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299: Stephen Graham Jones's THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER - October 2025 Book Club

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Have you picked up Stephen Graham Jones’s The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) yet? We dig into this brilliant work in our October book club discussion. We start with a Bookish Check-In: Jen’s reading Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Ashley just started V. E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). 


Then we dive into The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. We talk about the layered storytelling structure, including journals, interviews, and found documents, and we discuss how Jones uses horror to explore history, violence, and accountability. 


We wrap up with our pairings: Jen recommends Dan Simmons’s The Terror (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Ashley shares Emelia Hart’s Weyward (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), plus we both shout out other Stephen Graham Jones books. 


We’d love to hear what you thought of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Come tell us your take on Instagram @unabridgedpod.



Bookish Check-In

Ashley - V. E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)


Our Book Club Pick

Stephen Graham Jones’s The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)


Our Pairings

Ashley - Emilia Hart’s Weyward (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Dan Simmons’s The Terror (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)


Other Mentions

Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Stephen Graham Jones’s Mongrels (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)


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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


[00:00:36] Ashley: Hi, and welcome to Unabridged. This is episode 299. Today, we are discussing Stephen Graham Jones' The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. This is our October 2025 book Club pick. Before we get started today, I just wanted to remind you that we support both Libro FM and bookshop.org, and whenever you look at our show notes, we have affiliate links that support us a little bit, support our podcast.

[00:00:57] If you purchase from them through the links. Also, with the bookshop, we have a shop. And so if you go to bookshop.org/shop/unabridgedpod, anything you purchase through that, we get a small, affiliate amount, and it really does help us cover the cost of our podcast. The link to that is in the show notes. And before we get into our discussion of Jones' book today, we're gonna share our bookish check-in. Jen, what are you reading?

[00:01:23] Jen: I am reading Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain. This one has been out for a while. I've had it on my Kindle forever, and I decided to dip in. The book is narrated by Enzo, a dog. So he is the narrator through the whole book, and when it opens, he is quite old, and he is making things.

[00:01:43] So this will be the eve of his death because he feels like he's become a burden to his family. So Ashley is making a super sad face right now. If you listen to our last episode, I warned her that the dog element, she might be out, but that is immediately sad, but then it goes, and basically, you get a flashback of Enzo's whole life.

[00:02:01] So he remembers the moment when his owner, Denny, picked him up out of a litter of puppies and brought him home. You get the story of Denny meeting his future wife, Eve, and having their daughter Zoe, and you see the way that Enzo becomes such a part of this family. So his owner, Denny, is a race car driver, and Enzo picks up on everything Denny talks about.

[00:02:26] So they'll watch races together, and Denny is preparing. So while he's preparing for these races, he's talking to Enzo about the skills that you need and how he strategizes, and Enzo is just like this little sponge picking up on all of thi,s and Enzo's understanding of life and death is that dogs after they die, if they've been good enough, become human in their next life.

[00:02:48] And so he's eager to just absorb everything and learn everything he can so that when he comes back as a human, he can be off to a good start. And he and Denny can be friends. It's very sweet. So, when Zoe, their daughter, comes along, he watches all these children's shows with her, and he's never quite able to read, which he's very resentful of, but he learns a lot of words, and he learns a lot of skills.

[00:03:12] I am really, really enjoying it. I'm about halfway through. There are some other sad things that happen that I don't wanna spoil, but it's just really sweet to get this dog's perspective. He loves his people so much and becomes interested in the things that they're interested in, and just wants to be a good part of the family.

[00:03:34] We'll see how much I'm sobbing by the end. I feel like it's probably gonna be a whole lot, but right now we're at a high point at the moment I'm at, so the sadness is yet to come, but yeah, that is Garth Stein's The Art of Racing In The Rain.

[00:03:48] Ashley: I've heard a lot of good things about that one, Jen, but it did make me feel a little lumpy in my throat even as you were talking. So might not be coming my way, but I would be interested to hear after you read, what you think.

[00:03:56] Jen: Yeah, it was also adapted into a movie, which I also have not seen. I feel like the book is probably more doable for me right now than the movie. We'll see. But anyway. All right. What are you reading, Ashley? I.

