahamJones #GoodStabs

Thank you to Saga Press for my gifted copy!

SGJ is one of my favorite authors. No one can whisk me away like him. No one can craft a rich horror story with heart like he can. So when I saw his forthcoming novel, it was all I could think about. I was lucky enough to be one of the few to receive a physical advanced reader copy, and I treasured it. I set the stage for me to be able to fully enjoy this book, because that’s what SGJ deserves. But oh, how I struggled with The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. It wasn’t even Good Stab’s narration I struggled with, it was the Lutheran priest’s. It was so full. That’s something SGJ usually succeeds with. Fleshing out this full bodied story. But the language really made it hard for me to get into. That said, this was clearly a me issue, and I hope that this book is well received, because SGJ it’s one of the most prolific writers I’ve ever had the honor of reading.

Stephen Graham Jones is an author with fantastic premises for books that sound like a perfect book for me but sadly they never connect. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is again a great premise blending vampires with true history but I felt never connected with me. As a history lover, I enjoy Jones implementation of true events but I feel that he wants to be Jordan Peele or even Ryan Coogler but never pops like those stories do.

Etsy Beaucarne is a Communications professor who lives a quiet personal life with her cat, but when her great-grandfather's journal is discovered in an excavation. A Lutheran pastor in the relatively new settlement of Miles City, Montana, Arthur Beaucarne lives a peaceful life, giving sermons every Sunday and enjoying treats gifted to him by his parishioners. That is until Good Stab, a Blackfeet native, arrives at his pews, asking the man of the cloth to hear his confession. Good Stab is a well-spoken man with a few quirks--he always wears darkened glasses, he never eats or drinks anything that Arthur offers him, and despite his youthful appearance, he claims that he is in his eighties. While he's apprehensive to hear Good Stab's confession, he believes the man could have some knowledge about the bodies that have been showing up around the prairie--skinned all over except for their faces, which have been painted yellow and black.

'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter' is not an easy book to describe, nor is it an easy read in general. It's a long book with three different narrators, sprawling over centuries with plentiful side characters and settings, historically accurate portrayals of racism and colonialism, and what is one of the most interesting takes on vampires I've read in a while. Good Stab contracts vampirism from a caged man in a wagon train, and while he can drink the blood of any living creature, too much will cause him to begin taking on the appearance of that animal. Too many deer means he'll grow antlers, too many mice means his nose will stick out and he'll grow whiskers, and most devastatingly--a diet of white trappers and soldiers means he begins looking like a white man. It leads to some great twists, as well as a horrifying reason for Good Stab to feast on his own.

Even though it took me a long time to get through this book, I enjoyed my time with it. The body horror and gore was scary, but the history of the Marias Massacre was even more horrific. While the ending felt a little drawn out, it was overall satisfying and made the book better than if it had ended at an earlier point. It's definitely a story I'll remember for a long time.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is an incredibly creative twist on the classic vampire novel. I loved Good Stab and the underlying theme of redress for the inhumane treatment of the Indigenous People of the Americas, as well as the whitewashing of history and the ingrained racism a surprisingly large number of people don't even recognize.

In 1912, in Montana, a Lutheran pastor's church stands as the last outpost of supposed civilization—until a Blackfeet man named Good Stab arrives with a dark confession. Stephen Graham Jones's "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" transforms this historical frontier setting into a crucible where supernatural horror collides with the all-too-human violence of America's westward expansion. Within the church's isolation, prayers echo against empty pews while old sins refuse to stay buried beneath the prairie snow.

The novel's central tension emerges from the arrival of Good Stab, a Blackfeet man whose presence in Pastor Arthur Beaucarne's parish disrupts the fragile peace of post-frontier Montana. Their encounters spiral into a complex meditation on guilt, survival, and the price of reconciliation. A century later, the discovery of Beaucarne's journals by his descendant Etsy adds another dimension to this tale of historical reckoning.

Jones excels at crafting an atmosphere of creeping unease. Within the forgotten church's walls, rot spreads beneath floorboards while winter storms howl through gaps in the weathered siding. The author's prose shifts between stark brutality and moments of dark poetry, particularly in passages describing the Montana landscape: empty prairies stretch toward the horizon like a burial shroud. At the same time, abandoned homesteads stand as monuments to failed dreams of conquest.

