I'm so pleased to see what Stephen Graham Jones is doing for horror right now, getting it on the shelves at big box stores, bringing it to a wider audience, making them check out obscure slasher movies from the 70s. All that and more. Thing is, it might just be time to accept his work doesn't agree with me. I'd like it to, like when you eye up an ad for a spicy burrito, and think maybe this time it'll work out. Alas.
The epistolary nature of this one is intriguing, and some of the ideas revolving around how vampires change depending on their food source, and choices that must be made, treatment because of it, they are as unique as they are fascinating. For me, what it comes down to is execution. I found the book murky and bloated, hard to follow at times, and even when it wasn't, not riveting to make me want to pick it right back up. I recognize that some of these issues are there very thing Jones's regular readers eat up, so if you enjoyed The Only Good Indians or I Was a Teenage Slasher, you might absolutely fall in love with this book. It just wasn't for me, and that's okay.

This is a brilliant, unique take on vampires, with the potential to become a future classic. I will start off by stating that you have to be in the right mindset for this if you are not used to reading historical fiction, with a very unique execution. This is told in an epistolary structure, from a pastor in the early 1900s whose dialogue is old fashioned and long winded. This was heartwrenching, brutal, eye-opening, and terrifying. The descriptions were vivid, allowing the reader to capture the atmosphere and imageries throughout. This wasn't just a horror story. This was a beautifully written tale of injustice and retribution. Four and a half stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Saga Press, for this ARC.

This was my first SGJ read and WOW! I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to pick up one of his books! I had also forgotten how much I love historical fiction before reading.

I loved that each character’s pov/Good Stab’s stories were written in their own unique voice. They were all such vastly different characters and their entries showed it.

I really felt in Arthur and Etsy’s heads during their sections. They didn’t glance over things or keep things strictly to the point. I liked how their side thoughts and emotions came through as well.

That ending? Perfection!
Everything came full circle and ended exactly how I hoped it would.

There’s not much I can say about Buffalo Hunter Hunter that hasn’t been said already, but I will still share my two cents 😅.

Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a story written in an epistolary format featuring 3 pov’s: Etsy Beaucarne, a professor struggling to make tenure who comes across her great-great-grandfather’s letters, Arthur Beaucarne, Etsy’s great-great-grandfather and also Lutheran pastor and Good Stab, a Blackfeet native/vampire.

Here’s what I loved about the story:
* This felt fresh. It didn’t remind me of any vampire novels I have read in the past and I loved a lot of the specificities of being a vampire (like you turn into whatever you’ve been feasting on most!)
* Loved the revenge portion of this story
* Loved (well not loved - you know what I mean 😅)the historical aspect of this. It made me get lost in a research rabbit hole of the Marias massacre and made me place holds at my library for more books from the native perspective about the atrocities inflicted upon them by the U.S. government.
* Really loved that each character was consistently themselves and easily identifiable. I was never lost as to who was speaking - every character has their own voice, tone, even vocabulary and that is important for world-building and reader immersion.

My only qualm about this novel is that I am still not 100% sure I needed Etsy’s POV in it. I think for me, the novel would have been more impactful if it was left off at the last letter from Arthur and he was never seen/heard from again. It would have let the reader make up his fate.

Overall though, this book was very entertaining, the characters will stick with you and I think it’s an amazing historical horror.

Stephen Graham Jones absolutely knocks it out of the park every time. This is a hard book to give a quick summary of. It's a story within a story within a story -- an oral story from a member of the Blackfeet tribe, as related to a Lutheran minister living in Montana Territory in 1912, framed within his written diary that finds its way to a descendant in 2013. But by the time you get to the end, it becomes apparent that it's not always clear where one person's story ends and another person's story begins, and in a country like the United States of America where the horrific sins of the past are never dead and buried but remain ever-present and very much a part of our current narrative, it's not even clear if some stories have an ending at all. There are some parts of this book that may require patience on the part of the reader, but it absolutely pays off. This is one of the most exciting and engaging books I've read this year.

Like with any SGJ novel, the foundation of the plot is laid down deep, roots set and all. He is a master at story telling, and leaves no stone unturned, no detail is missing, no plot lines go incomplete. Typical for me, it takes a while for me to get into it, solely because of the amount of detail - it’s a lot to take in and I have to make notes for my ADHD brain - but let me tell you the payout is so damn worth it.

