“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,” by Stephen Graham Jones, is two things at once: a searching historical novel that examines America’s past sins and also a gory horror thriller.

The book opens in 2012, when a construction worker in a dilapidated church parsonage finds a 100-year-old journal written by a pastor named Arthur Beaucarne. The journal recounts a strange tale: In 1912, a mysterious Indigenous man, Good Stab of the Blackfeet tribe, walked into Arthur’s church and revealed the harrowing and disturbing story of how he had been transformed into a vampire who sought revenge for the violence done unto his people.

In this Halloween episode of the Book Review Book Club, the host MJ Franklin discusses “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” with his colleagues Gilbert Cruz and Joumana Khatib.

Other books and movies mentioned during this discussion:

“Dracula,” by Bram Stoker

“Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil,” by V.E. Schwab

“Sinners,” directed by Ryan Coogler

“Twilight,” by Stephenie Meyer

“Twin Peaks: The Return,” created and directed by David Lynch

“Pushing the Bear: After the Trail of Tears,” by Diane Glancy

“Lone Women,” by Victor LaValle

“The Reformatory,” by Tananarive Due

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Pushing the bear

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