[00:04:08] Ashley: I just started this one last night, and I'm really excited to read it for this autumnal season. This is V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. And I've seen this one a lot.

[00:04:19] Jen and I have both read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I can't remember how often I've talked about that on here, but I mean, I love that book. When you think back over swaths of books, it is one that rises to the top for me, so

[00:04:31] I think I'm a little bit chasing that feeling of how much I enjoyed that book, with this one. And I have only read the first a little bit over the first chapters, or I'm very, very new, and I can't tell yet if it has that same sensation. But anyway, in the beginning, you meet Maria and she's in Spain in like early 15 hundreds, 1532.

[00:04:51] And her family lives along the Camino de Santiago, where the pilgrimages happen. And so they're always having people come through their town. There are people coming into town in the beginning and there is, she always likes to go and see, and her older brothers, she's the youngest of three, her father has died and her oldest brother especially, but both of them kind of are her keepers and they're always like telling her what not to do and so she's trying to sneak off so that she can see the people coming into town and is getting like lectured about not doing that.

[00:05:27] But amid the people arriving, there is this mysterious woman who is veiled and gray and cannot be seen at all. And. Maria is very intrigued by this, and the person who arrives, people say, is a widow, and she does not leave her room for like days. So then people are like wondering what's going on and who this person is and what she has to do.

[00:05:53] And then shortly after, Maria runs into this widow out in the woods, and the woman is gathering herbs, and she's quite young and very different than what Maria had expected. And so there's this air of mystery, and people keep speculating that she's a widow, but there's also this kind of undercurrent of the idea that she might be a witch.

[00:06:15] And so Maria, as a young child, asks her outright if she's a witch, and they have this interesting conversation. And then, we find out that Maria does not see this woman again for another 10 years. So interesting premise. Very mysterious. I don't know anything beyond. I really don't know anything about the book.

[00:06:34] And, what I did see from the publisher's synopsis, which Jen and I talk about sometimes, like, I usually don't like to read the publisher's synopsis, especially in books that are kind of mysterious in their settings. But what I could tell right away is that there are three timelines, which I often enjoy.

[00:06:50] So I do think that we will. Move from Maria to some other timelines, which I'm excited about. So, that is V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil, and I can't report yet, but I'm excited to read it for the season.

[00:07:04] Jen: Yeah, that one is definitely on my list. Schwab is one of those authors that I always wanna read more of, and I was just telling Ashley for some reason, I, I don't know why I don't, and she has quite a back list, so I think sometimes I would like to read them all, but also that's quite daunting to think of them all, so, which is a dumb way to look at it.

[00:07:21] I just need to read a book, Jen, anyway,

[00:07:25] Ashley: I have struggled with that too. I think it is choosing which one to do next, and I think Addie LaRou had quite a bit of a claim, whereas, like, a lot of her other books have a claim as well, it's just deciding which ones. And then sometimes with authors like Schwab, I get caught up in trying to figure out which ones are part of a series and which ones aren't, and which one is the right one to start with if you're doing a series.

[00:07:48] I do think sometimes it's daunting with authors who have long back lists, even if you liked something by them taking that next step is sometimes I think a little tricky, but we'll see Today we are discussing Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, which is Jones's newest book, and we are excited to, dive into that together.

[00:08:09] Before we get started with our discussion, I wanted to share the publisher's synopsis. This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet. An Indian named Good Stab, as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet nation, on looking for justice. It begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall in 2012.

[00:08:32] What is unveiled is a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events that goes back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in the transcribed interviews with Good Stab. He shares the narrative of his peculiar and unnaturally long life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story captured in the vivid voices of the time by one of the new Masters of Literary horror, Stephen Graham Jones. I was like, Do I feel satisfied with that synopsis? I think one thing I wanted to say is just about the layering that I don't know that here in the synopsis, you're totally getting it, but obviously, as we unpack this, I think the layering in which the story is told is really important to how everything comes together.

[00:09:13] But I'm sure we'll get into that. So, Jen, what is your overall impression?

[00:09:17] Jen: I love this so much. So this is my second time reading it. I read it first on audio, and then this time I picked up the paperback, and yeah, I think. Jones is just so masterful at taking these legendary monsters and doing something with them that is unexpected. So I love a vampire story, but the way that he uses the vampire story to unveil this entire history and to question.

