This is Michael Maxwell with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, an epic historical fiction horror novel by master of the genre Stephen Graham Jones. I had read several Stephen Graham Jones books before picking up The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, but nothing could have prepared me for how good this book is. I’d go so far as to call it a Great American Novel. Readers follow a Blackfeet man named Good Stab who is bitten by a creature and becomes a vampiric entity with an insatiable bloodlust. I’ve never read a vampire story like this one, though. Vampire books often ask readers to ponder mortality, and Graham Jones does this here too. Vampirism in this story is a vehicle for exploring the nature of a human lifespan within the context of deep time, and, while this novel is definitely action-packed, it also serves as a disturbing meditation on the nature of consciousness- asking readers to consider what exactly it is that makes us who we are.
Each time Good Stab drinks blood, he begins to take on the characteristics of whoever he’s just consumed. He’s somewhat immortal, but his body can still sustain heavy damage and needs time to heal. These caveats freshen up the typical vampire package, and the word “vampire” is never really used to describe Good Stab which makes this feel like something altogether new. I’ve not much of a stomach for gore, but Graham Jones writes about blood and guts in a way that’s absolutely fascinating. I was transfixed by graphic scenes of Good Stab putting himself back together, and the writing made me think about my own body’s limitations in ways both horrific and sentimental.
Check out The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones and other new gothic horror stories at the Sioux City Public Library today!
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