The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones #bookreview #audiobook

I purchased the book for my own collection and borrowed the audiobook from the library.

Publisher: S&S/Saga Press / Simon and Schuster Audio

Published: March 18, 2025

Summary:

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.

My thoughts:

Wow…this book was just phenomenal. I knew going in that it might be a little out of my comfort zone, and while it was–I don’t typically gravitate towards books with vampires in them–I could not get enough of this one! From the moment I started it, it was all I thought about…and even now, a few since I finished it, I am still thinking about it. ⁣
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Historical horror has quickly become a favorite sub-genre of mine, and this one really digs deep and is so raw and powerful. It’s not an easy book to read by any means. It’s both emotionally draining and creepy, tackling a dark time in American history with some supernatural flair. ⁣
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This is a book that begs you to take your time reading it, to go back and reread parts if you must. It isn’t a book to fly through…it’s too heavy for that. But it is a book I know I’ll be revisiting because this is only my 2nd time reading this author, and while I think it might be his best work, I have to read his other books to compare than come back to this one.⁣
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Audio thoughts:

I did a combo with this one, though mostly I listened as the cast of narrators was phenomenal. Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland and Owen Teale really did an amazing job bringing this story to life. And I loved that SGJ himself read the author’s note!! ⁣

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