I loved this story, retribution is always an enjoyable storyline for me and indigenous horror in general is a favorite of mine, so I knew once I got going this was going to be so good, aside from the fact that it’s a SGJ novel. I rooted so hard for Good Stab even though he was also kind of a “bad guy” towards the end, I really felt like he was deserved it. This story has so much, there’s a lot of grief and heart break and also a lot of painful history that is overlooked daily. It will definitely remain in my top 10 for the year. It goes without saying that I will read every SGJ novel I can get my hands on, but I do think that it should be a must-read.

Thanks to Saga Press for my ARC. 🖤

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for this digital ARC.

"It's about how bad you wanted to live.

And I wanted to live."

This might be SGJ's best work to date and certainly his most ambitious. It is an incredibly compelling take on a vampire story with a pointedly Indigenous American turn on the trope (harkening to trickster deities such as Coyote and the sanguine folk hero Blod Clot Boy), despite the word "vampire" being using only once throughout its entirety--a feat in and of itself.

"[Pulling the bark from the tree] with the boy was the most Pikuni I had felt since I died from the soldiers in the Backbone."

"'I know you think I drank his blood,' Good Stab said ... but the corruption in him is worse than that other one's flag.'"

SGJ taps into that irresistible horror framing narrative brought forth by Shelley and Stoker before him, the epistolary novel, to give us three distinct voices in shaping the world of *Buffalo Hunter Hunter*. In doing so, he presents an unflinching narrative digging at the corrosive heart at the seat of this country's founding: one of genocide wrought by avarice and desperation; such human, paltry things to justify such atrocities that we see them played out to this day.

Our three narrators are Etsy Beaucarne, our resident researcher who uncovers the document we are reading, Arthur Beaucarne (aka Three-Persons), the author of "The Absolution of Three-Persons," which frames the last narrative section, "The Nachzehrer's Gospel" told via confessional interviews with Good Stab, the titular Buffalo Hunter Hunter. In this we see every extreme of humanity, almost a response to Cormac McCarthy's death-tinged *Blood Meridian*, the wholesale slaughter responded to in kind again and again with a note of vengeance from a voice laced with sharpened teeth.
Take note, Good Stab is a vampire, but one you haven't quite seen before. This morally gray anti-hero will send you through a Miltonian gamut of emotional swings, and you see the same depth expressed within his heart as well.

"I opened my mouth in what I would call pain, but it was deeper. It was all of my sin trying to find a way out."

For those who are new to SGJ or have had trouble with his particular style (that of a slightly meandering barside conversation), this is him at his most readable, and I cannot recommend it more. Perhaps not an entry-level SGJ (*Mongrels* or *Mapping the Interior* might remain my recommendations), but it is a needs must read. I foresee this being taught for many classrooms to come and look forward to doing the same.

A vampire revenge story? Yeah, that’s my favorite niche genre now.

This is one of the hardest books I’ve ever read. The writing takes great concentration and effort to read but once you get in the flow, you feel like part of the story. That is what I love about historical fiction. I was transported to 1912 Montana and that is quite a different world. Very brutal and raw, this story may not be for everyone. So much death and destruction in our country’s history but it is important to remember.

It is written as diary entries following a Pastor named Arthur, a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab, and a professor in present day named Etsy. I loved Good Stab’s POV. Loved learning about the Blackfeet’s culture and customs and the description of Montana’s lands. I am obsessed with this author’s take on a vampire that blends in Native American spirituality and culture.

The story created a buildup of tension and dread that I love in horror. The character arcs are really fleshed out (literally) and I just loved this story.
This is my first book from this author and I will definitely be reading more from him.

Check trigger warnings, there is A LOT of animal abuse and death which made it hard to read at times.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

I’m am at a loss for words. At first, this was hard for me to get into. I’m horrible with history, which is something I want to improve on. I restarted the first few chapters countless times to make sure I had the set up properly built in my head. That completely set me up to enjoy every bit of this marvelous story. Marvelous is a weird word to say considering the subject matter, but wow. Impactful would be a better choice. This is so much more than a vampire story. SGJ does it again. Gives me a skin crawling story that simultaneously teaches me and makes me an emotional wreck. It’s completely engrossing and is not one of those stories that you read and forget.

This was such an incredible book. I loved the epistolary format and through that we were able to learn so much about Good Stab. I trust SGJ to put me into a subgenre I don't normally read (historical fiction) and to bring me to a place of just being absolutely drawn into the story.

