I FINALLY finished this book. It took much longer than it should have.. I was going to bail, then I was going to pan it, but then the last third of the book happened.

WTF?!?! That went batshit crazy real fast. And I 🥰 it! So, this love letter to slasher movies turned out to be a pick for me. The end made up for the beginning.

I love Jones’ stories, but I struggle with his writing style at times. It is almost stream of consciousness and I have a hard time focusing.

As for this particular story, Jade was not the most likable narrator. And after reading Night of the Mannequins, I distrusted her point of view from the beginning. But, by the end I was routing for her and really hoped she’d be the final girl.

The slasher trivia was beyond great for this horror movie fan. I even discovered some new ones to watch.

I AM left with a lot of questions though.(see comments).

In the end I’m glad I read it and would recommend the book if you can make it past the first two thirds of it.

I received an #arc of this book from #netgalley for an honest review.

Stephen Graham Jones has once again done it. This book is a brilliant rollercoaster that I did not want to get off. If you love slashers, I highly recommend checking this one out.

You know when I receive an ARC I try very hard to always find areas in the book that I enjoy even if I don't enjoy this book as a whole. I could not handle this book at all. The premise of the story was very interesting (hence why I was interested in the first place) but I had a really hard time navigating this story. The main character has lengthy internal dialogues and when action finally started happening I had a hard time determining what was real. The story is mainly consisting of internal dialogues for the first 3/4 of the book so you also have to be patient on that point to get the return.

Jade is the resident high school loner, coming from a broken family and having no one in her corner, she copes by watching and obsessing over every slasher film there is out there. Then things start happening in her small town and she can't believe it, a slasher is really in her town. Attempting the warn the people who will face the slasher, she hits a dead end. After all who would listen to the previously suicidal girl with constant changing hair?

Thank you to Stephen Graham Jones, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I hope if you enjoy the slasher genre and a good horror book you'll give this one a try. I just personally struggled with the writing style overall!

I’m sorry to say that this book wasn’t really for me. I wasn’t able to follow the main character’s internal dialogue, and there was so much jumping around that I felt perpetually lost and confused. I rarely DNF an advanced readers copy, but I just couldn’t continue with this one. I hope it appeals to others and wish the author all my best.

Jade is a recent graduate, and also a horror fanatic. After a body is found in her town she suspects a slasher. A final girl is found can the town be saved. Secrets from the past are reviled Interesting characters great story. Lot's of horror movie reference's and suspense.

Author Stephen Graham Jones (SGJ) is the king of bridging genres and bringing non-horror readers to the dark side 😈. I don’t typically read horror/slasher books, but I will auto-buy SGJ.

My Heart is a Chainsaw (MHC) is a book that is over a decade in the making and SGJ rewrote it several times to get it right. His extensive author’s note is incredibly powerful alone, so don’t miss that.

MHC is a story about an angry half-Indian teenage girl named Jade, obsessed with slashers and a social outcast. I can’t even fully appreciate her “encyclopedic knowledge” of slashers because it’s not my thing but without a doubt her knowledge is immense. (And imagine the research that took to write!) Jade has an abusive father, an absent mother, and a strong desire to find “home”, whatever that is. Jade takes the reader through the actual blood spilling in Proofrock, her dreams are finally coming true. The book can only be described as being so scared you’re smiling - to use a phrase SGJ used. I loved how Jade narrated, but also how she submitted papers to her teacher throughout. Very creative SGJ. The humor laced throughout was the icing on the cake.

The more important issue in this novel is that of child abuse in indigenous households. Because of jurisdictional issues and other issues surrounding evidence, data is lacking on just how many children in Indian Country are abused. Often, these children are sexually abused, and by someone in their own family. Like many rape victims, reporting doesn’t always happen. While Jade carries this trauma throughout, she also shows her strength at the end. The ending really got me, in a way I wasn’t expecting.

SGJ is so imaginative and has a way of reaching the reader on important social issues in a way no other author can.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC. I had already preordered in support of indigenous authors and Indie Bookstores. This is not an own voices review, I am a privileged white female reader living, working, and enjoying my life on Suquamish and Port Gamble S’Klallam lands. Please read own voices reviews.