[00:09:46] The decisions that people have made are so fascinating. And so that layering, Ashley, that you were talking about, I think, is one of my favorite things. I'm a sucker for a frame story. I love that consideration of who is controlling a narrative and what is their motivation in sharing the story, the way they're sharing it, and which parts last and which parts fall away.

[00:10:09] I'll say more later, but I think that was what grabbed me first and most, and then revisiting it. I noticed so many subtleties about the way Jones unveils information about each individual's part in a horrific history of what happened, and I think as you come to understand the involvement of each character.

[00:10:33] I found that really fast. I feel like I'm trying to hide spoilers, and I don't know why, but anyway, I found that to really be fascinating. So, yeah. What about you? What were your overall impressions?

[00:10:42] Ashley: I loved this. I listened, and I do think it's relevant how you take this one in. I feel a little ungrounded to be discussing, like I feel like I need to reread, but I did not have time before we recorded today. So I do think this is a book that is complex enough to warrant a second reading for sure.

[00:11:02] And also, I really enjoyed the listening experience, and I think it's really well put together as an audiobook, but it was hard for me, especially at the beginning, but really. Times throughout to follow well what was happening. And I think that is because all of the layers of the narrative, who was driving the narrative, who's the one speaking, how does it fit into the other piece?

[00:11:23] There were times that I would've benefited from flipping back and forth in a text because, as it progressed, it became easier and easier. But I will say that in the beginning, I kept being like, oh gosh, what is happening? Like, I need to go back. I need to listen again. And I did go back a few times, which was helpful,

[00:11:37] But I think I look forward to reading or listening or both again, because I just think there's a lot here.

[00:11:43] But yeah, overall impression, I absolutely loved it. And I feel like the unpacking is complex, but that's part of what makes it really richly told.

[00:11:51] What about for you, Jen? Like, what is something that worked for you specifically?

[00:11:55] Jen: I think I'm gonna focus on Arthur Bokar because I think that, you know, we're getting his journal for, I would say, the center layer of the narrative. So he is recording what Good Stab tells him, but also has these moments where he's commenting upon it. And I think it is amazing to me that Jones does such a good job capturing his mind and the way.

[00:12:23] he sees Good Stab, which is incredibly insulting, and he just captures that colonialist point of view so well. And Arthur is such a slippery character, just to get hold of, but also he is slippery because he is constantly trying to escape the ramifications of what he has done. He knows he's done things wrong.

[00:12:45] But he does not want to confront those. And so it's easier for him to belittle and dismiss the victims of his actions than it is to actually, which I think is common, right, than it is to actually own what he did. But I found it to be really fascinating.

[00:13:04] The moments when he is commenting on. What Good Stab has told him about he massacre, for instance. And yeah, you see him trying to like worm his way around the truth of what happened. And so the way Jones embeds all of that through the narrative so that the big reveal doesn't happen until the end, and watching.

[00:13:28] Arthur's brain at work. I just think he's masterful. I just thought it was so brilliant. I think Jones's ability to embody this character who is so distasteful, but I mean, in as empathetic a way as you could, right? Thought it was really powerful. Yeah. I really love that.

[00:13:45] Ashley: Yeah. I think that his unveiling of everything through these very guided by the person writing narratives is just really effective.

[00:13:57] Jen: Yeah, and then to see Etsy react to it as well.

[00:14:01] Ashley: Right.

[00:14:02] Jen: And we get less of her point of view through the book, which is as it should be. But I also, yeah, I think that's really interesting too. And then to see the action that she takes after she's read the whole story is a powerful commentary in and of itself.

[00:14:14] Ashley: Yes. I think like something that was shocking to me is that, and somebody I think he does so well, is that despite all the heaviness, there's also, and I think this is true of Jones and the books I've read of his, there's this eternal optimism that I really appreciate because I think he is reckoning with hard truths and hard truths based on historical events that I think we often.

[00:14:37] either cannot face directly

[00:14:40] Jen: or when you're facing them, there's just no feeling of like redemption for it. And yet with Etsy, I think, like you said, even though her part is a small part of the larger story, there is an idea that there's a better way to move forward and that there is hope in doing that.