The novel refuses to offer easy categorization. While supernatural elements manifest in increasingly disturbing ways, horror often emerges from human actions - both historical and immediate. Jones weaves together Native American folklore, frontier violence, and psychological terror into a narrative that defies conventional genre boundaries. Good Stab's sections particularly shine, his voice carrying echoes of oral storytelling traditions that contrast sharply with Beaucarne's formal journal entries.

The structure mirrors the story's thematic complexity. Rather than following a linear path, the narrative moves like a shadow through time, each section casting new light on events while deepening the surrounding darkness. This approach creates a reading experience where certainty remains elusive—what appears supernatural might have historical roots, while seemingly mundane moments carry hints of ancient powers.

"The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" demands patience and attention. Its horror builds through accumulation rather than sudden shocks, though moments of visceral violence punctuate the slow-burning dread. The novel's engagement with historical trauma and cultural identity elevates it beyond simple scares while never losing sight of its genre foundations.

"The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" is not a novel that offers clean resolutions or comfortable morality. Instead, it presents a dark mirror to America's frontier mythology, where the lines between hunter and hunted blur with each fresh snowfall. For readers willing to follow Jones into these shadowed territories, "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" offers a unique fusion of historical weight and supernatural dread.

The novel speaks most strongly to those interested in horror that engages with cultural memory and historical violence. While fans of Jones's earlier work, "The Only Good Indians," will recognize his ability to blend cultural specificity with genre innovation, "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" charts new territory in style and scope. It establishes itself as a distinct meditation on how the past haunts the present and how some debts demand more than mere blood for repayment.

This review is of an advance reader copy provided by NetGalley and Saga Press. It is currently scheduled for release on March 18, 2025.

Thank you for the chance to read and review The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

I recently discovered Stephen Graham Jones when he was at the Portland Literary Festival. I was so excited to find an author who writes thought provoking horror from the indigenous perspective. This book so much fun to read as it was delivered through letters, newspaper articles, etc. Along with the fright and horror he weaves in a lot of historical fiction. A must read for any fan.

Interesting in premise, I found the writing to be hard to follow and I was not a fan of the main character. there were one or two supporting characters that stood out to me but all in all, one that I will not revisit.

I'm a real fan of Stephen Graham Jones, and he's built a very solid foundation in his past work, especially the Indian Lake series. I was so excited to get the chance to read this one, because the blurb looked great.

But I was very surprised when this one grabbed me by the throat and kept me engaged and riveted throughout what ended up being an incredibly wild ride. I can't point toward a horror novel I've read over the past several years, in all sincerity. The characters are deeply flawed and deeply fascinating. The common tropes of this type of story (without spoiling anything) aren't present here, but Jones has done an incredible job of creating his own archetypes and sticking with them until the (shocking) end. I'm still thinking about this book even now, weeks after finishing it. I can't rant enough about the beats throughout this story, the way it kept me on the edge of my seat, and the way it all wrapped up. Amazing stuff. READ THIS BOOK!

This is a hard book to review because while I personally did not enjoy it, it is objectively really well written/researched and has an interesting storyline. I think for me, the issue was the pace. I felt like it was a bit too slow for my liking and there were times where I took issues with the voice. The violence also took a bit too much out of me (which is accurate for the time in a way so I don’t want to complain too much there) but by around the 60% mark, I felt a bit overwhelmed by it all.

I do still highly recommend this to fans of the author and the historical horror genre, I think a lot of people are going to really enjoy this one, even if it wasn’t my personal cup of tea.

This was a deeply horrifying, unsettling and masterfully crafted horror novel. The scariest stories are the ones that interweave real events, and real people.. This was my first Stephen Graham Jones after having many of his books of my TBR list for years. While the subject matter is incredibly tragic, it is also very necessary for readers to read. Invaluable addition to the horror genre and one of the best horror books this year already. Will definitely be purchasing this one for our popular reads section at my work library.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts together about this book. It was interesting, beautifully written, and tough as all hell to get through. It is an excellent book, but very challenging, and I feel like it would be wrong to say that I "enjoyed" it. The vampire lore is some of the most unique and interesting that I've read. I love it when an author can take a familiar concept and make it entirely their own, and Stephen Graham Jones succeeds in spades. Emotionally, though, it chewed me up and spit me out. 4.5 stars

I continue to be in awe of Stephen Graham Jones. Everything I've had the opportunity to read by him has been incredibly visceral. The writing embeds itself into your heart just a little bit. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is of course no exception. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy. I've already got my physical copy preordered and I can't wait to add it to my shelf.