Stephen Graham Jones can really give me whiplash. Coming off of "I Was a Teenage Slasher" this was a little challenging to push through, but was an excellent story overall. This one really harkened back to "The Only Good Indians" between the tone and the loads of dead animal imagery, which definitely will not be for everyone.

I really enjoyed this take on the vampire and found the brutality of the circumstances that Good Stab existed within extremely compelling. Weaving together vampirism and the effect that colonizers have had on this continent is really well done and also deeply resonant. Also on a very superficial level, Graham Jones description of Good Stab makes for a fairly iconic vampire character and I would love to see it realized on the big screen.

Much in the same vein as The Only Good Indians, this book dives deep into revenge undertaken on behalf of slaughtered animals. The diary style adds an element of troubling reality, and interspersed with actual historical incidents, becomes a hair raising tale of sadness and loss.

This book was a rough go at times, but pushing through was worth it.  I can't give it five stars, because I really REALLY hated all the Victorian jibjab I had to wade through in the beginning, but I sure had a five star feeling when I got to the ending.  So, if you're struggling with this one, try to push through.  It gets better.

This is clever, a story within a story within a story, and it felt a lot different from what I expect from SGJ.  The framing device here is that Etsy Beaucarne  reads a journal from her great great great grandfather, Pastor Arthur Beaucarne, written in 1912, which is in turn transcribing the life story as told to him by the Blackfeet Native, "Good Stab."  

I really like SGJ's writing style, it's the same in almost all of his books, and I count him as one of my favorite authors.  But in this one he changes it up, and writes in an old-fashioned style befitting a journal written in 1912 when it's Arthur's turn.  What he pulls off is impressive.  But the one thing I'm guaranteed to love in a SGJ book was missing, that wry, cynical, earthy humor.  Etsy's voice and Good Stab's voice were fine, they both contained echoes of SGJ's usual style, but the pastor was insufferable.  I started skimming his bits.

Finally, at around 40%, the story grabbed me, it grabbed me hard enough that I forgot my annoyance with Beaucarne’s stupid verbose style and I finally felt the tension of the townspeople.  Without the framing device, there would have been no tension.  (Too bad I hated Arthur so much.)  I became VERY invested in Good Stab's story.  Then at around 60% the tension ratchets up again, what a slow burn this book is!!!  Finally, I did not want to put it down. (Eventually, I realized, we are probably <i>meant</i> to hate Arthur.)  It kept surprising me.

This is a vengeance tale, but I actually wished for more vengeance. I felt like Good Stab really toed a line when he could have gone batshit.

One of the things I really love about vampire and zombie stories is that the author takes an ancient idea and plays with the rules.  I just really like boundary conditions and all the variations possible within the same boundary conditions.  In this world, vampires drink blood, and can only consume blood; they begin to take on the shape of the creature whose blood was consumed.  None of this is a plot spoiler, but if you want to gradually discover the vampire traits in this novel for yourself, I am spoiler tagging the rest of this paragraph:  <spoiler>They cannot drink blood from a dead animal, and if they drink too much at once their sides will burst open to drain the excess.  After drinking, they go into a sort of food coma for a day.  They still have their soul, so to speak, and are aware of what they are doing, remember their past life, and feel all the usual human emotions.  Their eyes are adjusted to night vision, and are sensitive to sun, but otherwise the sun does not harm them.  Vampires are super fast, but  not super strong, however they have little to no pain response, which allows them to perform amazing feats of strength since they can't feel their arm breaking, for example, when they rip someone open; they heal again once they consume more blood.  Because they can heal from almost anything (even fire), they are effectively immortal.  ("Oh, we can die" says the old one ... but never specifies how.)  They do need to breathe air, however (so I guess you could strangle one to death??), and they have a severe reaction to smoking tobacco.  They have a reflection in mirrors, but they leave no footprints, because they are extremely light, and they can leap long distances.  </spoiler>

<b>NOTE:</b>  many of the events and minor characters described in this book were real events and real people, including Mountain Chief, Owl Child, Major Eugene Baker, Joe Kipp, Joe Cobell, Heavy Runner, Bear Head, and the Marias Massacre.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marias_Massacre

Most of the action in this book takes place in Montana, primarily Miles City, the Blackfeet Reservation, and Glacier National Park.  I assume "the Backbone" is the Dragons Tail mountain ridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_Tail_(Montana).