This was a book that I had a lot of WTF moments. This is my 1st book by this author.

This is a book that makes you pay attention to every detail its giving you. Not only is there a back story but a lesson on horror. You spend the first 40-60% of the book learning and thinking to yourself what is going on. Then all the lessons that you were told throughout the beginning comes into play. Did you pay attention. Did you figure it out. Are you Right are you wrong? Jade is the perfect horror guide. But you also finding yourself wondering is she fully rooted into the real world. Or has she seen one to many slashers.

Why Slashers why is that the one thing Jade knows and talks about. Has something happen or like Randy from Scream she just has all the Slasher knowledge for this day.

Warning there is a lot of gore and not for the faint of heart. I will say for the 1st 25% of the book I felt lost but it started to make sense and the end delivered. It also left me wanting to know what happened after the end.

You get dropped into the story and get a Final Girl 101 lesson.

I'm not going to talk about what happens that's for you to read for yourself.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books/ Saga Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Stephen Graham Jones can certainly write and I loved The Only Good Indian, but this is all just a little much. Too many movie references, too many murderers, too many bumps in the night. Jade, our heroine and narrator, is awesome but she gets eclipsed by so much going on. I wanted her to be first and foremost at all times and I was gutted that she didn't get the ending I felt she had earned. I'll certainly read more, but this was a tad disappointing.

This book just wasn't for me. I didn't realize this was a YA novel. I like horror, but not in YA. This book was trying too hard to be edgy and provocative, but it lacked intensity and depth. I understand why a lot of people enjoyed it, but the plot was a little too far-fetched and contrived.

I love most things 80’s and absolutely loved all the references to the great slashers during that time. I also enjoyed references to the more recent slashers like Scream and IKWYDLS.

The book dragged on for me, but it was in the last parts of the book that really pulled everything together and made the first parts worth the wait. Jade’s story broke my heart and I’m mostly satisfied with how it ended. It was a bit ambiguous at the end, which is a personal dislike for me, but it made sense for the story.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review an ARC copy of this book. Now with that out of the way, let me just say WOW. I'll attempt to keep this spoiler free, but My Heart is a Chainsaw isn't so much a book as an experience. While I thought the concept was brilliant, a horror geek's dream of actually experiencing a slasher film in real life, I must admit that shortly after starting the book I wasn't sure I was going to like it, and it had nothing to do with the story itself. This is the first book I've read by Stephen Graham Jones (though I've been meaning to read The Only Good Indians as it has gotten raves) and I have to say I was a bit taken aback by his writing style. He seems to have a propensity for excessively long, damn near run on sentences. I'm talking sentences a paragraph long. So while I found that jarring at first, it wasn't long before I'd adjusted to his style and got lost in the story. It works on multiple levels, from an epic deep dive into the slasher genre, to the most basic of just a darn entertaining thriller. Jade is a fantastic character and as a huge fan of slasher films I was thrilled for her to be my guide on this adventure. The pacing is a wonderful slow burn, continually hinting at what's to come next. I looking forward to checking out more of Jones' work.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2YDCBM4YC6FXE/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-heart-is-a-chainsaw-stephen-graham-jones/1137938688?ean=9781982137632&bvnotificationId=ffe04a74-0dba-11ec-82dc-121e9156fb8d&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/186668953

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3890879283

HOLY F*CK.

This book took me way too long to finish.. probably because it was an ebook.. not necessarily because of the story. Although, kind of because of the story.

I loved all the slasher film references! If you’re not into slasher films then [1] why did you pick up THIS book? And [2] you’re gonna get lost in the references. This may not be the book for you but you might surprise yourself, who knows.

The GORE!! It teased you in the beginning and took along while to get back in there but reading the authors note.. I can see why. Also, when Jade’s story comes full circle, you can appreciate all the build up.

I F*CKING LOVED IT!

Thank you Net Galley for the e-ARC. 🖤🖤🖤

My Heart is a Chainsaw is an ode to horror movies by the author of the equally unique horror novel, The Only Good Indian.

