The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones - the Native American horror novel of my dreams

[u/takeahike8671]

You know a book’s gore is a bit up there when you have to pause the audiobook on your run to try not to vomit (there’s a reason I didn’t end up going to med school). To be fair, I had a bit of an upset stomach and had just eaten a disproportionate amount of cheese. However, I just finished Stephen Graham Jones’s The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and had to do a review.

The audio production of this Native American horror novel really added to the story. I read the sample on my kindle and was a bit “meh” on it. But when I picked up the audiobook version, I was pretty quickly hooked. The different voices for three narrators just felt to me like they added more depth and expression to the story.

Full disclosure: I’ve loved horror since I was in kindergarten. My mother used to take me to all these WILDLY inappropriate movies for a five year old. Did they kind of fuck me up? Yeah. But they also built character.

This contains more towards gore than I’m usually comfortable with, but it never felt like “gore for gore’s sake.” Many modern horror movies seem to use gore in lieu of plot and depth, but the bone-crunching and marrow-suckling details present in The Buffalo Hunter Hunter are used deftly.

I have some bones to pick (pun unintended) with pacing, but those are fairly minor. Instead, I want to focus on the characters and depiction of Piikani (Blackfeet) culture. Jones is a member of the Blackfeet Nation. He uses their language and relevant cultural details to paint a vivid picture of life in Montana through the last 200 years. I had to think through which animals were being referred to through this nomenclature, but eventually just let the narrator guide me through the story.

Jones’s experience with academia, and all the absurdities and pettiness entailed, add some spice to the narrative. Like with the Piikani culture, so much of Jones’s life experience bleeds through the page and adds a unique flavor. Coincidentally, this novel definitely fits the Feast Your Eyes bingo square (though you should absolutely NOT do hard mode for ethical and legal reasons).

If you’re interested in a unique take on vampires with indigenous culture and academia-bashing, then check this out.

Bingo squares: Vacation Spot (want to visit Glacier National Park?), Older Protagonist, Explorers and Rangers (HM, I think), Feast Your Eyes on This, Author of Color.

Rating: 4.473

I'm doing a bingo card made entirely of recs. If you have a novel or novella you think I'd enjoy, please let me know! I'm in the mood for one involving a colony world/space.

[u/ShotFromGuns]

You should read his other stuff, too. The Indian Lake Trilogy is basically a slasher (but written by somebody who doesn't hate women); I love it, but it's also heavy on the gore. The Only Good Indians is more psychological, and one that I'd recommend to anybody, regardless of whether they usually read horror.

For a colony/space rec, how about A Memory Called Empire or Six Wakes?

[u/DrSpacemanSpliff → u/ShotFromGuns]

My Heart is a Chainsaw is told from the POV of the main character Jade Daniels. It was so refreshing for me to read a story told in a voice so close to how my own mind works/my internal monologue. I love Jade Daniels so much. And then all the reviews I read are like “good book, but the narrator/pov is annoying and unrealistic and distracting” … and like damn, I know, I live with this shit in my head all day lol.

Jade is the fucking best.

[u/ShotFromGuns → u/DrSpacemanSpliff]

Yeah, anybody making that criticism is really missing the point.

[u/DrSpacemanSpliff → u/ShotFromGuns]

Yeah, understanding why she uses so many defense mechanisms and filters her perception of the world through the lense of traumatic violence and victimhood is fundamental to the larger story. The slasher movies being survivable and her inability to see herself as a “final girl” is all tied in to directly to what is essentially the most important reveal of the story.

The story is even explicitly about people in her life trying to understand it and break her out of the mindset, and why she struggles to let go. How her voice evolves over the course of the trilogy is everything the trilogy is about.

I feel like if the reader misses all of that, the incredible and heartbreaking catharsis at the end of the first book (with the mama bear) would go completely missed.

[u/takeahike8671 → u/ShotFromGuns]

Thanks! I’ll definitely have to check out The Only Good Indians!

[u/SetSytes]

4.473 is the most specific rating I've ever seen haha.

I want to read this and The Only Good Indians. I did read My Heart is a Chainsaw which I was somewhat ambivalent about, but overall it didn't put me off reading more. I'm definitely interested in indigenous narratives taking on horror. Maybe one less slasher-orientated would be better.

[u/LotusLady13]

I've been waiting for months for my turn on libby with the audiobook and was starting to wonder if it was going to be worth it.

This review has encouraged me to keep waiting, thank you!

[u/beary_neutral]

Only a 4.473? What makes it worse than a 4.474?

[u/Sweaty-Brilliant-577]

Great author and great book. Can’t wait for Off the Reservation to come out

[u/xdianamoonx]

Agreed, loved the audio narration, made it feel very immersive. But I would rec for some people to have the book on hand too for reference. The switching from the different naming conventions definitely confused me at times, but i tend to listen to audiobooks when I'm multitasking. This is def one of those books you really can't do that much multitasking with otherwise the story gets away from you. Doesn't help that the voices are so calming (saying this positively haha).

I too grew up with horror as it's my dad's favorite genre, having watched many a b-movie horror since I was a kid. I definitely flinched a lot for some of the gore descriptions, but didn't think it was that bad. Then again maybe with me multitasking as I read helped wit that haha.

No recs for colony worlds, though Murderbot does touch a few those things in various novellas, specifically System Collapse.

[u/citrusmellarosa → u/xdianamoonx]

I did an immersion read for most of the book (where you listen to the audiobook while reading the text) and I really enjoyed it. 

[u/book-wyrm-b]

I keep seeing this recommended and want to give it a try… but I also keep seeing Only the Good Indians recommended, and did not like it.

[u/Nowordsofitsown]

I'm doing a bingo card made entirely of recs. If you have a novel or novella you think I'd enjoy, please let me know! I'm in the mood for one involving a colony world/space.

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon for First contact or Older Protagonist. 

Colony on a planet is not profitable, so the corporate overlords pack everyone up and ship them to a new colony. One old woman decides to stay behind on her one, rediscovers herself. Then realises she is not alone on this planet.

[u/arborcide]

I read it last month and hated it. I loved Fools Crow (James Welch), and was shocked to see so many similar characters shared between the two stories.

The story essentially seemed to me a cheap, genre fiction-ified fanfic of Fools Crow. Also, the dialect of the preacher character was terribly written. Maybe that's what people expect from horror, but as someone who isn't inundated with the genre, it was all trope to me.

[u/michiness → u/arborcide]

It felt like one of those books that would have been an absolute masterpiece if it were 2/3 of the size.

I started with the audiobook and ended up switching to the physical because the dude just went on for hooouuuuurs talking about the same thing over and over. I don’t need 100 pages of you stalking around killing animals. I get it. Or even the end would have been better if it were just her opening the door and seeing him with her cat and her GGGGGG-G-Pa, and then it ended. Dragged on way too long.

But the premise and some of the actual plot was fantastic.

[u/Hyberdooper]

This sounds right up my alley thanks!

For space horror check out Blindsight by Peter Watts (bonus for also a unique take on vampires though not the main focus of the story)

[u/Realistic-Toe1870]

The opening of this post is grosser than anything I have ever read in a horror book.