The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

April 14, 2025 12:27 PM

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran Pastor is discovered within a wall and what it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to two hundred and seventeen Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed confessions by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shared the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits, this is a bloody history of the American West that has remained untold until now.

I just finished this last night. Absolutely superb and riveting. There is no shortage of gore in this book, be warned.

I've read The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw (which I bounced off so hard and it should have been a slam dunk). The book reminds me of the former novel, which I really enjoyed.

The twist towards the end was one I wasn't expecting and I am still not sure how I feel about it. But I will warn those of us who are tenderhearted towards animals--even wild ones--that there is violence done towards them, and there is a cat in peril at the end with no clear resolution. (I hate to be the one to ask SGJ if I ever meet him about the fate of the cat given the violence towards First Nations tribes, but I have to know!)

Anyway, highly recommend.

posted by Kitteh (3 comments total)

Author’s name?
posted by Ideefixe at 5:42 PM on April 14

Stephen Graham Jones
posted by LionIndex at 5:52 PM on April 14

Thanks. I love Jones’ novels, but I’ll skip this one due to the cat. It’s the only thing I really can’t face in fiction.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:13 AM on April 20