Wow. This is yet another unforgettable novel by Stephen Graham Jones. In my opionion, Buffalo Hunter Hunter is the most harrowing and compelling of his large bibliography. The book begins with a discovery of a journal, where Arthur Beaucharn, a colonial lutheran pastor becomes enmeshed with Good Stab, and we begin our agonizing journey into the dark confessional. The haunting nature of this novel is in the enevitable historical rememberance of the Indigenous genocides that were commited by the american colonialists, as we recount the life of Good Stab, an Pikuni man who's turned into the most grotesue version of a vampire as he's on a hunt with his friends somewhere around the mid 1870's, leading into 1912 when he meets arthur.

The comedy lies within Arthur's self righteous pedantic rambling, as he talks of his hunger and his condemnation of the Pikuni people. He's an idiot, a rasict, colonial waste of space. I hated him from the start, and its hilarious to watch him unravel.


The Napikwan (white people) and the Pikuni Tribe (Blackfeet) and

Currently, the two go-to authors for my regularly scheduled horror fix are Grady Hendrix and Stephen Graham Jones, and, while 2025 has been a mess in pretty much every other conceivable way, the year has already provided me with top-shelf entertainment from both.

January kicked off with Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, a study of institutional misogyny and witchcraft as female empowerment set in the turbulent 1970s at a home for unwed mothers. Seemingly not be outdone when it comes to mixing and matching classic genre tropes with unexpected settings, Jones’s latest, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, is part historical diary, part Old West cowboy fiction, and part slow-burn revenge story.

When academic Etsy Beaucarne is contacted about the discovery of a journal penned by an unknown great-great-grandfather, she thinks the manuscript might be just the shot in the arm that her flagging career needs. Instead, she uncovers a startling tale packed to the rafters with generational trauma, cold-blooded murder, and hot-blooded vampirism.

The intrigue begins in 1912 when a peculiar figure appears at Arthur’s regular Sunday service just as a rash of equally peculiar murders—wherein the victims are found brutally skinned like discarded buffalo—grips his small Montana community. Though quickly revealed to be a Lutheran minister (and one prone to overindulgence at that), Arthur Beaucarne agrees to hear the confession of this stranger, a Blackfoot of the Pikuni band known as Good Stab.

Good Stab’s testimony seems like a slice of traditional pulp Western fare until it quickly devolves into an account of supernatural curses and ceaseless bloodlust. Accidentally infected by the Cat Man, an eldritch vampire held captive by the white settlers, Good Stab becomes boogeyman to friend and foe alike, learning that, if he feeds on animals, he becomes more animalistic and, if he feeds on the settlers, he too begins to take on their countenance.

Now damned to feed on Pikuni to simply remain Pikuni, Good Stab is met at every turn with misfortune, danger, and disappointment, and as his confession stretches on over subsequent Sundays, the skeptical Pastor Beaucarne finds its gory details easier and easier to believe as he recounts them in startling detail in his own journal.

Masterfully shifting between the voices of Arthur, Good Stab, and Etsy, Stephen Graham Jones weaves a compelling story that crosses the centuries without so much as breaking a sweat. His writing is further bolstered by framing the narrative alongside real-world events that shaped and continue to shape Indigenous American culture—in this case the near extinction of the American bison due to overhunting by Europeans and the 1870 Marias Massacre of the Piegan Blackfeet by the U.S. Army.

Both deliberately come into focus as Good Stab’s ancient past intertwines with Arthur’s own dark secrets, reverberating even to the modern day of granddaughter Etsy.

Vicious and visceral, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is Stephen Graham Jones at his best. With all his influences on display—from slasher cinema to Louis L’Amour frontier tales to the Native American Renaissance—Jones winks at more conventual undead narratives (like that other novel about interviewing a bloodsucker) while simultaneously decolonizing vampire lore.

If you’d asked me a few years ago about my favorite Stephen Graham Jones novel, I would’ve confidently said My Heart Is a Chainsaw. If you’d asked me last year, I reckon I would’ve amended that to I Was a Teenage Slasher. Right now, as much as I want to give The Buffalo Hunter Hunter the crown, I’m beginning to suspect that the only correct answer to which SGJ book is best is… well… the next one.

"What I am is the Indian who can't die. I'm the worst dream America ever had."
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is so hard to read. It feels like 50 hours of text. It's so much more than a vampire revenge novel. It's extremely dark. Stephen Graham Jones never met comedic relief he deigned to stoop to with the seriousness of his work. This novel is special and harsh and did I mention dark yet? It's so dark. Body horror, human and animal death, SA, and lots of grotesque murder. I will have nightmares about that frozen river scene. I learned a lot from this novel, but I didn't like reading it. I'm pretty certain SGJ is a genius. Five stars for cutting to my soul.

One of my absolute favorite books I’ve read this year! Historical horror at its finest! Jones grabs you by your face and pulls you right into the center of this universe he’s created. I loved it! All the stars!