Teenager Jade is a strange girl. Very strange. She loves slasher films and can quote them at will. So, when it appears a real-life slasher has arrived in her small town, she just has to meet him. It’s her destiny, right?

But Jade’s fate is not to stop him. For Jade is convinced she is no virginal Final Girl, the girl who kills the killer at the end of every horror movie. That role, Jade is convinced, will be played by the new girl in school, Letha, who is beautiful and rich enough to stand up to the slasher.

Jade is a very sympathetic lead character. You can’t help rooting for her like you did for Laurie in Halloween. She has the requisite bad family background and basically zero friends. But she is smart as a whip and sees patterns everywhere that call to mind famous horror movie scripts.

The action in the book starts out slow, subtle, and creepy. A couple of foreign tourists go missing one night on the foggy town lake and no one even notices they are gone. But soon the action ratchets up. I read the entire book in one sitting. It is that compelling.

As a long-time horror movie fan, I adored the pop culture referencing of every slasher film since Psycho. I’ve watched enough of these films not to need the conveniently placed school reports by Jade about the slasher film tropes. However, they do make this book more accessible to non-horror movie fans.

If you love horror movies, My Heart is a Chainsaw has to be on your reading list this fall! Even if you are not a horror buff, this book has a twisty and unique plot that most thriller readers would also enjoy. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to Saga Press, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Jade Daniels knows everything there is to know about horror films. The revenge seeking, blood thirsty villians teach her about survival. Luckily she has been paying attention, because her hometown is about to become its own horror story.
As people go missing, and bodies are discovered around Proofrock, Jade knows its the start of something bad. She thinks she knows who the Final Girl will be, and wants to warn her to be ready. But she's not ready, nor is the town, for the carnage on its way...

This book is a complete lesson on horror/slasher movies. I feel like Stephen Graham Jones and Grady Hendrix were secretly discussing the need to school their readers, and put out books with the same idea to hit us hard. lol I think I have officially graduated from Slasher University, and am ready to defend myself and my town. I just need to pick my weapon...
As much as I love Stephen Graham Jones's other hit, Only The Good Indians, I didn't really love this one. I had a hard time with the overload of horror schooling for the first half of the book. I get the need, and the way it built up Jade's character and the anticipation for the big blood bath. BUT it was repetitive, and slow moving. The last quarter of the book is where it blows up and gets good. I absolutely loved the end.
There is definitely gore, ponds of blood and icky sensory overload moments. I enjoyed all that, but it was crammed into the last few chapters. I recommend reading the authors note at the end, it helps explain the title 😉

“No, she can never be a final girl. Final girls are good, they’re uncomplicated, they have these reserves of courage coiled up inside them, not layer after layer of shame, or guilt, or whatever this festering poison is. Real final girls only want the horror to be over. They don’t stay up late praying to Craven and Carpenter to send one of their savage angels down, just for a weekend maybe. Just for one night. Just for one dance, please? One last dance?”

Jade is certain that her small, Idaho town of Proofrock is being stalked by a slasher killer. The only problem is that she’s the “horror chick”, a social outcast obsessed with the slasher genre, and the more she tries to explain what’s happening to the local law enforcement, the guiltier she makes herself look. Positive that Letha, a new girl from the rich neighborhood being built across the lake, is the Final Girl, Jade tries to convince her of what’s happening before it’s too late. But getting close to Letha means giving someone else a glimpse into who Jade really is, and her secrets may be just as dark as whatever’s stalking their town. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Gallery Books/Saga Press. Trigger warnings: graphic character deaths, suicide attempt, rape, pedophilia, incest, gore, racism.

There are quite a few things I liked about this book, and I think it will work well for most slasher fans. Jade will be easy for most horror fans to relate to, since she thinks in slasher films. They’re how she sees and understands the world, not just a hobby but almost a religion, at least if we think in terms of things that save us. If you’ve ever been comforted by monsters or serial killers, or if horror ever gave you something to hold on to when you most needed it, then you’re in this weird club with Jade and me, and I think that’s really what this novel does best. It’s a love letter to the slasher genre, with more references than even an avid horror fan like myself could follow.

