The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones
- Crafty Goblin
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Author : Stephen Graham Jones
Publisher : S&S/Saga Press
Released : 18 march 2025
Page count : 448
Format : Harcover
Genre : Horror, Historical Fiction
Content warnings : Gore, deaths, Violence, Blood, torture, Animal Violence/Death
Source : Libristo
Representation : Indigenous
Part of a Series : No
★★★★★ — A new favorite
Quote from the book:
“You can’t stop a country from happening.” “But we were already a Nation.”
“What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.”
Summary :
A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes 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.
My Thoughts on this Book :
In my opinion, The Buffalo Hunter hunter is SGJ's masterpiece. A dark, sometimes funny, sometimes sad and revolting, historical fiction with a dash of supernatural and indigenous folklore.
There is a mix of Pikuni words and their anglicized counterparts. So, I struggled a bit with the writing at first but once I worked my understanding through it, I literally binge read it in almost one go.
It let you emotionally drained for days. I binged read the book within a day and then had to take a break from reading because I needed time to settled after this beautiful tale.
The modern parts with Etsy Beaucarne let me a bit bored and missed the mark with me, but it is a small part at the beginning and at the end so It didn't bother me too much, and these parts are a good frame for the tale. And I struggled a bit to finish the book after the Narration by Good Stab and the Pastor was done.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter isn't an easy read, as it should not be. It is a dark, raw and unapologetic reckoning of a massacre, a genocide. The annihilation of Nation, of a People. This book doesn´t lighten the dark and monstrous actions of colonialism as history book tend to do. The fact that this special hunter has been created by a product of the old world is even better in my opinion. They brought with them on the "new world" what killed them for their crimes and sins.
But overall, a great book. One of my favorite by SGJ after The Only Good Indian. I wasn't a big fan of half of his books but literally loved the second half, as some of my favorite books ever, it's definitely a miss or hit with him, so readers might love it completely or hate it. But I really loved this one.
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