What a spooky book. I think I would’ve liked it more if I wouldn’t have read it in the dark but I was scared for my life.

This was a gorgeous, haunting read. The monstrous horror blends with the true, historical horrors and with the overshadowing sense of tragedy in a way that will linger with the reader.

wow!!!!!! this book totally lives up to all the hype!!!! absolutely exceptional writing, plot, characters!!!

SGJ treads new water in this historical horror vampire novel and it doesn't disappoint! In current times, an academic learns that her 4x great grandfather's diary was found inside of a wall. In it, is the story of Good Stab, a Blackfeet whose nation was targeted in a massacre, where 217 of his fellow members lost their lives. The diary serves as Good Stab's confession to what happens after that event.

This book is a slow burn, which works perfectly for this story. We get a lot of background of Good Stab, the Lutheran minister to whom he confesses, and the history of the massacre. I was enthralled from the first page and was sad when it came to an end. This may very well be his best novel yet, although it seems he just keeps improving with every book he writes. Definitely recommend!

My thanks to Saga Press Stephen Graham Jones, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

the buffalo hunter hunter by stephen graham jones 🦬 a chilling historical horror novel where a lutheran pastor recounts the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

I’m so proud of myself for finishing the buffalo hunter hunter 🧠 SGJ’s brain is a beautiful thing- he dreams up the best ideas! I always find myself picking up his books, but unfortunately, I don’t always love them.

my thoughts: this was a very DENSE book, but surprisingly very easy to follow! I appreciated the 1912 montana atmosphere- the snowy plains felt vividly real, and the layered focus on the tragedy of Native American history adds a depth that makes this novel much more than just a “vampire diary book”.

I think for me, this book would have benefited from being 50-75*ish* pages shorter. there were multiple repeating elements that dulled the impact rather than strengthening it. the ending went a bit too off the rails for me to stay fully invested. if you’ve read an erika t. wurth novel, this ending was in her fashion and ultimately took me out of the story.

the audiobook was phenomenal 🎧 bouncing in between narrators for every pov & the added sound effects made it as if I was right there living among these buffalo hunters.

“what I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.” 🌾 3 stars!

I’m super late on this review because I got the physical copies in the mail and read it in two long sittings and it’s absolutely brilliant. Detailed review coming soon, but suffice it to say it’s the best novel I’ve read in the last few years.

this was very out of my comfort zone, but i highly enjoyed this story. i wasn’t expecting how emotional this made me or how easily i became attached to the characters. i expected this to just be a creepy historical fictionesque book, but it was so much more. this made me deeply emotional and also really creeped me out at times and sometimes all at
once. i would love to read more by this author as i loved his writing style and was able to get me interested in a whole new type of story, which is very impressive!

A journal is discovered which chronicles the confessions of an usual parishioner to a Lutheran pastor. The journal reveals the origin story of a Blackfeet turned into a vampire, figuring out who he is as this new being and reconciling past actions.

Stephen Graham Jones definitely delivers in this historical fiction horror. I loved how this revenge story spans over different timelines ,and connects our modern day character to their past. The foreshadowing was great. Though I found the ending a little predictable, I loved every page turning moment. SGJ had me wanting to know the details of how things played out, enjoyed the Indigenous story telling and vocabulary. This had me thinking I was in that church during the vampires confessionals. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed this twist on vampirism. Different from the run of the mill vampires who shrivel from the sun and holy items. Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a wonderfully written story, and it read similar to a Mike Flanagan show!

I would recommend this book to everyone. A solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley, Saga Press | S&S/Saga Press and the author for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

I will be posting to socials.

Welcome back to Climbing Mount TBR where I, your humble Book Kaiju, struggle to climb to the top of my “to read” pile one book at a time. This time we’re looking at The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. A quick shout out to Saga Press who graciously gave Kaiju & Gnome a copy in exchange for an honest review.

So what’s it all about?

The story of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is told across a series of journal entries and interviews. The framing device is told from the diary of one Etsy Beaucarne, a professor and cat mom that just wants to get tenure. She thinks she’s finally got that project that will propel her into academic job security when construction workers find a journal belonging to her ancestor. An ancestor who disappeared under mysterious circumstances! Spoooooky!

What follows is her digitization efforts as we read the journal of one Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran clergyperson in 1912. This elder in the church just wants to eat cake, preach on Sunday, and forget his “mysterious past” ™. (same though) His quiet life is interrupted when a Native American gentleman enters his church service. This unusual event takes the swerve for the bizarre when the Native American man wishes to confess his sins and tell his story.

We now jump into the confession of Good Stab (that’s right this story just went three layers deep! We must go deeper!) a surprisingly long lived man who remembers when white people showed up in the West and screwed everything up. Which is really the normal cycle of human history: Everything is going alright till the white guys appear on the horizon.