There are other things to like about Jade. She’s both gutsy and vulnerable, with a teenager’s penchant for doing things that aren’t always in her best interest, and I constantly wavered back and forth between ‘let’s be friends’ and ‘someone please protect this child.’ (She just wants someone to listen to her talk about horror movies! For the record, I’m always available for that. Lay your nerd knowledge on me.) She’s also half Native American, which brings some much-needed diversity to the slasher genre. The side characters are interesting, and I think purposely edge toward stock with the town sheriff and the Final Girl. Things are always more interesting when Jade is interacting with one of them, and it gives us the most clues to what’s really happening. (That confession scene? Masterful writing.) One of the bigger flaws of the novel, for me, is that this just doesn’t happen that much. Jade is a loner and spends most of her time in her own head instead of interacting with people. It’s relatable and even understandable given her background, but it’s pretty devastating to the character development.

In terms of setting up its own slasher plot, the book isn’t quite as strong there either. I like the way the novel keeps us guessing about what’s really happening. Jade isn’t the most reliable narrator, and there were plenty of times I didn’t trust her to interpret what was happening correctly. There are a number of people dying in ways that could almost be coincidental, and the book is constantly walking that knife’s edge of tension on is there/isn’t there something more going on here. While the clues are there, I didn’t feel prepared for the direction Jones actually took with that, and it felt a little like he went for the shock value solution instead of the credible one. (More on that after the spoilers.) All in all though, this book is bloody good fun, and I hope they make a movie out of it. I think it would translate really well to the screen.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.

Huh… Okay, I wasn’t expecting the book to take a dip into the supernatural. I guess I should have been, since there’s precedent in things like Friday the 13th Part 2 and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but when I think “slashers” I’m not usually thinking that there’s no reason Jason Voorhees should even still be alive in these films, just that he’s hacking people up with a machete. Jade touches on the subject of the Lake Witch a number of times, so I suppose it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she turns up as the town killer. It felt less like the best answer to this mystery and more like an excuse to have an absolute bloodbath at the end, which is fun but sometimes hard to follow. But, whatever. It’s creepy that she walks on top of the water, and I like Jade rising to her full Final Girl status. She’s a worthy addition to the ranks of Laurie and Sidney.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

My thanks to Gallery Books Saga Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ by Stephen Graham Jones in exchange for an honest review. As the audiobook was released, I did a dual read/listen for an immersive experience.

Last year I read Stephen Graham Jones’ ‘The Only Good Indians’ and just loved it. So I was very excited for this novel, especially on learning that its premise was focused on slasher films.

Jade Daniels is a half-Native American teenager living with her dad in Proofrock, a rapidly gentrifying rural lake town in Idaho. She is just one class away from graduating high school and in order to complete her local history course she is composing an epic essay on a unifying theory of slasher films. In it, she is incorporating local folklore and history including ‘Camp Blood’, an abandoned summer camp where a murderous rampage took place fifty years ago.

When Letha Mondragon arrives at school, Jade identifies her as the Final Girl, a key component in slasher films, and is convinced than an irreversible sequence of events has been set into motion.

As tourists go missing and tensions rise between her local community and the wealthy newcomers building mansions on the other side of Indian Lake, Jade is prepared for the killer to rise. She is convinced that it will all come to a head on the 4th July, when the town gathers on the water to celebrate. Of course, there are people in Jade’s life that question whether she is delusional or compensating for more mundane horrors.

This is the second novel that I have read recently that focuses upon the concept of the ‘Final Girl’, a term that I hadn’t encountered before, even if it makes a great deal of sense as a major trope of the slasher genre.

Following a shocking opening chapter this was more a slow burn character-led novel, which then switched gears for its breathtaking, extremely gory conclusion.

Like Jade’s brain the novel was packed with references to slasher films. I caught quite a few, though by no means all.

This was a great deal of fun, as only well written comic horror can be; though its more than ghost masks and big knives and also integrates themes such as alienation, racism, mental health, abuse, and other social issues including the town’s increasing economic divide.

