"My Heart is a Chainsaw" like most of Stephen Graham Jones' work, always has me pushing and pushing ahead to see what happens next. I don't always engage with thrillers but in this novel, the interwoven meta of slashers, the connection to trauma and sifting and seeking refuge in violence. I was engaged by how Jones shaped the protagonist. Jade was an intense, snarky and energetic character to follow--her gaze that sort of skews what we as the reader are supposed to understand is happening. Her slasher gaze is so interesting. It had me interrogating how I engage with horror, the slasher, the analysis of my own being within real and not real. It was such a wild ride. Her references piqued my interests--I found myself thinking of how sympathetic the Jason Voorhees and Pamela Voorhees was. Like the gaze of violent justice projected onto these mythologized horror figures as a coping mechanism and also as a means to drive the story is a common trend but its always about execution. It was fun to see how slashers, final girls, and the narrative that crafts a particular brand of fantasized killer. And how we wade through the narrative, piecing and undoing the focal points as we dive deeper and deeper in--through interwoven meta-pieces Jade writes as we explore with her. I don't want to get into the details because its all about the anticipation instilled as we move through Jade's landscape and her relationships. The only thing structurally is that the story was so full, so dense, that when we get to the climax it feels rushed, sort of like a bombardment of quick limbs and noise and motion. It wasn't bad, but I wish I had more time with the actual climax and the movement therein as we delve into the many truths unraveled. But--I did love that ending. The ending to this novel was heartfelt and cohesive and connects us back to what shaped Jade.

A beautiful love letter to those classic horror slasher films and horror lovers, but unfortunately it starts with a bang and fizzles down to a trickle.

There’s slow burns, and then there’s just slow. I picked this up and put it down multiple times because it felt like I was sinking into molasses.

Overall, I loved the inclusion of Native American culture into a narrative that is typically white.

I wish the middle section didn’t drag out so long, otherwise this would have been a full on stellar read for me.

I was really excited about this book because people seem to love the horror community. I could not get into it. I was not connecting with the writing style, it felt a little scattered. It is a really interesting plot and I love all the horror movie references, I think it just wasn't for me. But if you're a fan of horror, I still think it's worth checking out.


Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book by this incredibly popular author that I have picked up. Unfortunately it is also the second book that I have dnf'd. Something about SGJ's writing style just leaves me feeling disinterested in the story, despite being really interested in the synopsis that he is presenting. This book was just too slow-paced in the beginning and I lost complete interest.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this book. The first chapter actually made me so nervous that I didn't think I could continue through the book. I went to Goodreads and tried to get a general consensus before giving up and it seemed like this book is quite heavy on gore. I may attempt to pick it up again in the future but I don't think I've ever been frightened/struggled to sleep after reading a chapter like that. Well done to Jones for creating such a vivid image in my mind but this just wasn't for me.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Book Details:
-Genre: Horror
-Setting: fictional small town in Idaho
-Features an engaging and witty lead character and numerous references to slasher movies

Spoilers included in this book: This book contains spoilers for many 70s and 80s slasher movies.

References to Slasher Movies
When I started reading this, I enjoyed how it felt like an ode to slasher movies of the 70s and 80s. There are so many references, which are fun if you enjoy those movies. It might be a bit harder to enjoy just in the start if you don’t enjoy those movies, but the references are also explained as well. There were some I hadn’t watched, and I didn’t feel like it impacted my ability to follow along or enjoy the story.

Pacing
It did take me a little bit to get fully invested in the story, but once I did, I was hooked. It was a slasher story but also not. In typical Stephen Graham Jones style, he wrote a horror novel that is so much more than what I expected going in (e.g., like how his book Mongrels is a werewolf novel but also so much more is going on than that).

Gore Warning
This is likely not a good choice for anyone who doesn’t do well with gore.

Overall
Stephen Graham Jones continues to write very compelling stories. If you enjoy slasher movies, this is a must read. But, even if you don’t, I still recommend this book!