[00:15:00] Ashley: And I think that's really amazing.

[00:15:02] Jen: Yeah. Well, and I think contrasting Arthur and Good Stab. Like Good Stab acknowledges the places he's been complicit and or has made the wrong choice, which has led to horrific consequences. And I think contrasting his honesty with himself and with Arthur's inability to see clearly who he is for so much of the book is such a powerful commentary as well.

[00:15:29] I wanna use the word slimy, and I know that's not a very good descriptive word, but just yeah, I just became so disgusted with Arthur because I'm like, you know, Good Stab is not presenting himself as someone who has never done anything wrong. I keep coming back to that moment at the beaver lot, right?

[00:15:45] He has confronted those moments, and he's had longer to do it, to be fair, right. He's had a long time to work through his own history. But I don't know that Arthur would ever be able to reach that same place of clear-eyed recognition of who he is and what he's done. That Good Stab does?

[00:16:03] Ashley: Yeah, right. A hundred percent.

[00:16:06] Jen: Yeah. All right. So what's something that worked for you, Ashley?

[00:16:10] Ashley: Oh gosh. I think something that I really appreciated was the way that Good Stab continues to try to find a way to integrate into the community, even though he feels that he doesn't deserve to be there, but he is determined to reconcile what has gone wrong with like where he is now and find a way to make a positive impact. I mean, it's not like he chose to be the thing that he is. I think that is a really powerful component of it, also. He did not ask to live this eternal life that he can't get away from.

[00:16:50] And yet he recognizes that because of it, there are these abilities that he has to try to make a positive impact. And I think, even so, I mean, he has this horrible and long, and suffering existence that I think is really hard. And then he has these moments where things seem to be finally improving, and then they get worse again.

[00:17:14] I mean, I don't know. All of the confessions, I think, are such a sad unpacking of this history of suffering and the way that he endures not only his own suffering, but the suffering of his people, and that he can't make it better. I think is all just really, I mean, it worked for me in the sense that it really resonates, and I think it's hard for the reader because I think because of his long life, right? It gives him this larger expanse to see from and we're looking at this longer legacy. And like you said, Jen, I think because he is had this long time, we see his like internal growth. but I think you're right also that there is a difference in existence, like a difference in being between him and Arthur Bokar, who no matter what amount of time he had, would never have wanted to reckon with any of it.

[00:18:08] And that is the whole impact of Good Stab, right? Is like forcing him to reckon with this thing that he absolutely would've spent the rest of his life covering and maybe attempting to pay for, or to, like, mean, kind of paying penance, right? He's trying to do these quote-unquote good things in order to like offset this horrible thing that he was part of, and yet he never wants to look at or deal with the truth of the thing.

[00:18:32] I feel like all of that is just masterfully done.

[00:18:34] Jen: Yeah. Yeah. When you were talking, I was thinking about it too, the way that. Jones takes the vampire story and manipulates it, and that being part of a community, so that whatever Good Stab eats is what he becomes, is so painful because, of course, he still wants to be who he always was, and yet the only way to do that is to eat and kill the people he most wants to save.

[00:19:02] And I just thought. It seems like, duh. Of course. But watching that struggle, and then the moments when he can, you know, maybe they're from a different nation, but he can consume someone who's doing a wrong thing, so that he still looks like who he sees himself in his own mind's eye.

[00:19:21] Oh, the twistedness of that just really hurts. It really got me. Just to watch that happen, and then the whole fish part. Yeah. Anyway, some of the body horror stuff is so vivid that after the first time I read it, those are the moments that stuck in my head a lot.

[00:19:39] Ashley: Uh-huh.

[00:19:40] Jen: It's disturbing.

[00:19:41] Ashley: When we started to do this one, I was like, How bad is the body horror? Because from the only good Indians, there are parts that right now I could viscerally describe to you exactly what happened in the scene because it was just really vivid. But I will say, if you are a sensitive reader and you haven't yet read, sorry if we're spoiling things, but I felt like it was manageable in the scope of the storytelling.

[00:20:04] Jen: Yeah. It's not sensationalistic more than any monster story is.

[00:20:08] Ashley: Exactly that.

