THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
Published: 2025
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is one of those books where my opinion of it was constantly on a roller coaster.
There were times when this book rose to rather lofty heights for me. However, there were also times when it dipped significantly.
The low points tended to occur when author Stephen Graham Jones delved back into the details of what seemed to be the eating habits of day-walking vampires. Certainly, some of the feedings were significant to the story, but by the middle of the book, the graphic details began to feel a tad gratuitous to me.
That said, by the book’s end, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter had proven itself to be an above-average read.
What keeps the book at that level is how the story is set against the hardships endured by the Blackfoot Nation as the buffalo were slaughtered, their people massacred, and their land taken from them.
Now, back to the vampires for just a moment. There is an element of Bram Stoker’s Dracula here, if you have read that classic. However, Jones takes the concept and makes it work in a very different setting.
According to the publisher, the story begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered inside a wall in 2012. What follows is the revelation of a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events connected to 217 Blackfeet who died in the snow. The story unfolds through transcribed interviews with Good Stab, who recounts his peculiar and unnaturally long life during a series of confessional visits.
Readers should be forewarned that people die in this book. Lots of people, and often in rather horrific ways. There are soldiers slaughtering an entire Native American encampment, along with the gruesome deaths associated with vampires.
Death permeates the story. Buffalo herds are wiped out, as are wolves, town dogs, and many others. The list goes on, and this relentless violence will certainly not appeal to every reader.
Yet amid all the death, there is a certain poignancy to the story. As you peel away the supernatural elements and the deaths associated with them, you begin to realize that the historical massacres and the suffering inflicted upon the Blackfoot people represent the real evil within the pages of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.
In the end, Jones has delivered a novel that is as much about the horrors of history as it is about supernatural monsters. The pacing and graphic violence may occasionally work against it, but the historical backdrop gives the story a depth that stays with the reader.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a book that reads differently from most, and while it has its shortcomings, it is one that deserves to be read just the same.
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
Published: 2025
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is one of those books where my opinion of it was constantly on a roller coaster.
There were times when this book rose to rather lofty heights for me. However, there were also times when it dipped significantly.
The low points tended to occur when author Stephen Graham Jones delved back into the details of what seemed to be the eating habits of day-walking vampires. Certainly, some of the feedings were significant to the story, but by the middle of the book, the graphic details began to feel a tad gratuitous to me.
That said, by the book’s end, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter had proven itself to be an above-average read.
What keeps the book at that level is how the story is set against the hardships endured by the Blackfoot Nation as the buffalo were slaughtered, their people massacred, and their land taken from them.
Now, back to the vampires for just a moment. There is an element of Bram Stoker’s Dracula here, if you have read that classic. However, Jones takes the concept and makes it work in a very different setting.
According to the publisher, the story begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered inside a wall in 2012. What follows is the revelation of a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events connected to 217 Blackfeet who died in the snow. The story unfolds through transcribed interviews with Good Stab, who recounts his peculiar and unnaturally long life during a series of confessional visits.
Readers should be forewarned that people die in this book. Lots of people, and often in rather horrific ways. There are soldiers slaughtering an entire Native American encampment, along with the gruesome deaths associated with vampires.
Death permeates the story. Buffalo herds are wiped out, as are wolves, town dogs, and many others. The list goes on, and this relentless violence will certainly not appeal to every reader.
Yet amid all the death, there is a certain poignancy to the story. As you peel away the supernatural elements and the deaths associated with them, you begin to realize that the historical massacres and the suffering inflicted upon the Blackfoot people represent the real evil within the pages of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.
In the end, Jones has delivered a novel that is as much about the horrors of history as it is about supernatural monsters. The pacing and graphic violence may occasionally work against it, but the historical backdrop gives the story a depth that stays with the reader.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a book that reads differently from most, and while it has its shortcomings, it is one that deserves to be read just the same.
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
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