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones is a retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf but this time it is The Girl Who Cried Slasher. This book is a huge homage to the Slasher movie genre and the final survival girl filled with history, facts, and opinions. Where Slasher movies are not known for their characterizations this novel is all about character; as it breakdowns the many layers of the main character Jade. Jade at first is seen as a Slasher obsessed troublemaker, rebelling from society, at the end of the story Jade is explained and grows and it is a truly beautiful thing. I was fortunate enough to get an arc of this book and sadly was not able to read it before publication so I decided to support the author by buying a copy on audible. While I liked to listen to this story because I love horror even with listening I found it hard to follow and needed to sometimes restart chapters because I felt as though I was lost. While I enjoyed was the layers that were revealed of Jade and the bits and pieces about slashers. What I disliked was that Jade was never believed and struggled to get her point across, I know that this sounds like a very uneven review but I did like the spooky aspect and would read more from this author in the future.

Last read of 2021! Brilliant book! My kind of book: thriller, slasher, well written. Can’t wait for the sequel!

There's going to be two, maybe three, camps of people for this book: Those who don't like horror movies, maybe they've seen under 25 in their whole lives. This is not for you. If you haven't watched and are not a fan of at least the big three slasher franchises, I don't think you'll get much out of this book. Then there's people who love horror. As soon as the first leaf falls to the ground at the beginning of fall they run to their living room, light some candles, and watch horror, often rewatching classic slashers. These people are going to love this book.

Our main character Jade is a 17 year old indigenous girl in her final year of high school. She lives in a town that's starting to gentrify which brings a lot of new wealthy people into the town where they're building this whole community. This community is unfortunately built on top of a tragedy which plays really well into the story.

Jade is obsessed with horror, specifically slashers, and the book is split up between the story itself and short interlude type things of Jade's school assignments on the history of slashers which she does in place of other assignments for her history teacher. She is convinced that she's about to live through a slasher in her own life and she's latched on to a girl who has just moved here with her wealthy family because she's convinced that this girl will be the final girl. Chaos obviously ensues from here.

I think the interludes are really interesting because I love taking a look at the significance horror plays in the decades they are released. You can pinpoint what is going on in the world based on what horror is released that year, and it varies by country as well. The interludes are really short so we don't dive too deep but they serve a purpose in moving to story along to the next section and if you're a slasher fan you're definitely going to enjoy these parts.

In a way this book also mimics the pacing of a slasher, starting off kind of slow and campy and ramping up into a fight for your life.

I'm torn on how I feel about this book because it took me so long to get through it that I can't really give it more than three stars but once it hits about the halfway mark it gripped me and I read all the rest in one sitting and I was really into it in the last three chapters especially but ultimately it didn't pull me in the entire time.

MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW is a slow-burn, blood-soaked slasher that will test your horror trivia along with your patience. Much of the excitement in this book is anticipatory, and just when you expect that something big will happen, should happen, could happen, Jones will expertly and quietly steer you away from those thoughts…and then repeat the process quite a few times more.

Patient readers, and those familiar with how Stephen Graham Jones likes to build up the tension and suspense, will be greatly rewarded when the blood and guts hit the fan. And hit it, it does. I’m an avid appreciator of slashers and gore and all things blood-soaked, and this was definitely all of that and more. Even with my near-iron stomach, I still found certain bits to be squicky, so take that as a fair word of warning if you’re not keen on the gore.

The storytelling, particularly seeing things through Jade’s eyes, was a bit of a genius move. And also a bit of a challenge. She has periods where she doesn’t know if she’s awake or if she’s dreaming and, consequently, neither do we. It made for an interesting position, having readers wonder if what were reading is Jade’s reality or some dark part of her mind, and that added such a unique aspect to this tale.

As with many of Jones’ other works, MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW incorporates indigenous characters and offers insight and talking points as to how Native people are treated and, more often than not, mistreated by society. His books aren’t just fantastic horror novels, they’re incredibly insightful and smart as well.

Bottom line — this is a fantastic homage to slasher films, and certainly a fantastic book for slasher fans. 5 gory stars, and I’m putting this one in my top 5 for the year.


*Many thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the digital arc.

This one was a DNF for me. I tried hard to like it but I just couldn't get into it. I did read this author's previous book which I liked it but this one was a struggle.

I was excited for this book, but I had a hard time getting into it and stubbornly refused to DNF. Walls of text and stuck in the mind of a character I did not like.

My Heart is a Chainsaw was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to get an ARC of it. It didn't take long for me to realize that this book wasn't for me. I have mixed feelings about the main character. On one hand, I liked her and could relate to her in a way because I know what it feels like for people to think you're weird for liking horror. On the other hand, her obsessive knowledge of horror is annoying. I get when you find something you like you tend to get a little obsessive about it and find out everything about it. But I have never in my life been around someone whose literally every waking hour is thinking and talking about that particular thing. That is unless they have a disability or are really young. As far as I know, the main character didn't have a disability and she definitely wasn't young.
Because of how the main character was written pretty much the whole story is her spouting out facts about slashers. So that means nothing really happens until towards the ending of the book. I wish I had liked the story more but I just found it to be slow.

There were many points in this book when I thought I'd better put it down and and queue up some slashers on Netflix, because I felt the need to keep up with main character's encyclopedic knowledge of the genre. I often had trouble nailing down the tone throughout the story. Were we in the real world? Or a slasher movie? Or something else entirely? Though I suppose that WAS the point.

I LOVED Graham Jonese's The Only Good Indians, and this was unlike his previous book, but still a solid novel. Think more like Grady Hendrix.

I could not get around the writing of this book. I DNFed it around the 10% mark. I've heard from others that this is Jones's writing style so I'm not sure if it's something I can gel with for future books.

I had been looking forward to reading My Heart is a Chainsaw. I’ve only gotten into reading horror this year and that’s thanks to another Steven Graham Jones book. Unfortunately this one didn’t live up to his other works. I honestly think it might just be the main character who kind of talks in a very stream of consciousness way, which honestly made it hard to follow along. I just found myself not really paying attention because I couldn’t get invested in her or the story.

This is a book about the real final girls.

This book subverts all the horror trope to slam into you with an irreverent & bold heroine. She’s not the innocent virgin among wolves, or the good girl staying home to babysit- she’s a real survivor. I think it’s best to go in minimal knowledge, but it’s safe to say this is chilling, clever & going to be added to my list of horror recs.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Gallery Books/Saga Press

Wow. What a ride this one was. Intense and fast paced with a narrator whose reliability I spent the entire book questioning. Fans of slasher flicks will of course love the thousand-and-one references. This book manages to combine slasher, thriller, mystery, horror, and coming-of-age all into one only-slightly-unbelievable story.

Jade, our MC, is both sympathetic and unknowable. She plays her cards so close to the chest that even though we see her every move, there's always the question in the back of the reader's mind of just what exactly Jade is up to and why.

The basics of the story are that Jade, age 17, is an outsider with a love of (obsession with) slasher films. Because of this she is more than ready when life in her small town turns into a real life slasher, complete with nail guns, chainsaws, bear traps, and local ghost legends.

Aside from the obvious slashy-slashy blood and mayhem, there's a deeply uncomfortable underlying story here which is of course the true story, that of a girl who has lived an incredibly screwed up life and her struggle, unrecognized even to herself, I think, to be someone worth saving.

I loved the story but have to admit that I'm somewhat ambiguous about the ending. It seemed an odd choice, who the killer really was, and I've almost convinced myself that it's really something else entirely. But that would be spoilers, so....

Anyway, great book. Intense and fun in some places while incredibly heavy in others. My first SGJ work but I'll definitely be reading more.

I absolutely loved this book. Jade is sometimes hard to love, but I do love her; why else would I literally yell out loud to/at her as she's making a bad choice? Her love of slashers and her encyclopedic knowledge of them is admirable if not astounding. I know this is a horror novel, but it also has heart, brains (not the zombie kind), and a cast of characters that you won't soon forget. What can you do when a real live slasher has come to your town, yet you're the only one that knows or believes it? How do you convince the Final Girl that she is, in fact, the Final Girl? Poor Jade is burdened with all of this, along with just fighting for survival, working her school janitorial job, dealing with her gross father and his drunk friends, earning enough extra credit to finally get enough credits to get her diploma...the list goes on for poor Jade. Whip smart and fast paced, this book just took hold of me from the beginning and did not let up. Horror fans, thriller fans, and fans of great writing are sure to get just as hooked and hopefully love it as much as I did. Cannot wait for Mr. Jones' next book!

Not sure what happened, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I really liked his earlier novel, "The Only Good Indians": the writing was good, the plot was interesting, characters were believable (even if they weren't lovable). in this book, however, I didn't enjoy the writing or the plot (was there one?) and the main character was extremely annoying.