The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is a remarkable historical horror in which a Lutheran pastor must reckon with the sins of his past while recounting the life history of an Indigenous vampire with ulteriror motives.
Synopsis
A journal written by Lutheran pastor Arthur Beaucarne is unearthed at a construction site. Opening the long, sordid history of the American West. It reveals the massacre of 217 Blackfeet and its mysterious connection to Beaucarne’s Indigenous visitor, Good Stab, as he shares his life history to share his confession.
The more Beaucarnes learns, the more he begins to suspect that Good Stab may be connected to a string of mysterious murders occurring near town. Too far gone, he quickly realizes that there’s more at stake than absolving sin, but his very life may be at stake.
Tropes & representation
- Vampire Mythology with an Indigenous Twist
- Cursed document indicative of a horrific past
- The monster as metaphor
- The Isolated Frontier
- Cannibalism
- The Crisis of Faith
- The Monster Mirror
- Body Horror
- Moral Dilemma
- Past sins become present horror
- Indigenous representation (Blackfeet, Pikuni)
- Religious Trauma
- Authentic Own Voices Representation (BIPOC Author)
Cast of Key Characters
Good Stab – Blackfeet, Pikuni, who shares his life story with Pastor Beaucarne, detailing his traumatizing and troubling history while trying to survive colonialism and imperialism.
Arthur Beaucarne- the Lutheran pastor who listens to Good Stab’s confession detailing these occurrences in his journal.
Etsy Beaucarne-Arthur’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who transcribes his journal to learn more about her family history, while uncovering the violent realities of her ancestor’s past actions.
Content
This novel is gritty, dark, and troubling as Jones works to explore his central theme concerning the destructive and violent nature of American history as it pertains to colonialism and imperialism. Scene by scene, he deftly reveals how they not only contribute to literal genocide by violent means but cultural genocide with the Blackfeet Indigenous people being forced into assimilating into the white man’s world to survive.
He weaves this story with rich metaphor, exploring these themes in all their gory and raw reality. Other themes that were evaluated were: the vampire myth reimagined as part of Indigenous folklore, the complications of faith and its intersection with moral ambiguity, and the debate regarding whether cycles of violence and vengeance can counteract the damaging impact of colonialism.
Writing Style
Stephen Graham Jones’s prose is ridiculous in the best way possible. It’s steeped in rich imagery and evocative descriptions that not just build and create a scene but make you feel. It touches a deeper part of your soul and psyche and nestles there. You can’t not read his work without being forever changed.
While this novel is epistolary, it doesn’t come across as flat or one-sided. It’s multi-layered and alive as you see both Arthur’s and Good Stab’s narratives in a complete all all-encompassing way. This beautifully illustrates the contradictions and blurred lines that exist for both narratives.
My favorite element of his writing style is that he doesn’t include gore and violence for the sake of it. It’s all intentional, meaning there’s purpose and meaning behind everything he’s doing. Making it stand out that much more. Next, he isn’t trying to make his culture easily digestible; instead, it’s raw and real in your face. Achingly authentic.
Additionally, he was able to take a traditionally European trope regarding vampirism and flip it to drive home his themes about colonialism, assimilation, and survival. Lastly, he made complex emotions regarding grief, loss, and cultural disconnection raw and real. As a Black American woman, I felt this in my bones and could identify with these emotions, especially with how empty and lonely cultural disconnection can be.
Readability
If you’re a lit fic fan, you’ll find this novel right up your alley as it’s considered to be a genre-bender with literary, historical, and horror elements. It strikes the perfect balance of maintaining a mid to high readability, being engaging, immersive, and profound without coming off as pretentious.
The vocabulary was a joy to read, as he didn’t dumb anything down, encouraging you to expand your word base while not being overly verbose.
Each character had their distinct voice that unfolded during their narrative, and you could identify them by sentence structure and word usage. Making it easy for readers to distinguish characters from each other. While this novel doesn’t follow a linear timeline, it’s structured with care, allowing you to follow the story and differentiate between the past and present timelines.
Some spots where readers may struggle are the cultural references regarding the Blackfeet/Pikuni that you might want to look up to have a better understanding of the text. However, you should be able to utilize context clues to understand their meanings.
Next, there’s a lot of moral ambiguity in this story where there isn’t a clear good guy or bad guy, and this might be challenging for those who prefer clear-cut stories with an obvious right or wrong. Lastly, if you’re squeamish and not a fan of on-page graphic violence. This might get a little tough for you. While this novel isn’t brimming with gratuitous violence for the sake of shock value or entertainment. It does have well-written graphic on page violence that gets gritty and gory. Not ideal for sensitive readers.
Plot Development
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is told within a frame narrative explored within two timelines. We have the past timeline of 1912’s Montana as told via Pastor Beaucarne’s journal, which makes up the bulk of the novel. Then there’s the present timeline in 2012, where Beaucarne’s descendant is transcribing the journal and trying to make sense of what she’s discovering.
The key plot points and recurring themes that propel this story forward reveal how colonialism is horror, assimilation is transformation, survival is monstrosity, and storytelling is salvation. The pacing is slow and intentional, taking care with character development and allowing space for these themes and concepts to take root in your mind.
Characterization
The pièce de résistance was the complex, raw, and ambigious character development. They’re what I like to call onion characters, where you’re able to peel back their layers to reveal a wealth of oftentimes contradictory revelations and truths. You find yourself in the grey ether of ambiguity, wrestling with morality.
Each of the key characters is written with a unique voice and is ripe with symbolism and relevant character arc. However, my favorite character is none other than the anti-hero Good Stab. Not only did I find many aspects of his character relatable, but rich with beautiful metaphors.
Good Stab’s character represents history, horror, and heartbreak. His vampiric transformation represents colonial trauma, cultural dislocation, and survivor’s guilt. His voice blends the elegance of oral storytelling that’s lyrical and engrossing. He represents a colonized body turned monstrous, how memory is a form of resistance, and he is the embodiment of both heritage and curse.
Thoughts, Recommendations, and Rating
With this being my first Stephen Graham Jones novel, I have a brilliant impression of this author and his work, and can’t wait to sample more. I felt a wealth of emotions, from fear, rage, frustration, heartbreak, loneliness, despair, and vindication. This novel also made me think, providing a cerebral experience. While there were times midway, I felt my attention wane, but I didn’t completely check out.
Also, with me being somewhat new to the horror genre and a bit squeamish about gore and body horror, Jones did an excellent job of crafting these scenes in such a way that I was able to bypass the gruesome elements to enjoy the purpose and intent behind what was happening.
As far as recommendations go, this is ideal if you’re looking for Indigenous horror with literary and social elements, exploring the darkness of colonialism and its consequences. There’s plenty of action, grit, and supernatural horror elements to enjoy.
