Book Review - The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Title: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Genre: Horror/ Historical Fiction
Published: 2025
 
Description: This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice.
 
It begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discover within a wall in 2012. What is unveiled is a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events that goes back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow, told in the transcribed interviews with Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar and unnaturally long life over a series of confessional visits.
 
Review: The book begins in the year 2012. An academic finds an old diary hidden in a wall. This diary was written in 1912 by a minister named Arthur Beaucarne. The diary contains interviews with Good Stab, a Native American man from the Blackfeet tribe. He is also a vampire who cannot die. He hunts the men who killed the buffalo and his people. The story revolves around a real, horrific event in history: the Marias Massacre of 1870.
 
I love vampire stories, especially when they are a bit unusual. This one is original, wild, raw and connected to nature. But the real horror isn’t the blood-sucking, but the grim history of colonization. Stephan Graham Jones writes about this with great respect and cultural sensitivity.
 
Be prepared that this is a very bloody, gory book, with lots of violence and death. Jones does not shy away from it, but it somehow is necessary to depict the real horror of these events.
 
“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” does require a lot of patience though. It’s a very slow book and given the almost 500 pages it takes some time to get through it. But trust me, it’s absolutely worth it. Once you get through the first 100 pages, you will thank me.
 
This is a heavy and dark book. It’s not a lighthearted story to read or one you pick up just for fun. If you love deep horror and history, you should definitely read this book. It’s a bloody but beautiful history lesson with strong horror elements. My favorite Stephen Graham Jones so far.
 
Rating: 4/ 5