‘The Buffalo Hunter Hunter’ – Stephen Graham Jones (2025 – Review)

“What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.“

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is the latest novel from Stephen Graham Jones, author of over thirty books including last year’s excellent I Was a Teenage Slasher … and it may well be one of his most personal to date. For Jones is of Blackfoot descent, and although his work has always been heavily inspired by his Native American heritage, this story delves back into the history of the Montana region, and the transformation of this area in North West America quite like no other.

Graham has crafted something of an epic tale with The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, depicting a highly original story told largely in flashback by way of the discovery of the 1912 diaries of Arthur Beaucarne. A Lutheran pastor who disappeared from all historical records that very year. His diaries have been unearthed by one of his descendants; Etsy Beaucarne, 100 years later. And her tale of discovery bookends the story, as both she and the reader are transported back in time as the diary entries are examined for the duration of the novel.

But Jones takes us back even further than that, as Beaucarne’s diary tells the tale of his encounter with a mysterious visitor to his church. A Blackfoot native who goes by many names, but is often referred to as Good Stab. The curious visitor seeks a private audience with Beaucarne in order to tell his life story, a confession of sorts. And his story is one of darkness and an incredible violence which is written masterfully, bursting with intricate bloody detail.

From the very beginning of the book, Jones lets the reader know that this is going to be a story that pulls no punches in its description of graphic violence, due to the discovery of a mutilated body by the Yellowstone river. But the gore gets a whole lot worse as the story progresses. Interestingly this book may be one of the most violently graphic you’ll find away from the Splatterpunk shelves, but it is delivered in a way that is so essential to the story, that it doesn’t actually feel like it is in any way gratuitous.

It is no secret that yes, this is a Vampire novel … of sorts. The phrase is merely hinted at once, and printed only once in the very final paragraph of the story. And Jones provides a wholly unique take on the myth, blending the idea of Vampirism with that of a Native Blackfoot during a highly violent and transitional period of American history. He provides many ideas that just aren’t a part of the conventional pop-culture lore. The new prospective he provides to the phrase; You are what you eat, being just one example of his extraordinary creativity.

But The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is so much more than that. It is a thoroughly engaging period mystery, written in a sumptuous style, which looks hard at the cultural divide between the Native American’s and white European settlers. In fact Vampirism can be looked upon as a metaphor for the settlers treatment and eventual decimation of the natives and their land. Jones draws deep on the history of his heritage to provide a rich and deeply textured narrative covering multiple timelines. And it is all sublimely delivered with an intoxicating finesse, by a modern master-storyteller. KZ

“My heart is empty from telling this, Three-Persons. So is my pipe.”

Words by Mark T. Bates

Got another 5 mins to Kill !?

Check out the second entry in our new Horror short story series – The Curious Dark:

‘2081: A Space Tragedy’ – By Mark T. Bates (The Curious Dark #2)