[00:20:09] Jen: Part of the narrative.

[00:20:11] Ashley: Yeah. Let's talk about quotes. What is a quote you wanted to share, Jen?

[00:20:15] Jen: I marked so many quotes in this book. Okay, I'm gonna cheat just a little bit, but I see these as being paired so, so often when Good Stab and Arthur are sitting down to talk, Arthur will say, I listen with a good Hart, because that is something he feels he knows from the culture that he should do, and then toward the end.

[00:20:35] When he's revealing his story, he says, it was my skin he had been peeling with each chapter of his story, and he was down to the last strip. Now, at which point my fibrous white meat would be exposed for his teeth to bite into. And I just thought that storytelling part of it, he's not listening with a good heart, right?

[00:20:54] He is absolutely not. These are words that are meaningless until he starts to feel the truth approaching. And then I thought, so initially I was just gonna quote the beginning part of that. It was my skin had been peeling with each chapter of his story, 'cause of course that's beautiful, but there's something in that second part.

[00:21:12] And he was to the last strip now, at which point my fibrous white meat would be exposed for his teeth to bite into. It is ugly what he has done. And there's an ugliness in that description that is very appropriate and. That he should be feeling that kind of pain, that his true ugliness, the real center of who he is, is what's going to be exposed.

[00:21:33] He hasn't been listening with a good Heart, but maybe there's a hint there that he's like, okay, yes, this is what's gonna happen, and I don't have any choice. And the whole ugly truth of what he did and the decisions he made, it's time to put that out there, even though. It is so, so ugly. So I don't know if I'd say he's listening with a good Heart at that point, but he is listening right.

[00:21:53] And he is ready to speak as well. So I thought that was really brilliant.

[00:21:58] Ashley: Yeah. I felt like the way that we moved toward understanding. What he did is all really effective because I do think that for the reader, there's this feeling in the beginning that the story is not about him.

[00:22:14] And I think that part is just really effective, like Good Stab showing up and unveiling all of his own egregiousness. We think it's about him trying to reconcile his own misdeeds, and I think then to come to under, and meanwhile there's all these people being skinned and dying, and you're thinking, okay, this thing is happening, and maybe there's a parallel. But I did not foresee the parallel that then comes to be apparent for Arthur Bokar.

[00:22:46] Jen: I think all of that is just so richly done because the actions that we take have impacts that we cannot begin to fathom. And I think looking at how that all weaves together is just really well done. And that Jones forces three persons and thereby us to think through these things in a much deeper way by unveiling them so slowly and through such a way.

[00:23:13] Ashley: Like you said, Jen, he comes to listen differently, and it's not until he's able to listen differently that he can even begin to understand like what's actually happening.

[00:23:21] Jen: Yeah. What's a quote you wanna share?

[00:23:24] Ashley: I want to say, this is not the quote I'm gonna discuss, but you listed this one, Jen, and I also thought this was like, if I had to say just one kernel from the whole book, it's that moment where Good Stab forces three persons to admit to his part in the massacre, and ultimately through the pushing.

[00:23:43] It's not the most beautiful passage in the book, but he forces him to say. And again, Jen has it quoted here, he just says, because you were just Indians. And I think if I really had to boil down, like, what is the most impactful part of the book? It's that Jones gets us to see that when we don't see other people to be as full, rich, and vibrant as ourselves, that is where all the damage is done.

[00:24:12] So like I don't want that to be my quote, just in the sense that, so really I'm gonna talk about too, but I just think it is the use, it is the use of the word just, it is like he's pulling it out of the most inner, the most base part of himself. But that is the part that has to be reckoned with.

[00:24:31] Like that is it is that belief. And unfortunately, that is the history of what exactly played out is this idea that any action can be justified because it is just this people group.

[00:24:44] Jen: Yeah.

[00:24:44] Ashley: That I feel like I could go on and on about, but I'm going to move on. The quote I really wanted to share is Good Stab, fell to his knees, pressed his forehead to the floor, and he screamed too.

[00:24:55] And I dare say our screams harmonized, at least in how much they pained us. This, I believe, is the story of America told in a forgotten church in the hinterlands with a choir of the dead mutely witnessing. And I feel like it's so powerful because in that moment, Jones has found a way to bring these two very disparate people with very different beliefs into this space together.

