by Rachel A. Rosen

I am only adding to the chorus of praise for this book, but it deserves all the hype it’s been getting and all of the awards that it’s bound to win. This is a banger of a vampire novel. The taut dance of confession and revenge between the Lutheran minister Arthur and the Pikuni vampire Good Stab is brutal, visceral, and steeped in a history that America (and Canada, for that matter) would much rather forget.

The vampire, traditionally a stand-in for repressed sexuality or the decadent and parasitic ruling class, here becomes a symbol of the unquiet, unburied dead, a figure out of hauntology. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter has shades of Cormac McCarthy in the violence of colonialism and the bloodsoaked prose, with the slow burn creeping horror that Jones is known for. It’s a relentless read from a brilliant author.