Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a stunning, slow-burn horror novel that redefines vampire fiction and digs deep into America’s darkest historical wounds. Perfect for readers who love historical horror novels, vampire Westerns, and American gothic fiction, this new release proves once again why Jones is one of today’s most essential voices in horror.

Set against the early 1900s American West, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter unfolds through a compelling epistolary format, drawing readers into a fragmented, chilling narrative reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Etsy Beaucarne, a junior professor desperate for tenure at the University of Wyoming, inherits a newly unearthed diary from her ancestor Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran minister. Through Arthur’s writings—and the haunting records of a Blackfeet man named Good Stab—readers are pulled into a world where history, horror, and identity collide.

Jones’ character work is exceptional. Both Arthur and Good Stab are fully realized, their perspectives steeped in sorrow, rage, and a brutal honesty that makes them unforgettable. Good Stab’s admission—“I’m the worst dream America ever had”—lingers long after the last page. The horror here is twofold: a visceral, blood-soaked violence and a more insidious emotional devastation tied to real historical atrocities, particularly the 1870 Marias Massacre, where nearly 200 Native people were murdered by the U.S. Army.

Fans of Stephen Graham Jones books, vampire horror, and Native American horror fiction will find a lot to love here. While the modern framing narrative isn’t quite as strong as the historical core, and the slow pacing may test impatient readers, the payoff is well worth the journey. Jones never takes the easy road, but he rewards readers’ trust with layered revelations and characters that feel heartbreakingly real.

Visceral, thought-provoking, and masterfully crafted, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter cements Stephen Graham Jones as one of the greats of modern horror. For those searching for new horror books 2025, historical vampire novels, or horror novels that explore Indigenous history, this is a must-read.