[00:25:23] And it is a hard space, and he is forcing this moment of humanity between them. What I love. Is the way that he is showing, again, this is our history, the story that should be told is being told in an empty space, but the people bearing witnesses are all the ones who've died because of it.

[00:25:42] Jen: Yeah.

[00:25:43] Ashley: And that is hard.

[00:25:44] Jen: That consideration of the role of violence. And the role of vengeance throughout history is so fascinating to consider because I'll just say, I was on Good Stabs' side the whole time, and yet of course it's not right. Like some of the people he killed were not.

[00:26:03] Actually, part of what had happened, and it's all an act of vengeance against someone whose death will hurt. Right. Or that it's, you know, he's creating fear, and so yeah. It's like, why am I feeling this way? I should, yeah. Just examining my own reactions to what he was doing, especially with Arthur's descendants.

[00:26:24] Right? That part, I think, is really hard. And so I think the way that Jones is illuminating, you know, from the massacre and thinking of how often those resulted from one action and then an out-of-size reaction on the part of the government or the military, whoever it was, and eradicating again, because they're just Indians eradicating an entire group of people, an entire way of life.

[00:26:52] You think of the violence against the buffalo because it's not just killing them, it's killing a way of life. And so just, yeah. The uses of violence and killing throughout the story are not presented in a simple way. It's very complex and really made me examine my own reactions as I was reading.

[00:27:11] Ashley: I mean, I think the role of the buffalo is something we haven't really touched on, but I think with Weasel Plume, we really see the legacy of that piece as well and the impact, and the way that we can destroy people by destroying what matters to them.

[00:27:29] Jen: Oh my gosh. It's such a brilliant book. I could talk about it all day.

[00:27:33] Ashley: I mean, there's just a lot to examine also, like I, again, I just think, every time I read Jones's work, I think like this is someone whose work we're gonna be reading for a long time. And I think he is bringing to the table, like, just a really powerful portrayal of new ways to look at the history of America that I think are really important and complicated.

[00:27:56] Jen: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:57] Ashley: Well, we are going to share, we're, I don't know how to segue, so I'm just gonna keep on going. We're gonna share our pairings. Jen, I see several listed here. What did you decide on?

[00:28:07] Jen: And this was hard because part of me, and I saw you did the same thing. Part of me just wanted to recommend another June's book. So I'll just mention Mongrels, in which he uses the werewolf mythology not the same way at all, but it's great too. But my official recommendation is Dan Simmons' The Terror, which I read quite a while ago.

[00:28:28] So this is going to be fairly surface level, but the things that connected it were, for me, using a historical event in this case. The search for the Northwest Passage on a real ship called the HMS Terror, which became caught up in the ice and resulted in the death of many people, is a foundation for a horror story, which then comments on human nature in the way that the horror unfolds.

[00:28:56] And it is an incredibly intricate tale. It doesn't have the same sort of layering of narrative, so it is entirely set. In the historical past, it was in 1845, and it shifts between viewpoints, though, so you do get different people seeing what's happening in different ways.

[00:29:18] Individuals who are trapped, who have different types of power or lack power within the ship, and therefore have more or less agency in choosing what they themselves will do. And then he does have. And this was historical as well. They do interact with an Inuit nation and an Inuit woman in particular, who becomes a really key part of the story.

[00:29:40] This was also adapted. There's an anthology series that is called The Terror, and the first season is brilliant and focuses on this narrative.

[00:29:52] So the second season takes place in Japanese incarceration camps. So I would only say that because the book is 835 pages long, it is a long one. And if you're not quite ready to dive into. That dense of a book, the adaptation is really strong. So normally I wouldn't say that, of course, I think you should read the book, but 835 is a long book, so, yeah.

[00:30:15] So anyway, that is Dan Simmons' The Terror.

[00:30:19] Ashley: Oh, wow. I hadn't heard anything about that, Jen. I'm glad you shared that one.

[00:30:22] Jen: That's really good. All right. So what's your recommendation, Ashley?

