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peonyreading 's review for:
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
by Stephen Graham Jones
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow, this was fantastic. What a unique, memorable, haunting story, showing in full the suffering of Native Americans at the hands of American colonizers without beating around the bush.
This novel is beautifully written from beginning to end, although fair warning that most of the chapters are long without any breaks mid-chapter. The majority of this novel is a series of journal entries from a pastor, Arthur Beaucarne, consisting of entries from the confession of Good Stab, as well as Arthur's own thoughts and the happenings in his life. The chapters with Good Stab's narrative are definitely the most engrossing and beautiful, a retelling of his history and the horrors he's had to live through, while the chapters from Arthur's perspective in 1912 are very dense and were more of a struggle to get through during the first half of the novel (Maybe the first half of the novel was a touch too long? It felt a bit too slow especially since Arthur's narrative wasn't that enthralling in the beginning. Another reviewer called himpathetic and that definitely describes him well). But the second half of this novel was very gripping and entirely spectacular, and this novel is absolutely a worthwhile read (and while I didn't listen to it, I think it might be even better on audio).
This was my first real foray into horror novels, and overall I'd say it was a success, just look at the content warnings to know what you're getting into. In my opinion there wasn't anything that was overly graphic until about 2/3 through the novel, and even then there were only 2 scenes that I thought were more graphic, but they just stated and not dwelled upon.
This was absolutely not an easy read, but it was definitely worth reading. Just when you think you have the formula down and know what's going to happen it gives you another twist, this novel is dark but really has so much going for it and overall I'd give it a 4.25/5, mostly deducting points due to the beginning of the novel being slow as well as how dense Arthur's chapters were.
This novel is beautifully written from beginning to end, although fair warning that most of the chapters are long without any breaks mid-chapter. The majority of this novel is a series of journal entries from a pastor, Arthur Beaucarne, consisting of entries from the confession of Good Stab, as well as Arthur's own thoughts and the happenings in his life. The chapters with Good Stab's narrative are definitely the most engrossing and beautiful, a retelling of his history and the horrors he's had to live through, while the chapters from Arthur's perspective in 1912 are very dense and were more of a struggle to get through during the first half of the novel (Maybe the first half of the novel was a touch too long? It felt a bit too slow especially since Arthur's narrative wasn't that enthralling in the beginning. Another reviewer called him
This was my first real foray into horror novels, and overall I'd say it was a success, just look at the content warnings to know what you're getting into. In my opinion there wasn't anything that was overly graphic until about 2/3 through the novel, and even then there were only 2 scenes that I thought were more graphic, but they just stated and not dwelled upon.
This was absolutely not an easy read, but it was definitely worth reading. Just when you think you have the formula down and know what's going to happen it gives you another twist, this novel is dark but really has so much going for it and overall I'd give it a 4.25/5, mostly deducting points due to the beginning of the novel being slow as well as how dense Arthur's chapters were.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation
Moderate: Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry