The book was a bit hard to get into at first but it did pick up. It's basically a homage to the slasher genre. The main character is a girl named Jade and I found the complexity of her character fascinating. I find Stephen Graham Jones novels quirky, unique and very deftly written.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love that this book reminded me of the 80’s slasher films. Those were truly some great movies. This book hit all the marks for me. I loved the storyline, Jade, the homage to final girls and the 80’s movies and of course the blood and gore, which no good slasher is without.

Can’t wait for his next book!

You know when you're reading a book and you can't tell if you're loving it or hating it? Well that's how I felt about this one. Now don't get me wrong, I was very intrigued by the entire thing but I was very conflicted. I finished this one a few days ago and have been sitting on the review because I just didn't know.

Jade Daniels was such a unique protagonist to read about. She is a loner with an Abusive father, an absent mother, and an obsession with slasher movies. Jade wishes day in and day out that her life could be a slasher, but she isn't that lucky. Until one day, the perfect final girl moves into town and strange things begin to happen. Is this seriously happening? Or is it all in Jades head?

In-between each chapter we get to read Jades extra credit papers titled "Slasher 101". In these entries we get to read about different slasher movies that occurred throughout our history. It was a very unique and fun thing to read about and they had me completely sucked in.

Now the best part of the book, the ending. It really took a turn near the end and wowza talk about gory. It wasn't what I was expecting at all but I think I kinda loved it? So the ending I loved, Jade I loved, the writing I loved, the storyline I loved, the pacing of the book not so much. So with all that being said, I may not have known while reading it if I loved or hated it, but while writing this review I decided I enjoyed it.

This is a difficult read, I won’t lie. I think the best way to describe it is that the words kind of made me itch? One of the reasons I like Jones’ writing so much is that he toys with the absurd and the uncomfortable in a way that TRULY unsettles you, but for this book, I think the itchiness stemmed more from a deep, nagging desire to see the plot advance. If I could slash through half of the conversations that our main character, Jade, has with the side characters, I would—and I don’t think we’d lose too much in terms of characterization or plot development.

The text is interspersed with Jade’s Slasher 101 essays to her history teacher, and I loved their insights and homage to the slasher genre. That does become tiring though because this entire book is VERY meta. The essays prompt what’s to come, and Jade’s inner monologues teeter-totter between premonitions and will-this-happen or won’t-this-happen. It’s self-referential in a way that felt novel at first, and quickly became something that weighed down the book.

It isn’t until we reach the last hundred pages or so that the plot finally kicks into gear, and for me, I had definitely lost steam. Is it a gory bloodbath that Jones truly does so well? The man knows how to write visceral body horror in a way that is honestly unparalleled, which is why I bumped this up a half a star.

As I’m not overly familiar with horror movies, I not only appreciated Jade’s “essays”, but throughly enjoyed them as well. Stephen Graham Jones has expertly woven together the many layers within this book - creating a suspenseful, mournful thriller with a main character to root for. Thank you NetGalley for my copy. My comments and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this horror story. It was a love letter to slasher movies. The prologue nearly knocked me off my chair. Then, I was disappointed with the slow burn to the excitement which started about three quarters of the way in. After that, the horror that we expect from slasher movies kicked in with the ending I was not expecting. If you enjoy horror books, you will love My Heart is a Chainsaw. I received a free copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving my review.

Hmm. Hmmmmm. I'm torn.
I really should have loved this book. I wanted to love this book. Maybe I love parts of this book?
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my eARC for review!
The protagonist of My Heart Is A Chainsaw, Jade Daniels, is a horror movie fanatic. Specifically, obsessed with slashers. And she's seeing evidence of slasher activity throughout her hometown of Proofrock.
Intercut with the lengthy chapters are Jade's entries called Slasher 101. These, to me, were a highlight of the book, with commentary on various slasher movies, themes and phenomena. (Fun fact: after I included the Texas Chainsaw DVD cover in my photo, I Iearned it's not, by Jade's definition, considered a slasher film. Because Leatherface's killings weren't motivated by revenge. Live and learn, so to speak!)
I've read one other book by Stephen Graham Jones and there is no doubt he's a talented writer. I just didn't quite vibe with the tone of this one and the plot is certainly less than linear. It did all lead to a pretty great and gorey ending, just took a bit to get there.
That said, horror fans should definitely check this out as I think it will become a mainstay of the genre.
For release on Aug. 31.

Jade lives in Proofrock, a small town that has nothing for her other than her abusive father, neglectful mother and a high school she hates. She uses slasher movies to escape from her depressing life. When bodies start piling up after a series of murders, Jade finds herself in the midst of her own slasher plot. She thinks it’s connected to the new housing development going in across the lake called Terra Nova. As Jade pushes for the truth, she also pushes herself towards becoming a target.

I love horror movies so Jade’s knowledge of the genre was awesome. That being said, at times she would go on rants and I just didn’t find them interesting enough to follow as they were bogged down with extremely specific details that bore little connection to the plot. I found the writing style to be very difficult to digest. Jade as a narrator was very scattered and I found it hard to follow. I thought the plot could have been quicker and the first three quarters dragged for me. I did like seeing Jade’s tenacity, but overall this one missed the mark for me.

I don't really know what to say about this book, other than that I quite enjoyed it. I really like the sense of unease that Stephen Graham Jones is able to convey in his writing. While in my opinion this one is not quite as scary as The Only Good Indians, I did enjoy the twist this one put on the slasher genre and the themes it explored throughout. Where Jones excels is creating a feeling of unease and dread, and playing into more psychological horror than just straight up scares. The subverting of the 'Final Girl' trope in this story was also just really great.

Jones is such a master at characterization and his main character in this novel, Jade, is no exception. But it wasn't just Jade who was so well crafted. It was all the minor and side characters as well. Jones clearly also really knows his horror films and his horror cinema history. The level of detail he brings in that regard was just outstanding.

The main issue with this novel is that it could have used a little bit tighter editing. The middle portion of the story did start to drag a bit, but does eventually pick up and really start to gain motion and there were a few times where it was a little difficult to track what was going on, or I felt like I had missed some important piece of information. But all that aside, this was a really fun read that made me want to curl up and marathon a bunch of slasher films. This novel really truly is a love letter to the genre and fans of it will definitely find a lot to love in this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada and Gallery / Saga Press for allowing me access to this friggin' masterpiece.

This novel is about Jade, a horror-obsessed teenage Blackfeet girl, who moves through life largely rejected and dismissed by her peers and the adults around her. This compounds her love of the horror movie genre, it becoming the psychology that rules her life. So much so, that she is convinced a real-life-in-person slasher film plotline is about to unfold in her tiny Idaho town that borders Indian Lake.
Unfortunately, no one believes her, and she might be more correct than she knows...

The entire story of this novel pays homage to slasher films and the horror of the 70s and 80s (and even the 60s). What's even more brilliant is the fact that it does so while centring two young POC girls as the central heroes, the biggest subversion of the genre, and yet plays perfectly into the trope of the Final Girl (you'll hear more about this in the book, trust me). The characters feel real, easy to imagine, familiar, the lore and the trauma and painful history of the town are so palpable, every character rotates easily around it, even newcomers.

Jones has already made it clear that he is masterful in his writing, unleashing plots full of surprises but also logical conclusions, and writing that is so immersive and graphic that you feel tangled within the horror it depicts. This book only furthers this conclusion for me, surprising me by being even more impressive than "The Only Good Indians", a book I thought to be so unique in voice and so unsettling in tone, unlike anything I have ever read.

Seriously, if you love horror or horror movies, this book is for you. It will grip your attention, right from the first canoe ride.

This was my first Stephen Graham Jones book and I'm excited to start the other two I have on my kindle. Other then feeling a little lost in the beginning (which could have honestly just been me) I enjoyed every minute of this book! It was a fun trip through all the slasher references and any horror lover will enjoy it. It is a slow burn so stick with it the ending is worth all the slow build up. I'll also say there are very few likable characters in the beginning which is fine because by the end almost everyone is redeemed in some way.

Overall I enjoyed the story it was a fresh take on horror and slashers in general.



Thank you NetGalley for an ARC for an honest review.

This is one of those books that is a solid read throughout but has an absolutely killer ending. The last 10% of the novel is fantastic.

After the utterly creepy and tone-setting first chapter, the story takes a little bit to acclimatize to, as the novel follows Jade in third person, but also manages to contain the unreliable narrator trope. Jade hides things from the reader, people who care about her, and herself. It’s clear she’s suffered a lot in her young life, and she hides this pain in her obsession with slasher films. Despite what I blurb says, it’s too simplistic to say that Jade identifies with the slashers in the films - what Jade wants is to be a “final girl”, a good girl, a girl not only with a loving family but a girl able to overcome the horrors she is faced with. Jade wishes she had suffered the terrors of a final girl in a slasher because that trauma is preferable to her real life. But Jade does not think she deserves this. She believes she’s simply a minor character intended to help the final girl along.

This novel does a fantastic job with Jade’s characterization and arc while keeping her from becoming the stereotypical typical final girl she so wishes to be. You just want to envelop her in a hug and tell her it’ll be ok.

I also thought the not-so-subtle comments on the treatment of Indigenous peoples and lands were well-delivered and tied well to the overall end of the novel.

The novel is also very clever. Calling the town “Proofrock” was a fun allusion and a bit of foreshadowing, but I mean more in terms of the slasher movie aspects. It’s clear Jones loves slasher films and his breadth of knowledge is superb. He references not only the main films we’ve all seen but very obscure ones like Prophecy and Thankskilling and The Burning. While slashers are not my favourite genre (I prefer ghosts), my partner is obsessed with 80s horror movies so we have seen almost everyone that Jones mentions. How Jones ties in the themes from those movies to the themes of My Heart is a Chainsaw was so much fun.

Yet, the plot idles for a while before it revs up to full throttle (chainsaw joke). The novel lulls quite a bit in the center and at times I wasn’t sure where it was going. The prose was also a little confusing at times, where I wasn’t sure what had just happened or I felt like I was missing something.

Also, it’s not very scary for horror, the first scene aside. I do wish the rest of the novel kept up that vibe, but aside from that part, nothing about the novel really scared me. Slashers don’t scare me though, so this might be part of it. I’m of the mentality that “if it bleeds I can kill it,” so I’d more likely go after a slasher person with my own weapon than run away screaming from them. Ghosts though …

There was also one kind of big thing in the novel that didn’t make sense to me because it should have drastically impacted the action later on but seemed to be forgotten. That irked me a bit.

I’m also of two minds about the little “essay” chapters. They grew on me as the story unfolded, but at first, I found them distracting. One of the last ones, about Jaws, was really interesting though.

I really enjoyed this novel. I didn’t love the book enough to give it five stars, but I think those who love slashers will definitely appreciate it, as well as those who like their horror thematically poignant and not just for scares.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: August 31, 2021
Jade is an expert on slasher films, immersing herself in their facts and films to try and escape her life as a high school graduate in Idaho. However, when dead bodies start turning up in her small town, Jade sees clues that a serial killer is in their midst- but no one, from the new girl at school to the police- will listen to Jade, dismissing her as the town freak. So Jade knows that she must use her slasher film knowledge to save the town, and the people in it.
Stephen Graham Jones has many novels under his belt (his most recent being “The Only Good Indians”) many of them receiving accolades and acclaim. “My Heart is a Chainsaw” is his newest novel, and although it is the first novel by Jones I have read, I was excited to read it and see what all the fuss is about. I know I will have an unpopular opinion here, but I wasn’t impressed.
The first half of the novel is confusing and disjointed- I couldn’t adjust to the strange and off-kilter writing style. Although Jade is a great character, initially I couldn’t tell if she was suffering from mental illness, or if she had a developmental disorder like Autism of Asperger’s. To be honest, I almost DNF’ed the story- but then the plot did a complete shift, and toward the end I was pulled in and engaged (although the writing style still was a difficult hurdle).
As a fan of horror movies and slasher flicks as well (although not to the same degree as Jade!), I appreciated the abundance of horror facts and the shout-outs to horror films of days gone by. Jade was relatable to me through her eccentricity, her role as the town “reject”, and her struggles to cope with her life by hiding in her movies and facts.
I loved Jade, the horror movie facts, and the second half of this novel, but the first half of this novel and the wonky writing style pulled away from my enjoyment. I definitely can see why some would enjoy “Chainsaw”, and Jones is most definitely unique and creative, but I was not blown away. I will definitely give Jones another shot though in the future!

I was so thrilled and looking forward to reading this book! The synopsis is really intriguing and any slasher themed books, I am here for it! I liked how scary the first chapter was. It was fast-paced and I was curious enough to see how this story pans out. Unfortunately, after reading about 30%, I found myself to be not invested in the story. I struggled to get into it and I am sure it is a me thing. I know a lot of readers had enjoyed his books. As much as I wanted to like this book, it wasn't for me. Bummer!

Pub. Date: Aug 31st, 2021

***Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for this gifted reading copy to read and review.***

This book is really great! It's scary, thrilling and full of gory horror. It really messes with your expectations of slasher films and pop culture and turns it on its head. My Heart is a Chainsaw is iconic!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. The first chapter with “Sven and Lotte” was a solid start. And I honestly thought it was going to be a great horror read. But, by around 40% the story was all over the place. It moved really slow after the first chapter. The slasher movie references were interesting. But, Jade being a true, hardcore slasher movie fan was at times, overdone. But if you’re a fan too, you might like this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this one. The book description was very compelling and I was interested to see how the author would take the slasher genre and transform it to work within the context of a novel, but it ultimately fell flat to me. With the exception of the opening chapter, for a good 60% of the book, nothing really happens. We see Jade, our protagonist, watching from the outside as she thinks a slasher cycle is beginning around her, trying to convince Letha she's the final girl, but other than her obsession with putting together the pieces, it is not that interesting to be an outsider of a slasher. By the time the action begins to take place, I just wasn't interested anymore as I felt no real connection to any of the characters so I didn't care what happened to them. A key part of why I love slashers is the fast pace as it keeps you interested and holding on for what happens next, this story was the opposite. It relies on you to care about Jade's obsession which I didn't.

While I didn't particularly enjoy this story I wouldn't write it off as bad, it just wasn't for me. I felt like I got lost in the details and that left me stranded by the end, however, the slow-burn nature of the story may be a positive for a more patient reader than me.

First of all, many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an advance reader copy of My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been very interested in reading Stephen Graham Jones for a while and was very excited to receive a copy of My Heart is a Chainsaw. The title alone was enough to intrigue me!

I finished this book over a week ago and have had to let it sit to decide what to write about it. It wasn’t what I expected and I’m torn over whether or not I liked it.
The novel centres about Jade Daniels, an angry half-Indigenous teenager living in the small town of Proofrock. She is obsessed with horror movies and sees evidence of a serial killer in her town. Events that follow are gory, creepy, suspenseful, and very surprising.

First the positives. The opening chapter is very scary and sets up a great premise. The characters are fascinating, very well-drawn, and sympathetic. Jade’s (and the author’s) love of horror movies shines through. The writing is unlike any I’ve ever read. It feels like stream of consciousness and so challenges the reader to keep up.

Which leads me to the negatives. The pace is pretty slow for about two-thirds of the book. After the great opening, I wanted more of that. Oh, it comes, but you have to be patient. The writing style was confusing at times, so that I wasn’t sure if things were really happening or if the events were dreams or hallucinations. This dream-like quality affected the entire book, so I finished it not knowing exactly what happened. Maybe this was the author’s intent. If so, it worked magnificently, but I found it frustrating.

This book left me with a lot to think about and definitely had a big impact on me. If you’re prepared to be challenged and patient, I recommend it. Personally, I’m eager to pick up another by this author.

This book was truly special and something different. The main character, Jade, is edgy and has so many layers! Her passion for slasher movies drives almost the entire plot of the book and the analysis of the film genre is incredible in detail!
I personally haven’t watched many slasher movies, I’m more into the paranormal side of horror, but the essays and critical lens weaved into the book truly shows Jones’ love for the genre.
The mystery is out of this world, I was completely confused the entire time- in the best way possible- and fell for every single red herring, despite Jade literally having an essay about the trick of the genre.
The Indigeneity of the book is a lot more subtle than I thought it would be, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed the commentary about being Indigenous and about issues in Indian Country.
In the acknowledgements, Jones says he was inspired by Stephen King, among many other horror experts, so if you enjoy King’s work and the horror genre, this book is for you!
I read the last 35% of the book in one sitting because the end is all action and I needed to know how this was going to end!!

What an incredibly terrifying and poignant book! This is not for the faint of heart as it is raw and gory. This was a slow-burn horror (the best kind IMO) with the major action starting to kick in around 60-65%. Until then, Graham gives the reader an extremely atmospheric build up through the eyes of protagonist Jade, Proofrock’s resident slasher movie aficionado. She is a ‘horror chick’ who does not feel like she has what it takes to be ‘the final girl’ in the horror movie she sees unfolding around her. What I think worked the best about this novel is that we are entirely enmeshed in Jade’s POV; we are in her head for so much of the story and we see everything through her lens. There are some incredible moments of suspense, terror, and devastation as a result of this technique. It was *chef’s kiss* – perfect.

For those not in the know about slasher / horror films, no worries! Jade provides the reader with an in-depth slasher education – a Slasher 101, if you will – through short essays that she writes to her history teacher for extra credit. Alternating between chapters, these essays discuss tropes, characters, keystone moments in seminal horror films, and important films in the slasher genre, and they enrich the rest of the novel by contextualizing what is going on in Jade’s head as well as the events that are unfolding in her town and across the lake. They may even provide a little foreshadowing, too. My god, this entire book is a giant love letter to horror / slasher films and I LOVE IT!

What’s more, SGJ has interwoven such incredible social commentary throughout this story. My favourite kinds of horror stories are ones that have something to say about the issues in our world. This is one message (terrifying, poignant, razor-sharp) that you are not going to want to miss.