The Buffalo Hunter Hunter: A Masterpiece Of Horror Fiction

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones: A Masterpiece of Horror Fiction

A Horror Book Review by Anthony Watson

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is the new novel from Stephen Graham Jones, an author who has consistently produced outstanding horror fiction employing a distinctive authorial voice. My introduction to his writing came with the novelette The Elvis Room in 2014 and the first novel of his I read was Mongrels in 2016. That book provided a whole new slant on the mythology of the werewolf, embellishing and enhancing the lore, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter does exactly the same with vampires.

Like Mongrels, the story is told in first person narration, three first person narrations actually, employing a fractured timeline with stories set in different timelines nesting within each other. The outer shell of this Russian doll is provided by Etsy Beaucarne, an academic seeking tenure at the University of Wyoming, whose story bookends the novel. The inner layers come courtesy of Etsy’s great great great grandfather Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor, and Good Stab, a member of the Blackfeet Nation. Technically, it’s Beaucarne who provides both of these stories as it’s his journal of 1912 that contains transcriptions of Good Stab’s experiences – relayed to him via “confessional” conversations – of the 1870s.

It’s testament to the quality of the writing that the three distinct personalities of the characters are revealed through their words, most notably that of Arthur Beaucarne, a man lacking in any kind of self-awareness and whose entire existence seems to revolve around where his next meal is coming from. To say that his prose is purple is to understate the case. His verbosity knows no bounds and this leads to often tortuous prose which some may find difficult to plough through but which frequently brought a smile to my face.

It’s Good Stab’s story that provides the horror of the novel; his encounter with a “Cat-Man” leading to his own transformation into a creature that feeds on blood, and only blood. The word vampire only appears once in the book, in Etsy’s final section, but it’s danced around in a playful way throughout the book. (Arthur Beaucarne calls the creature Nachzehrer, the German equivalent of a revenant).

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In the same way that Mongrels added to the mythology of werewolves, so vampiric lore is expanded here, the most striking addition being that the creatures take on the characteristics of the animals whose blood they consume, a real case of you are what you eat, something which allows for some very interesting developments in the plot. One vampiric incarnation bears a very close resemblance to a wendigo but it’s to the book’s credit that nothing is made of this, something it also does (or doesn’t…) with the fact that a young buffalo Good Stab becomes attached to is white. They’re there simply as grace notes to enhance the overall story.

Any historical novel (which, for the majority, this is) stands or falls on its accuracy. Bad research is fatal, there’s nothing worse than an anachronism to pull a reader out of a story. Thankfully, that is absolutely not the case here and the author has done a grand job of creating an authentic environment within which the action plays out.

Despite being a work of fiction, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is set against a backdrop of real events, most notably the Marias Massacre of 1870 in which at least 200 Piegan Blackfeet were murdered by the US Army. Despite its significance to the plot, the massacre doesn’t feature directly in the novel, is only referred to retrospectively and that same lack of prominence is given to other historical events, the sinking of the Titanic in the 1912 sections provides a minor plot point for a minor character for instance.

This is as far from the Dan Simmons approach of inserting every item of research uncovered whether it serves the plot or not as you can get and the book is all the better for it. Verisimilitude is created and the plot can flow freely around it.

This subtle approach extends to the social and political commentary within the novel too. Despite having a blood sucking monster rampaging through its pages, the real villains of the piece are the buffalo hunters, interested in only one thing, the monetary value of the hides, wiping out vast numbers of the beasts and leaving their bodies – and the meat they would provide – to rot after they’ve gone, a practice as deadly to the native Americans on whose land the animals roamed as the murderous policies of the army. Revenge is a key motivating force behind the actions of the book’s “monster” and it’s no surprise that I found myself rooting for the nachzehrer.

More overt is the horror, most of which involves bodily destruction and mutilation as the vampiric creatures kill their victims and, at one point, fight each other. Immortality, and the power to regenerate is all well and good, but it doesn’t diminish the pain and suffering that has to be endured along the way. There are a few wince-inducing descriptions of bodily violence in here albeit sparse enough to retain their ability to shock and avoid becoming repetitive.

I loved The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. It ticked so many boxes for me that I ran out of boxes. I certainly think it’s the author’s best book so far, it may even be his masterpiece. The writing throughout is of the highest order and the book switches effortlessly between tragedy, horror and humour. Yes, humour. There were parts of this book that made me laugh out loud. The final section, in which all the plot strands come together, at times reads like a black comedy, a farce at that, a Coen Brothers-esque mix of darkness and laughs. It’s a novel I highly recommend.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

A chilling historical horror set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. Perfect for fans of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab and Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice.

Etsy Beaucarne is an academic, who needs to get published. So when a journal, written in 1912 by a Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure.

As she researches, she comes to learn of her grandfather, and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. She discovers the journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow.

A blood-soaked and unflinching saga of the violence of colonial America, a revenge story like no other, and the chilling reinvention of vampire lore from the master of horror.

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