What I’ve Been Reading This Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my most anticipated of 2026. One of my favorite authors. Some of my favorite subjects\u2014identity, humanity’s relationship with nature (we’re part of it), anticolonial vengeance, vampires. A book with a gorgeous cover and instructive title. A book that goes far above and beyond genre expectations and the promise of its jacket copy to create something that transcends genre. This is elevated horror, but The Babadook<\/em><\/a> could only dream of this many layers. I’m talking, of course, about The Buffalo Hunter Hunter<\/em> by Stephen Graham Jones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Buffalo Hunter Hunter<\/em> by Stephen Graham Jones:<\/strong> the setup is simple enough: an Indigenous man, a Pikuni, a Blackfeet, becomes a vampire. It\u2019s the late19th\/early 20th century, white people are shooting their way across the western U.S. They kill the bison, skinning their hides and poisoning the meat with strychnine. Our man Good Stab decides to fight the hide-hunters, as he calls them. Also narrating is a Lutheran priest, Pastor Beaucarne.1<\/a><\/sup> Wonder if there’s more than meets the eye with that collar-wearer. Framing the whole thing is a woman “translating” Good Stab and Beaucarne’s narratives in 2012, in hopes that publishing them in a coherent form will get her tenure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t a simple tale of vengeance, though. Good Stab can\u2019t just Inglourious Basterds <\/em>his way across the West, eat all the white people. For one thing, there’s a shapeshifting element to these vampires\u2014they start becoming whatever they eat. Good Stab first realizes this side effect by growing chin stubble, the effect leads to one of the scariest images I’ve ever read: an enemy vampire the size of an elk, complete with antlers. It\u2019s not enough to stop the killing of bison, Good Stab has to try to tend to orphaned calves, teach his own herd. Most crushingly, we know that all of this is a losing battle. If his goals are scaring the white people back to Europe (or at least out of The Backbone2<\/a><\/sup> and the Great Plains), if his goals are to get bison population back up to where it was, well. This isn’t some alternate world novel. This novel is set in the real world, where we know we have at least have metaphorical vampires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If there’s something beyond vengeance, what is it? There’s identity\u2014how you come to grips with an identity you didn’t necessarily want, how to determine what kind of person you are, how to navigate the world. There’s retribution, which is separate from vengeance in that retribution connotes comeuppance whereas vengeance equates to passion. I’ve heard it argued that the majority of USian horror is fear of our coming retibution. What had to be done to assert the colonizer’s will over the land, what was done in our names whether we asked for it or not, whether we’re happy about it or not (because we’re sure living off the back of it)\u2014ever think any of that will come back to bite us? What if it’s just one Blackfeet vampire doing the biting? <\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something to listen to while you browse? How’s everyone feeling about the new Polyphia? Definitely heavier than the last record, huh? After the release of “CAN YOU FEEL IT?”\u2014a song I love\u2014I was a little nervous the whole record would have these vocal inserts. It doesn’t! But two of my favorite songs do. SGJ talks about listening to Ozzy Osbourne while writing, which inspired me to listen to Blizzard of Ozz<\/em> all the way through for the first time (Randy Rhoads rips, but I’m a Tony Iommi guy all the way). Anyway, if you like heavy stuff, check out new Polyphia. Wait for the beat drop\/key change here around 2:15, with the modulated guitar riff about 2:30. WHEW. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"cover](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-buffalo-hunter-hunter-9781668075081_hr-682x1024.jpg\")