Buffalo Hunter Hunter
I just finished the audiobook, Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. It's great, you should go read/listen to it. I think it takes advantage of the audio format. The narration is great, and it helps with pronunciation.
It's a historical western vampire novel. It is written in an epistolary format through the journal of a Lutheran pastor in 1912 who is taking confession from a Blackfoot vampire. This setup is obviously a nod to Interview with a Vampire, and I imagine people more versed in vampire stories will pick up more references than I did.
This book is fantastic. This book is full of gnarly horror. Lots of gore, violence, and body horror. But also heavy, real historical horrors, such as the genocide of the Blackfeet people.
What vampire literature often explores about the human condition is the sadness of change. How the world changes around immortal creatures that don't change. This book maximizes that idea by making the vampire a Blackfoot at the turn of the century. Putting a vampire in this context makes that sorrow even more potent.
This book is a great horror novel, but it also confronts the real-world horror of American history and generational debts that are still unpaid.
I love so much about this book; it introduces some new vampire lore that I haven't seen before. The historical accuracy and cultural accuracy are amazing. The one thing I didn't like is part of the outer story container. The story is bookended by another layer of journal entries by a descendant of the Lutheran pastor. Story-wise, it works fine. I just don't like the language of the Etsy Beaucarne character; it feels like Joss Whedon dialogue. But I do think this multigenerational lens adds to the theme of the story.