The story has a great premise but seems to be lacking in the execution. Stephen Graham Jones proves he is quite knowledgeable when it comes to the history of this time period. I was excited to start this one but it was so difficult to slog through. I felt like I was reading a history text book instead of a horror novel. The beginning of the story does next to nothing to pull you in and just feels like you are sitting in a classroom.

This is an excellent novel that offers a truly unique intervention into the vampire tradition. It is grounded in its world and expects the reader to do the work to understand that world. This is one of my favorite things to chew on in a piece of fiction, working with the writer to put things together and make connections as their narrative goes on. Stephen Graham Jones is an excellent dance partner in this.

Whew. I was intrigued by the premise and sucked into this book. What a haunting, horrifying, and riveting read. I love a good vampire book (who doesn’t) and this one offered a different, if not more compelling, take on the being. Don’t get me wrong, there were parts that left me grimacing - this is a story of revenge - but it was a compelling and heartbreaking read. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book!

This is a really well done, well written novel - I wasn't sure about the two frame settings at first but it does pay off. Good Stab is also just a fantastic, complex, tragic character to read about. That said, the content is pretty dark - it's based on a historical massacre and goes into the atrocities committed against the Native tribes of that area. One of the frame stories also features the POV of a racist white man. There's also a lot of animal killing (I mean, as you would expect from the title) and animal TW <spoiler>skinning of buffalo while they're still alive</spoiler>. While I would definitely recommend this, it's not something I would re-read.

I'm a pretty big SGJ fan already. He's had a miss or two, but on the whole, I enjoy his books. But this one might as well have a book jacket blurb that says, "Jones' best so far!" Because it truly is.

Although it does retain the native element for which he's known, that's where the similarities to his other books end. This was something totally different and refreshingly new for him. Its closest competitor would be "The Only Good Indians," but honestly, this one blows that one out of the water.

It's a slow burn, but it's 100% worth it.

There are a few trigger warnings: mostly animal deaths. So be aware of that going in.

But if you can get past that and a few other TW, this book is a truly spectacular read. The characters are incredibly fleshed out, and the fact that the story intertwines real-life history with the narrative is just so good. I also love the interesting take on vampires Jones decided on. (Don't worry -- they don't sparkle in the sun!) They do, however, do things that you don't see very often in vampire lore.

I could go on about this book for ages, but really, I can sum up my review in these 8 words: I have nothing but love for this book.

The premise of this book sounded amazing. It just wasn't for me. I found it to be very slow and difficult to get through and stay engaged. I like Stephen Graham Jones, but he has been hit or miss for me.

“This, I believe, is the story of America, told in a forgotten church in the hinterlands, with a choir of the dead mutely witnessing.”

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was a heavy story, which I read mostly at night with the covers pulled over my head. Until I had to get up and turn on a light, that is, because I was so thoroughly creeped out.

It was clear from the beginning that Stephen Graham Jones took his research seriously. Good Stab’s language from the 19th century was fascinating, and I had to stop myself from looking up every word, place, and event mentioned in the novel in order to immerse myself in the story.

At times I loathed this book, which seemed to drag on and on, especially in the first half. But I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about it and wanting to talk about it. This story was so much more than I imagined, and I found myself repeatedly surprised by its twists and turns, but also its soul-crushing depth.

When it comes to Stephen Graham Jones, I would read anything he writes without reading a word of the synopsis, and that’s how I recommend going into the Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Know that the journey will at times be arduous, but the story unfolds in such a satisfying way. This was a book that kept me up at night, at times because it was so creepy, but mostly because I was so invested in the story.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter spun a tale of unimaginable horror and filled me with such gut-wrenching sadness for the historical treatment of Native Americans. While not a happy story, this is one that will stick with me for years to come.