Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive straight into my latest review.
This is an annoying review to write because I get the angry red underlining of the second Hunter. My laptop is telling me off for repeating the word even though the title of the book is The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.
I am on a couple of ongoing reading missions. One of them – as I’ve well documented on here – is to read as many books recommended by Goodreads Horror Afficionados as possible. Another is to read all of the Bram Stoker Award winners for best novel. I think I first became aware of the Stoker’s after reading Richard Laymon write about them. When I looked into them, I discovered that I’d already read a number of the winning books without knowing there was such an award. Stephen King has won the award six times.
Sometimes life hands you a crossover. In this case, that comes in the form of this edition’s review of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. This novel is a Goodreads Horror Afficionados recommended read as well as being a Bram Stoker Award winner. So I cross off two lists with the same book. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due also holds this honour.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a story within a story within a story. The book opens in 2012 and focuses on Etsy Beaucarne, a young woman and an academic with a point to prove. Elsewhere, an old manuscript is found in a parsonage. It dates back to 1912 and was written by Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and an ancestor of Etsy. The manuscript, being in such a poor and decaying condition, is entrusted to Etsy, and she undertakes the task of typing up a transcript for posterity.
Thus begins the second layer of the story. One could argue we, as the reader, experience Arthur’s manuscript through Etsy’s eyes. Arthur wrote about a recent case where a skinless corpse had been found in town. Shortly after, an Indian man starts attending Arthur’s church and asks to speak directly to Arthur.
Here is where we enter the third layer of the story, where the Indian man tells Arthur his story. The Indian man says his name is Good Stab and he comes from the Blackfeet tribe. He claims to have been born in 1833 despite having the appearance of a man in his late thirties. Arthur knows this story must be ludicrous, but he feels compelled to hear the man out anyway. From there, the three narratives interweave to make one compelling saga.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is part vampire story, part western. This book took me a week to read. I wrote in my last edition that I’m feeling a bit weary and exhausted at this time of year. Earlier in the year, I’d have gotten through this book quicker. Under my current circumstances, I wish I’d spent more time with this book. This is a book which would make an epic movie or miniseries. The interweaving plots and the setting feel like this could be a Quentin Tarantino circa Django Unchained or Hateful Eight. This is a book I think I might well end up rereading over the coming years, and I think I will find myself enjoying it more each time.
My Goodreads Rating:★★★★☆ (4 stars)
