Stephen Graham Jones brings to life a vampire story told through the eyes of an old priest hiding behind the priesthood and a Native American blood sucker out to get revenge for what was done to his people, their land, and the buffalo. We all know that tragic, terrible part of American history where white settlers are hellbent on killing every buffalo in the west, and just about every Native American along with them. The Marias Massacre is the specific event that this book centers around. While one character feels guilt, the other feels trauma and anger. In the old American west, a bloody story within a story within a story within a western backdrop.
It starts when the old 1912 manuscript of the priest, Arthur Beaucarne, is found in 2012 by a construction worker. His descendent, Etsy Beaucarne, gets ahold of the document, transcribes it for a writing project in hopes of achieving tenure and the project brings up her own set of issues with her family. Within the pages of the manuscript, Arthur describes meeting a mysterious Native American man who comes to his church service and tells him the story of how he came to be there.
Good Stab, the Native American in question, describes how he, as a younger man, endured massacres and tragedies with his people before coming into contact with a vampire (the Cat Man is how he describes the creature). After dying himself after coming into contact with the vampire’s blood, he wakes to find his body regenerated and hungry for blood. Good Stab lives off of animals and humans alike, but the animals make him look like an animal – growing antlers and fur. Soon, he begins feeding on the men who keep coming into the area (what is now Yellowstone National Park) to kill buffalo for their hides. His travels around the area bring him closer to people he knows, his former tribe, but also in contact with the still alive Cat Man. The two give chase to each other and Good Stab must find a way to keep the Cat Man from hurting his people.
Arthur transcribes this story in pieces as Good Stab only tells part of the story at a time. In their town, people are going missing and being found mutilated nearby. Some assume it’s a bear, but Arthur soon realizes the monster that Good Stab is and that perhaps the real monster is the man who looks back at him in the mirror for Good Stab knows Arthur’s culpability in the Marias Massacre. Good Stab is there for vengeance, killing anyone related to Arthur, including children he didn’t know he had.
By the time Etsy gets to the end of the manuscript, strange things are happening in her apartment, and she then realizes that Good Stab might be after her too just for being the descendent of Arthur Beaucarne. I won’t ruin the ending for you completely, but I will say that Etsy does what Arthur wouldn’t. She takes responsibility for the sins of a man who died long before she was born.
As with all his writing, Stephen Graham Jones – a Texas born Native American himself – writes with a perspective rarely seen in the horror genre. The trauma of knowing what his people have endured for centuries is in the subtext of all his novels. In this one, the subtext becomes the main narrative. The tragic backstory of a dwindling population of people who were just existing. The blood-soaked land on which they were told they could not longer live. The wildlife they both ate to survive and revered in the circle of life. It’s all there, front and center.
The writing, especially when Good Stab is telling his side of the story, is some beautiful work. Descriptions that could only come from someone who grew up with that culture. Use of the color yellow to show the moral decay, the internal rot, of the characters in question made me love the story even more. If you follow my horror blog, you know I’m a bit obsessed with how the horror genre uses the color and this book is no exception. The color yellow here adds to the story making the redemption arc for Etsy’s family all the more meaningful as Good Stab can finally rest and rejoin his people.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
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Stephen Graham Jones brings to life a vampire story told through the eyes of an old priest hiding behind the priesthood and a Native American blood sucker out to get revenge for what was done to his people, their land, and the buffalo. We all know that tragic, terrible part of American history where white settlers are hellbent on killing every buffalo in the west, and just about every Native American along with them. The Marias Massacre is the specific event that this book centers around. While one character feels guilt, the other feels trauma and anger. In the old American west, a bloody story within a story within a story within a western backdrop.
It starts when the old 1912 manuscript of the priest, Arthur Beaucarne, is found in 2012 by a construction worker. His descendent, Etsy Beaucarne, gets ahold of the document, transcribes it for a writing project in hopes of achieving tenure and the project brings up her own set of issues with her family. Within the pages of the manuscript, Arthur describes meeting a mysterious Native American man who comes to his church service and tells him the story of how he came to be there.
Good Stab, the Native American in question, describes how he, as a younger man, endured massacres and tragedies with his people before coming into contact with a vampire (the Cat Man is how he describes the creature). After dying himself after coming into contact with the vampire’s blood, he wakes to find his body regenerated and hungry for blood. Good Stab lives off of animals and humans alike, but the animals make him look like an animal – growing antlers and fur. Soon, he begins feeding on the men who keep coming into the area (what is now Yellowstone National Park) to kill buffalo for their hides. His travels around the area bring him closer to people he knows, his former tribe, but also in contact with the still alive Cat Man. The two give chase to each other and Good Stab must find a way to keep the Cat Man from hurting his people.
Arthur transcribes this story in pieces as Good Stab only tells part of the story at a time. In their town, people are going missing and being found mutilated nearby. Some assume it’s a bear, but Arthur soon realizes the monster that Good Stab is and that perhaps the real monster is the man who looks back at him in the mirror for Good Stab knows Arthur’s culpability in the Marias Massacre. Good Stab is there for vengeance, killing anyone related to Arthur, including children he didn’t know he had.
By the time Etsy gets to the end of the manuscript, strange things are happening in her apartment, and she then realizes that Good Stab might be after her too just for being the descendent of Arthur Beaucarne. I won’t ruin the ending for you completely, but I will say that Etsy does what Arthur wouldn’t. She takes responsibility for the sins of a man who died long before she was born.
As with all his writing, Stephen Graham Jones – a Texas born Native American himself – writes with a perspective rarely seen in the horror genre. The trauma of knowing what his people have endured for centuries is in the subtext of all his novels. In this one, the subtext becomes the main narrative. The tragic backstory of a dwindling population of people who were just existing. The blood-soaked land on which they were told they could not longer live. The wildlife they both ate to survive and revered in the circle of life. It’s all there, front and center.
The writing, especially when Good Stab is telling his side of the story, is some beautiful work. Descriptions that could only come from someone who grew up with that culture. Use of the color yellow to show the moral decay, the internal rot, of the characters in question made me love the story even more. If you follow my horror blog, you know I’m a bit obsessed with how the horror genre uses the color and this book is no exception. The color yellow here adds to the story making the redemption arc for Etsy’s family all the more meaningful as Good Stab can finally rest and rejoin his people.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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