I enjoyed the time I spent with Jade, in many ways a kindred spirit to my teenage self. I was amused by the description of her fascination with Letha Mondragon’s ‘incredible’ hair at their first meeting. Throughout I admired her wry, snarky views on life and her undeniable courage.

In his acknowledgments Stephen Graham Jones writes about the genesis of the novel and his own appreciation of the slasher genre.

Overall, I found ‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ very much my kind of horror novel. It is well written, literary, and multilayered: addressing serious issues while continuing to honour the traditions of its genre. It is genuinely frightening yet with dark humour and self-awareness running through it.

Stephen Graham Jones has quickly become one of my ‘must read’ authors and I look forward to exploring his back catalogue as well as news of upcoming projects.

Certainly highly recommended for fans of intelligent horror.

I have been anticipating this book since I first heard of it, and was absolutely excited when I got approved for the advance copy. I am a huge fan of the horror genre, and man did this book not disappoint. Stephen Graham Jones is an author that just came onto my radar, but I've become a big fan instantly.

There are all kind of horror references laced throughout the novel, but you also feel for the main character as the story progresses. While it is an enjoyable read, there is also some social commentary throughout it as well that really made me think.

My Heart is a Chainsaw will be released on August 31. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Oh my gosh, where to begin? My Heart is a Chainsaw is a beautifully written, evocative novel of excruciating wit, knowledge, and social commentary. This book was totally outside the scope of my regular genre (psychological suspense) but I am so glad I took a chance on it.

While I don't believe I have seen any of the horror films so thoroughly cataloged by Jones (except of course for Jaws), I am certainly familiar with all of the tropes, masks, costumes, and jump scares he describes. There were many sections where I was just plain in over my head. Having said that, Jones does such an amazing job of placing the films in context that I found it didn't matter - I was able to figure out (or skip over) parts that I didn't understand.

And can we just talk about the language/metaphors/similes for a moment?
"She Holden Caulfields it across the lawn."
"The sun goes down and the overhead lights become more important."
"Jade positions her fingers at the keyboard version of ten and two."

Then there is the story, a heart wrenching tale of a brilliant, inventive teen who feels alone in the world, covering up her scarred upbringing and loneliness viewing life through slasher tinted glasses. She is the town crier, warning every one of the carnage to come, while she is patronized, and worse, punished for her beliefs. Even when the prediction comes true (come on, you knew it would, right? no spoiler here!) she doesn't get the hero worship, fame or glory she sort of anticipated, even if she couldn't admit it to herself. She allows the myth of the final girl to play out.

One final suggestion - read the acknowledgements. They answer the question all authors get - where did you get your idea/do your research for this story. And just FYI, the final sentence (yes, of the acknowledgments) had me in tears.

There is so much to like in Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw: a can’t-help-but-root-for-her main character, a prom-worthy bucketload of slasher-film references, a wry and sometimes bitingly funny narrative voice, so many red herrings the reader’s gonna need a bigger boat, deftly handled themes exploring race, gentrification, class, parenting (familial and communal), and trauma, and a climax that contains more blood than you can hold in a bank of elevators. So much to like, in fact, that my only real criticism is that there’s too much here, leading to a book that despite its many positives unfortunately begins to feel it has, like Jason or Michael, overstayed its welcome.

Jade (real name Jennifer but don’t ever call her that) Daniels is your classic alienated, lonely, dark-minded outcast teen about to graduate — kinda sorta — high school in her stifling small town of Proofrock, Idaho, where she lives with her drunkard dad who pays her little attention and none of it positive. Jade is obsessed, and I mean obsessed, with slasher films; they color nearly her every thought, her every conversation, and all of her “extra-credit” assignments for her retiring history teacher (though given she doesn’t really do any homework, the “extra” is a bit of a misnomer — thus the kinda sorta graduation).

