The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Since the spoiler feature didn't seem to be working, beware !
Historical horror following Esty Baucarne an academic who, in hopes of being published, reads through the diary of her ancestor Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran priest who recounted his encounter with a Blackfeet called Good Stab in the early 20th century and their ties to a historical tragedy.


So this was such a great book. My second read of Stephen Graham Jones's work, this had all the qualities I liked from his previous novel I had read (My Heart is A Chainsaw). I loved his ability to craft a fast paced interesting story, full of cultural references, with compelling and complex characters, written in a unique voice, almost stream of consciousness like, intimate but universal at the same time. I loved how the three main points of view were so distinct to one other, each adopting a particular, narrative style language and vocabulary that perfectly showed the characters' cultural heritage and setting, with no held holding too. There were some truly gory, bizarre and creepy moments, upping the horror atmosphere beyond historical facts, at times mixing it with supernatural elements.  I loved SGJ's portrayal of vampirism as a sort of disease (?) that transforms its bearer to whatever he's drinking from. After Good Stab becomes a vampire, he is portrayed as being traumatised by what he has become, what he has to do to survive, but also by the alienation and marginalisation from his community and people, so these parts were equally horrifying and emotional to read. This allegory of vampirism was framed and reinforced by the historical themes : the horrors of genocide, colonisation, (cultural) imperialism and forced assimilation of the indigenous populations by white colonisers into to the newly formed USA. It was also very informative read for I was ignorant of the main tragedy depicted here (ie The Marias Massacre). Pacing wise, I felt the beginning of the book was a bit too slow and hard to get into but afterwards it was a breeze once I settled into the story. 


Ever since I watched (finally) Sinners the other day at the cinema, I had wanted to consume more Vampire inspired fiction, but personally I found Vampires a bit boring, unless it features PoC and Queer Vampires (Blade, Interview with the Vampire tv show, Castlevania), or mixed in another genre (like Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust has scifi elements to it) because these elements had way more interesting layers to these mythic creatures, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter definitely scratched that itch.  I'll definitely read SGJ's other books, with the next one being possibly The Only Good Indians as I've got it on my physical tbr.