The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones – Review

Published: March 18, 2025

Publisher: Saga Press

Series: N/A

Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction

Pages: 435 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians comes a tale of the American West, writ in blood.

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 discovered 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.

This is an American Indian revenge story, captured in the vivid voices of the time, by one of the new masters of literary horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is certainly an unusual title but it makes perfect sense when you begin to dig into this historical fiction/horror hybrid and realize you’re following the tale of a Blackfeet Indian who also happens to be a vampire. I personally would not describe this as a horror novel, though there are certainly some disturbing portions and this genre is what Stephen Graham Jones is known for. Yes, there is violence and some gore and perhaps a creeping sense of psychological horror for the human characters, but overall it was a just a very sad story of a man seeking vengeance for his people and culture as they were slowly destroyed

This story has three different POV chapters, the first of which is set in 2012 and is that of Etsy Beaucarne, a professor who likely won’t be getting that nice tenured position she had hoped for and is working her way through a journal belonging to her distant ancestor, Arthur Beaucarne who was a Lutheran pastor. That same Lutheran pastor is the second point of view we get to see and the third is that of Good Stab, the Blackfeet man who is giving his confession to Arthur. Understandably, Arthur’s journal pages profess some healthy skepticism (but a sense of nervousness) about the man who has shown up claiming to be a vampire. As the story progresses Arthur gets more and more terrified that Good Stab’s story may just be true and it may have something to do with him.

Good Stab’s story begins with him and a small group of fellow Blackfeet traveling through the deep snows where they encounter a small group of soldiers hauling a caged man. Though he doesn’t know at the time, this event concurs with the events of the Marias massacre, where his band was killed by US Army forces rather than another that was intended to be the target. This is a real, historical event, so do give it a Google as you will find a thorough recounting of the massacre. Good Stab and his fellow Blackfeet are killed but Good Stab was also bitten by the man in the cage, who he calls the cat-man, and he doesn’t stay dead despite being burnt on a pyre. Thus begins his immortality and his journey of revenge against those who’ve wronged his people.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was a great revenge story and really explored vampirism in a way that I haven’t come across before. You see, if Good Stab feeds off too many of one type of creature or even type of person, he begins to take on their characteristics. Because the cat-man disappears he has no way of navigating this curse of vampirism other than trial and error. The revenge portion… well, Good Stab harbors a strong hatred toward those who are destroying his people’s way of life, particularly the men who hunt the buffalo en masse, only to steal their hides and leave the rest to rot.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating story but it took me over a month to make my way through the audiobook even though the narration was great. This was a heavy book and it left me feeling the need to pick up something a bit lighter afterward. The ending of this book was certainly not one I’ll forget for awhile and Good Stab, Arthur, and Etsy Beaucarne’s stories all intersected in an unexpected though satisfying way.