[00:30:25] Ashley: Oh gosh. Well, like Jen said on our sheet here, I did list Stephen Graham Jones as The Only Good Indians. If you have not read that and you have read the Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I would highly recommend reading that as well. But the one that I would like to share is, on the surface, it seems like a very different book.

[00:30:42] But I think there are a lot of reasons that I would recommend it. So I don't know that I'd say it's a read-alike. But I think that, yeah. I'm just gonna share my book and tell you why I think it's relevant. Amelia Hart's Weyward is about women who have been oppressed because of their power. And the reason that it came to my mind is because. It moves through history, and it follows several different generations. So there's a generational component, and then there's like the impact of what history has led to the moment of the present day. There's that piece. And then also, I would argue that there is a thematic element of historical oppression and the ways that it impacts both individuals and the larger world. There's like a natural component also of the way in which the natural world and the natural order are relevant to what happened, whether we acknowledge it or not. And there's definitely, like in this book, like I think we see in The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, there are people actively working to in society, set up society to ignore the larger natural world.

[00:31:47] But there's like a cost to that. And I think we see the cost of that in both of these books also. So again, this is called Wayward, and it covers three different women, the first of which is in 1619. Alpha is her name. She has been accused of witchcraft, and she's awaiting trial. We really see her story is very much told from her jail cell, awaiting that trial. So there's that piece, and then we have a 1942 piece that's during World War II, and Violet is the narrator of that section. And she is enduring the impact of some of her family's legacy, but does not know a lot about the legacy of her family.

[00:32:25] So there's like all this impact on her personal life. The story of her mother, the story of her history, is like withheld from her, but it's costing her. And then we have 2019, which is where, in modern-day Kate, is trying to escape her abusive partner. She is leaving and trying to get away from him.

[00:32:46] She's pregnant and on the run from an abusive relationship. And I think, like I said, I mean, very different. Like on the surface, this is not a like on the nose comparison, but it just came to my mind because I think in some ways Hart is doing a deep examination of the historical impact of oppression in a way that I would argue is

[00:33:09] a reckoning of what we've said historically, and what is true historically. And so again, very different setting than what Jones is exploring, but I think it is an attempt as well to retell and reexamine some of these narratives that have been told over time and their impact on the present day. So again, that is Amelia Hart's Weyward and very different.

[00:33:34] But I do think if you loved The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, there are some elements here that you would appreciate.

[00:33:40] Jen: Oh yeah. I think that's a great unexpected pairing, but a great pairing. I loved that book as well. Yeah. I listened to that one too. And there were parts of it that were quite hard to listen to. But in a powerful way. Not in a don't read way. Yeah.

[00:33:54] Ashley: Yeah, no, I will say, I can't remember if I said that on here, but anyway, I definitely told you, Jen. I think I started it, and I had to stop. I mean, it really was like, there are parts that are very hard to digest as the reader, and then I didn't come. Back to it for quite a while.

[00:34:08] And then I'm so glad I came back because I think, like Jones, I think it is like looking at things that are really hard and knowing the truth of them. So even though this is fiction, there is a lot of truth being told in what happens to each of these women. And I think it's hard to look at. But what I found really powerful is the way that, similarly, there is a hope.

[00:34:30] For a future that could be different if we are willing to look back in a new way. And I think that is the piece that I really appreciated in both of those.

[00:34:38] Jen: Yeah.

[00:34:39] Ashley: We are going to end with our bookish hearts. Jen, how many bookish hearts

[00:34:44] Jen: Oh, easy. Five. Five Booker hearts. How about you?

[00:34:47] Ashley: Yeah, easy five. I feel like these days it has been rare that we didn't pick one that is a five. And I think that's just 'cause we've been a little more conscientious about which book we're, you know, we only get so many a year, not that we're always gonna be on the mark, but I think we're pretty careful to choose ones that we think there will be a lot to discuss.

[00:35:04] And, but yeah, easy five for sure. I love Jones, and I think it's a testament to how phenomenal he is that, again, in this genre, I just don't read much of it at all. But I love his work, and I think even if you are not a horror reader, he is doing really interesting things in his writing.

[00:35:21] Jen: Agree.

[00:35:22] Ashley: Well, we wanted to end today with our unabridged favorites.

[00:35:25] Jen, what's the favorite for you this month?