Jade has been waiting and planning her whole teen life for a slasher event and things in town, which like all good slasher settings has its own dark history, seem to be pointing that way: outsiders have arrived in the form of a cabal of millionaires who bought up national forest land across the lake to put up their mansions, a pair of international tourists have gone missing, a number of elk were killed in mysterious fashion, and the town is about to hold its annual big Independence Day celebration (a big party being a requisite element of slasher films, as she explains in one of her extra-credit pieces). The clincher is the arrival of Leta Mondragon, whom Jade sees as the incarnate form of the Final Girl, the indomitable, virginal, female survivor of every slasher film and someone whom Jade needs to prepare using all of her arcane knowledge.

The novel takes the form of tight-third person point-of-view chapters (each titled by a slasher film) focused on Jade’s chronological narrative, interrupted by regular inter-chapters whereby Jade writes what amounts to a treatise on slashers films for her teacher, explaining for instance how revenge lies at the core of all slasher films, what a final girl is, what the required elements of slashers are, and so forth. I’m not sure we needed so many inter-chapters, but generally the structure works in several fashions: to help us see the prism through which Jade views events, to increase tension via interruption, to make us question if events are following or subverting expectations, and finally, as an insightful, concise, and engagingly written overview of the genre, even outside the context of the novel itself, though it also serves as a useful glossary for readers not so well-versed in the genre.

Jade is a fantastic main character whose voice feels always like an angst-filled teen girl, in tone, in vocabulary, in allusion. An outsider looking at people/things from the edge and unwilling as well to look too far inside herself, she’s angry, bitter, funny, and traumatized, her obsession both armor and passion. While that obsession drives the novel in content and structure, it’s also one of the pitfalls of the novel in that her unfailing, constant single-mindedness, to the exclusion of nearly all else, can become admittedly both overwhelming and wearying over the book’s length. Nothing in her demeanor, her attitude, her suicidal tendencies and attempts, her cutting, her half-Indian heritage, her hair-dying-strange-clothes-wearing-weird-stuff-dangling look says “hero,” and yet here she is, a middle-finger to the stereotypical idea of the virginal, white, compliant final girl. Though she of course, thanks to her issues, can see herself only as the help behind the scenes, not the hero. The reader will recognize her defense mechanisms for what they are and guess at possible reasons for her focus on revenge and justice in her discussions of slasher films, all of which make one feel all the more urgently that this story end well for her.

Other characters get far less page time, but several in particular stand out. One is the local Sheriff, Sheriff Hardy, who gives her as much rope as he can, not to hang herself with but to try and keep her tethered to society, taking on a father-figure role (though Jade of course would fiercely reject such a characterization), much more so than her own dad. Her history teacher plays a bit of the same role in her life, though we see far less of him, save for a pivotal few scenes. Finally, there is Leta, who comes across as noted as the perfect Final Girl (though, as Jade notes, one of the extremely rare Black ones). Her perfection is layered pretty thick, maybe even a tad too much so, though one needs to keep in mind it’s filtered through Jade’s not always reliable and clearly skewed narration.

The plot begins with a bang, then moves a bit slowly as the stage is set, the characters introduced, relationships made clear, and then it gradually gains speed until the exploding into fierce and bloody action. As with any slasher, the body count grows as the story progresses, becoming startlingly high by the end. Jones offers up a at times bewildering number of potential killers, motivations, and possibly relevant legends and history, along with the requisite twists and turns. Here again, I’d argue some streamlining would have improved things. And I’d say the same with the number of endings, which while clearly meant to mirror the “oh good he’s dead, oh crap he isn’t dead” trope of slashers, still goes on a bit too long for me.

Really, my only complaint on the book is it’s too long /throws too much at the reader, but the impact of that issue is pretty big, which is why the rating (though I struggle between a 3.4 and a 4.0). That said, I absolutely love the final scene, which cuts like knife/machete/chainsaw through the heart. I just wish we could have gotten there a bit earlier (which come to think of it, is often how I feel in a slasher film, so maybe Jones nailed it perfectly)

This is the first book I have read by SGJ and I don’t know if it is the way SGJ writes or if it is me. I was totally confused through most of the book. I will have to try another one of SGJ’s stories to see if it is me or just not for me at all.