My Heart Is a Chainsaw
Ratings139
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings139
Average rating3.7
In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that “will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course” (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.
“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”
Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.
Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.
Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold.
Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.
Featured Series
3 primary booksThe Indian Lake Trilogy is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Stephen Graham Jones.
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Book Review ✨ My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Jade knows everything about Slashers. She can tell you every body count for every slasher. Okay maybe the better word for it is obsessed. After a body is found in the town lake, it's Jades time to shine. She knows this is how all slasher films begin, and she knows who the final girl is going to be and it's not her. It's Letha Mondragon, she's beautiful, smart, kind and a perfect final girl. Jade must prepare her for the inevitable, the Lake Witch killings.
I'm not sure if you're aware but I'm not a fan of SGJ's writing but this book has given me a little hope. At first I wasn't feeling it but around 30 percent I was hooked. I needed to know what was going to happen. SGJ tends to rant and go off topic and characters often speak in circles and the story becomes hard to follow. However, after around 30 percent, his writing becomes more fluid only going off track a few times. If he could cut out about 100-150 pages of extra details, rants and boring information about boring subjects, this book could easily be a 5 star read.
The plot is what won me over. It's fun to guess who the slasher is, only to be completely surprised at the end. I enjoyed his characters, especially the main character. She's absolutely tapped, and definitely interesting.
I will say SGJ added perfect amounts of humor at the right moments. His kill scenes are also cringeworthy. Like any typical slasher, he throws in lots of blood and gore, so beware if you are squeamish like me.
In this novel, we follow Jade, a lonely half-Native American outcast obsessed with slasher movies. She lives with her abusive, alcoholic father in the small town of Proofrock, Idaho. Jade has attempted suicide before, and she tries again on the verge of finishing high school. After a few weeks at a treatment center, she comes back to school, but something feels different: Jade is convinced Proofrock has its own slasher, and when she meets Letha Mondragon, the gorgeous, smart, and kindhearted daughter of a mogul who moved into the new fancy development still being built across the lake, she thinks she has found the ultimate final girl.
I honestly just hoped that this book paid off more than it did. It had me with the prologue but was so slow to develop. The end didn't pay off enough for me and I wish it paid respect to horror slashers by being one itself but it wasn't. The slasher references also got old quickly. I love horror and slasher movies but they just referenced so much they felt overdone. I was just disappointed and bored most of the time.
I also didn't understand a significant amount of the book. I honestly think it was me and not the novel. Plenty of people will love this book but I was not one of them.
Thank you to Gallery Books, Stephan Graham Jones, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Neutral 2.5 rounded up.
I somehow couldn't get invested in Jade/Jennifer/J.D. and the same things seemed to be repeated again and again so I felt like i was trying to get to the story through the fish gut soup described at the beginning.
Too many movies
not enough maternal love
still missed the plot twist.
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