[00:35:26] Jen: Kirk and I have been watching and loving Platonic on Apple TV. It stars Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne, who were very close during college and their early twenties, and then they had a falling out because she said something bad about the woman that he ended up marrying. And so it has now been like a decade since they last spoke.

[00:35:52] And she sees on social media, of course, that he's getting divorced, and she's like, Oh, should I reach out to him? And she does. And it is so funny. And so tender. And so she has a great marriage to a really sweet man who very much encourages her to reach out to him. They have three kids together. She has been staying home with the kids, but their youngest is in kindergarten, and they're both attorneys, but she left her practice as an attorney when she started having children.

[00:36:23] And does she wanna get back into that? And the thing I love most about it is. That it is truly a platonic relationship. There's some jealousy, but there's never a hint that they might fall in love. Right. That is just truly this friendship between this man and this woman.

[00:36:38] And he has his own brewery and makes his own beer recipes and is really into that. We are just thoroughly enjoying it. We're on season two of two right now, so I highly recommend it.

[00:36:50] Ashley: Oh, that sounds fun.

[00:36:51] Jen: Yeah, I think you'd like it. It's really good. Perhaps not safe for children. It goes to pretty crass places, but it is really good.

[00:36:58] Ashley: Means I'd like it all the more.

[00:36:59] Jen: Yes, exactly. How about you, Ashley? What's a favorite you wanna recommend?

[00:37:02] Ashley: Well, I felt torn. I think I'm gonna say this one, but I'm gonna cheat and share two. First, I wanted to share Young Sheldon. I told Jen before we started, she was like, Do you have a favorite? Because I always am like, oh no, we've gotten to the end and I have nothing to say. But we did start that one recently.

[00:37:15] If you watch Big Bang Theory, this is a spinoff on Sheldon's character, Sheldon Cooper, and I wasn't drawn to it before. Like I loved Big Bang Theory. I really did enjoy that series a lot. But I think. You know, Sheldon's really quirky in this series, and so like, I wasn't sure I wanted to lean in on his life specifically.

[00:37:34] But anyway, it's really fun. It's really sweet, and I think it's a good invitation to like, think about what it means to be a super smart kid in the world, and what that might look like. But the other thing I wanted to share that is a favorite lately is that we're having our screen porch added to our house.

[00:37:49] Did I tell you that, Jen?

[00:37:49] Jen: No,

[00:37:50] Ashley: Oh my gosh, this has been like an ongoing project for quite a while. Yeah, so it's super exciting, and I guess I just wanted to say like. It was a big lift to start the project. Like I think, it's something we've always wanted to do in the area where we live. It's very worthwhile to have one.

[00:38:05] Like we lived in Virginia for a long time. That's how I met Jen. And when we were in Virginia, we spent tons of time outside, and we really didn't miss having a screen and porch. But in South Carolina, and I know this is true, a lot of places, there's just a big part of the year where, between like, the sort of.

[00:38:18] stinging insects and then also mosquitoes and flies. It's really hard to be outside, like, in a routine daily way. So, we were like, oh, we really wanna do this. And I guess my point is that it did feel hard to start, but I am like so excited. Like if I had to say the thing every morning that I like, waking up, and I'm like, oh my God, I'm so excited.

[00:38:37] That is the thing I'm really excited about. So I'm just grateful. I'm grateful that we were able to do it. I'm grateful we're doing it now and not like. Next year, or in 10 years, or in 20 years. Because I think when you think about that kind of stuff, it really does feel tough to get the ball rolling and find somebody to do it.

[00:38:54] I mean, all those things, and they were challenging, but I'm like so glad. So I just wanna say that's a favorite also. And also, if you are in that, like, should I do it? I've been thinking about it for a long time. I'm glad we're doing it. So there you go.

[00:39:07] Jen: Oh, that's great. That's very exciting. You'll have to send pictures.

[00:39:10] Ashley: That's what I was thinking. I'll have to send you a picture.

[00:39:12] It was really exciting. Well, thank you all so much for listening. We would love to hear what you thought of Stephen Graham Jones’s The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and we hope that you'll join us again next month for our book club Read. Thanks for listening.


 
 
 
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