Good Stab’s story is heartbreaking, but not totally uncommon. The tale of Native Americans losing everything to white settlers is the refrain in the story of Manifest Destiny. Good Stab’s personal history takes a swerve to horror when his tribe comes across a wagon with a caged man inside it. A man that looks like a rat, drinks blood, and won’t die.

These three narratives dance around each other to explore what it means to be Native American. How can one maintain a personal and cultural identity when everything that made you you is being taken away? Plus, if you are what you eat, what does that mean for vampires?

So what did I think?

Dang…

Just… Wow… This is the best horror novel I have ever read, and possibly even in the top twenty books I’ve read period. It was brutal, and deep, and terrifying, and heartbreaking, and fantastic.

And to think, I almost DNFed this book in the first chapter.

That first chapter was rough. Not that it’s poorly written or anything like that. It’s just… boring. I don’t care about how much cake the Lutheran pastor can eat or the academic career drama of a professor. Then the interviews with Good Stab begin and it… stays boring.

When they finally met the vampire, I actually sighed and put the book down. I didn’t realize this was a vampire novel (guess who doesn’t read plot synopsis?). I was disappointed that I was reading yet another vampire book, and those almost always follow the same tropes.

But, I powered through that first section and I am so glad that I did. This book didn’t start slow, it was stretching and getting ready for the marathon it was going to run at breakneck speed. Between the prose, the characters, the mystery, and the action I couldn’t put this book down. I had to see how it all ended.

Warning to the reader though, this book is dark. You read the story of a vampire that butchers his opponents, drinks the blood of the elderly, and sometimes has to hide in a buffalo Tauntaun-style. It is bloody and gruesome, and never shies away from the consequences of violence. Good Stab is not a Good Person.

Yet, somehow he’s still the most heroic figure in the setting. How can you make a violent, monstrous vampire look like a Boy Scout? By placing him against buffalo hunters and genociders, of course!

I read a book that graphically talked about tearing a man in half, and that wasn’t what made my stomach churn. No, it was the depictions of real life atrocities that Americans did in the name of Manifest Destiny. Bisons slaughtered by the hundreds, sometimes skinned while they’re still alive, and the flesh poisoned so no one could eat it. Native American villages murdered in the most horrific fashion because they were in the way. The culture and heritage of the people are actively destroyed to dehumanize them.

I wish those scenes were exaggerations or outright fiction, but the idealized Wild West we have in our cultural memory never existed. No, this is our history and it was nightmarish. It got so bad, I found myself rooting for the Native American vampire as he drowns hunters in buffalo blood. Sure, Good Stab is a monster, but he’s not orphaning baby buffalo and leaving them to cry out as they starve. Go Team Vampire.

What I loved most was the exploration into identity. This book takes an interesting approach to vampires. They are what they eat. If a vampire eats deer, then they start to look like a deer. Good Stab eats mostly white hunters, and starts to look like a white man. This, more than becoming a vampire, is what truly unsettles Good Stab. Not just because now he looks like one of the people that killed his tribe, but because with the loss of his community and culture he is the only one left. And if he no longer looks like a member of his people, then is he truly one of them?

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a grim, horrific tale. It’s not for the faint of heart, but I am so glad I read it. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a vampire story in the vein of Dracula. Just don’t let that slow first chapter dissuade you.

As always Stephen Graham Jones knocks it out of the park. I love his take on horror and the way this story was told was narratively intriguing. Every moment had me guessing what would happen next.

Obsessed with this book. Beautiful written and it all comes together in the end in ways I didn’t anticipate. Just a great read.

I loved this book that combines history and horror with some fantasy to make just a good totally original read . Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones was one of my most anticipated books of 2025! Everything I have read by this author has been amazing and this one did not disappoint either. There is no way to talk about the genius of this book from the historical horrific elements to the explosive ending! Just do yourself a favor and read it! Be warned that is starts off at a steady pace, which is perfectly appropriate for the development of the story and plot points because the ending paid off in spades.

Loved this book from Stephen Graham Jones. From the moment Good Stab appears on the page in his sunglasses and priestly robes, I knew we were in for a good time. It has some framing elements that bring to mind Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, but the story goes a different direction altogether, dealing with the initial colonization of the region we now know as Montana. It's a heartbreaking story of a young Pikuni warrior turned vampire, dealing with the genocide of his people and the near extinction of the buffalo. An incredible read that I can't stop thinking about.

This book was amazing! From a history teachers perspective it’s historical accuracy but fantasy was amazing. The gore, the dread and horror are a must read!

Creepy, wildly gory, atmospheric, and with a stack of framing devices hardly seen since Wuthering Heights. A tale of the horrors of experiencing the colonization of the Americas as an indigenous person, stacked inside a story of vampires, revenge, and religious horror, stacked inside a kind of horror version of A.S. Byatt's Possession. The very ending section kind of took me out of everything a bit—the tone got a little too wacky and ended up being way more funny than scary, for me (your mileage may vary—for a time my mother kept a prairie dog as a pet, which may be a factor).