<b>TW: </b> violence, death, assault, massacre, murder, extreme gore, religious blasphemy, and animal deaths (including dogs, and a shitton of buffalo).  Pretty much what you'd expect from a vampire novel.

<b>GLOSSARY </b> The idea that Good Stab would use other terms to describe animals around him but use regular English for everything else felt clever at first, but it quickly became annoying, because some of the terms were just not clear from context.   I spent  a good chunk of the book thinking a "wags his tail" was a dog, which really confused me, until the description of the young having spots and then I realized it was a white tailed deer.  I needed a glossary, and so I created one for myself (some of this is guesswork):   
Big ear - mule       
black horn - bison    
big dirty face - rat? 
big fish - sturgeon
big head - ox?    
big mouth - wolf    
crawls on his belly - a snake    
dirty face - mouse
hard yellow whitehorn milk - butter   
little big mouth - coyote
Little grass eater - a prairie dog   .    
Long legs- elk   moving shadow - moose    
napikwan - white person  
night caller - owl?    
Nittowsinan - the Pikuni land.
Pikuni - the Blackfeet people involved in this story   
prairie runner - pronghorn      
real bear - grizzly bear   
real lion - cougar  
real meat - buffalo meat    
red back - chipmunk? squirrel?  
sharp back - porcupine
silver fish - trout? salmon?  unclear    
sticky mouth - weasel?   
swift runner -rabbit.    
wags his tail - white tailed deer
whitehorn - domestic cattle   
white real bear - polar bear

This book is so many things. First and foremost, it is a dutiful reclamation of language and place. The Nachezehrer's Dark Gospel does not yield to colonizers' words or claims to name land they stole. It is the most enthralling and well earned revenge story I've ever read. The horrors inflicted upon Three-Persons are nightmarishly delightful. It is a master class in setting, pacing, and tone, a true testament to the power and legitimacy of the horror genre. I believe that Jones will go down in history as one of the greatest to have ever done it. This will be the best book I read this year.

As always, Steven Graham Jones manages to terrify me and make me sob in the same story. The characters were all so interesting to read and watching Good Stab through the years tell his story will stick with me. I'll be looking over my shoulder for giant prairie dogs for a long time.

Some of the writing was hard to get through just because it was two languages being used with little to no explanation on the meanings. Most words were easy to figure out the meaning based on context. I like that he chose a vampire/Indian vengeance story to speak about such dark history for America that doesn’t necessarily get talked about enough. Read trigger warnings because there are a lot of things that happen and can be quite graphic.



Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc for an honest review.

DNF @ 49%

There are so many people with opinions I respect who have only the nicest things to say of Stephen Graham Jones. I understand that he's a hugely beloved author in the Horror space, and also one of the most well regarded Indian authors in genre fiction. I ever so desperately want to enjoy his work.

Unfortunately, this is my third attempt to read from him and I'm still not meshing. I'm not throwing in the towel for good! Mark my words, some day I will totally fall in love with a Stephen Graham Jones book... It's just not gonna be this one.

My hurdles may not be your hurdles, but these are things I generally struggle to read:
- historical fiction
- literary fiction
- slow-paced
- character-driven
- retrospective storytelling framework

Set mostly in 1912, this story is a reminder that the horrors of mankind are never as far in the past as we like to think. The distinctive voices of the three main characters allowed me to enjoy the building tension as I discovered the depth of Good Stab’s story. So I didn’t get bored or antsy waiting for things to pick up. Not at all predictable, which I love, and I appreciate how the author took elements from well known horror novels and made them feel so different. That is so hard to do when it comes to vampire fiction because so much has been written at this point. Stephen Graham Jones is now on my authors to watch list.

Omgggggg. Every time I read a new book by Stephen Graham Jones, that book becomes my favorite of his and it’s happened again where The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is my new favorite. This book blew me away. I loved everything about it and wish I could be reading it for the first time all over again. I don’t want to give anything away, but READ THIS BOOK. If I could give it a million stars, I would!

SGJ and vampires - say less. The story starts out slow as it's told primarily in an epistolary style, but the delivery and story make it 110% worth it. As always, I love the epilogues SGJ does with every novel and I wish more authors would do this - explain their thoughts and processes behind writing their stories. I listened to this one on audio in the couple days after release, and it's so well done. Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for the advanced E-book.