The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

I never would have guessed that I’d be reading a vampire novel in 2026 that felt this smart, fresh, and ambitious. This is exactly the kind of book I get excited about because there’s so much to appreciate from so many different angles. It has an engaging underlying story, some excellent horror elements, layers of symbolism, and meaningful insight into real historical events. The whole thing felt incredibly thoughtfully constructed.

The element that impressed me most was the execution of the three distinct narrative voices. Etsy, Arthur, and Good Stab each narrate portions of the story in different forms, and I was obsessed with how convincing and distinct each character was. Admittedly, I kind of hated Etsy’s sections. Her particular voice was pretty annoying to me, but she occupies a relatively small portion of the novel, and Arthur and Good Stab were good enough to make up for it.

What’s so impressive about the characterization, though, isn’t just that their voices are distinct. It’s how much we’re able to learn about each character not just through what they say, but through how they say it. Arthur, for example, fills his narration with elaborate phrasing and sophisticated vocabulary, like he’s trying to prove himself to be a refined and educated man. But it also suggests some level of insecurity, and maybe an attempt to hide the truth behind some fancy language. Meanwhile, Good Stab also speaks performatively, but in an almost opposite way. He leans into a lot of Indigenous terminology, not because he doesn’t know how to speak more conventional English, but because he knows he can use language to manipulate people, or get them to underestimate him.

I also appreciated how morally complicated the characters are. Neither Arthur nor Good Stab is clearly all good or all evil. Both have suffered, both have inflicted suffering, and both have ways of justifying their actions. Good Stab’s anger and desire for revenge are understandable, but some of his own actions are horrifying. And Arthur has also caused some serious harm, despite all his religious convictions and outward respectability.

His survival depends on either helping destroy his own people or becoming like the colonizers in a more literal sense.

The layered timelines are another great feature. By nesting Good Stab’s account within Arthur’s manuscript and then placing that manuscript within Etsy’s modern-day narrative, we end up with a structure that looks a lot like how any piece of history is passed down through generations and interpreted through different lenses. And although each narrator is looking at the past with a certain amount of distance, they’re all still dealing with the consequences. But then we also have this vampire element which allows Good Stab to be an immortal connection between the past and the present. You literally cannot escape history because he’s looking at you right in the face.

Speaking of the vampire element, I absolutely loved the twist that these vampires gradually take on the characteristics of whatever they consume. It’s a great addition to the mythology, and it introduces a fascinating layer to Good Stab’s predicament. Amidst the destruction of Indigenous cultures, his survival depends on either helping destroy his own people or becoming like the colonizers in a more literal sense.

Overall, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter has so much to appreciate and is well worth the read. Just know that while I’ve focused mostly on the symbolism and thoughtful historical reflections, there’s still plenty of outright horror. It gets pretty gruesome in places, particularly the scene where Good Stab surprises Arthur in the chapel, which is especially grisly but incredibly effective. So be prepared for some blood, some gore, and some very sad baby buffalo.

Book author: Stephen Graham Jones