I received an advance review copy for free via Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. My sincerest thanks to the publisher and author. :)

Unfortunately, coming on the heels of the superb 'The Only Good Indians', this title fell extremely flat for me. I fully admit that I am not the target audience. Given my rather sheltered upbringing, I missed the Slasher craze. It would be best if you had a ton of knowledge of Slasher films to get all the nods and get into the book's overall flow.

I thought some passing knowledge of Slasher films would be enough for me to enjoy this homage to the golden gore of cinema, but this ended up not being the case. I spent more time researching the references, it seemed, than reading the book.

This is not a knock against Stephen Graham Jones; his writing itself is excellent. I just realized about a third of the way through it, I was not the intended audience, and the research involved would not make me really get into it. The ending is absolutely superb, though.

Because OMG THIS IS PERFECTION (x50,000,000) isn't the best, most coherent review, I'll try to add some more thoughts. SGJ love for horror and the slasher genre in particular is so very evident here. He knows just how to weave such a compelling story in a genre and sub-genre that feels often overlooked. This is easily one of the most engrossing horror novels I've ever read, and if I hadn't already read and loved a lot of SGJ's other works, this would be the one to confirm what I already know. He's one of my favorite authors ever (not just in horror, but any genre). Just an absolute master in the craft!

Jennifer "Jade" Daniels comes from a broken home and lives alone with her father, who she has a lot of pent up anger towards. Based on the clues given, you can gauge the reason for her anger towards both of her parents.

She is a huge fan of slashers, to the point that it borders on an unhealthy obsession, but it's a coping mechanism to help ameliorate her pain. If you are a huge fan of slasher films, you might appreciate all the references sprinkled throughout the novel, and there are MANY.

However, because this novel is told solely from Jade's point-of-view, it feels like you are reading through someone's stream of consciousness, heavily revolving around slasher films, with a touch of regular teen angst.

It takes around the 60-70% mark for the action to start, but if you're patient, you'll be treated to a heart-thumping thriller/slasher. I actually gagged in disgust at a few of the gore descriptions, and then a few minutes later teared up at some of the revelations.

I think SGJ is a good writer, but I'm not sure I am a fan of his writing. I will give him another chance, when I eventually read The Only Good Indians.

TW: gore, violent deaths, child abuse, animal abuse, self-harm and suicide ideation.

I’ve never read this author before. This book was really hyped up for me and was one of my most anticipated reads this summer but I thought it was a let down.

Well, that was a bummer.

Jade Daniels lives her life as an homage to slasher films to escape an abusive father and absent mother. She’s seen them all enough to know that a real slasher is occurring right in her hometown, just in time for a final girl to arrive to save the day… if Jade can convince her.

I wanted to love this. I love SGJ and I love the horror genre and slasher flicks; this was a highly anticipated read of 2021 for me.
Unfortunately, this just wasn’t the book for me. I was bored to tears with these unending paragraphs of long winded sentences that relied heavily on dropping slasher titles and references every other sentence and were taking me nowhere for almost 70% of the book. I trust SGJ storytelling implicitly but this book could not get off the ground, I kept asking myself why I was still reading. After each chapter is a “Slasher 101” paper that Jade has written for her history teacher that fills in slasher film rules and plots some readers may be unfamiliar with and gives us foreshadowing that requires far too much patience for me.
It took me three days just to make it through 25% because I kept falling asleep (yes, seriously). While the last half of the book picks up the pace and delivers the horror that readers are expecting, I just didn’t care enough about Jade or the story by that point; SGJ had already lost me with that long winded set up that left me with more frustration than anticipation.

Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. My Heart is a Chainsaw is scheduled for release on August 31, 2021.

Another great book from Jones. somewhat wordy at times, and if you really dont have a background in slasher films, this might be a little tough for you. but i do, so i could relate to alot of her ramblings about the slasher films. the last 30% of the book really makes it, so struggle through the first part and you will be rewarded.

This is a wild, thrilling book. Jones is a very gifted writer, and I appreciated many of the horror elements. I think cinema fans will love this book and the many references to different hits in the genre. I really liked Jade and enjoyed learning about her history/backstory.

Thanks to Jones, NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book.

I wish I was better with words so that I could adequately describe how much I adored this book. It was difficult to read and took a whole lot of patience to stick with, but it was so worth it. It starts off extremely slow and will have you wondering what exactly it is that you are reading for most of the book, but I think it's well worth sticking with it.

This story follows Jade, a seventeen year old girl with an abusive mother, absent father, and love of slasher movies. She's the town outcast and feels like since the entire town wants nothing to do with her, she'll just escape into her own world where the rules of slasher horror are set in stone. Now that the new housing development across the lake is ready for people to start moving in, the gentrification of the small town of Proofrock seems to kick off a series of deaths that look unrelated to all except Jade. Where the local sheriff sees a boating accident and bear attacks, Jade sees a masked killer in search of revenge. It will take all Jade's knowledge of slasher history, rules, tropes, and a reluctant Final Girl for anyone to get out of this alive.

TW/CW: suicide, animal death, sexual abuse of a child

This feels a bit weird to say about a book that is this bloody and intense, but this was a really fun read. I read it over the course of a few days and every time I picked the book back up, I was instantly drawn back into the story. Everything from the writing style, structure choices, character arcs, and atmosphere really came together perfectly for a really fun, summery, horror read. There are some really heavy moments, it isn't all fun, but those moments fit in so wonderfully with the rest of the story that they didn't take me out of the story at all. I think Jones really captured the feeling of those summer time blockbuster slasher movies in this story and I wanted to start reading the book again immediately after I'd finished it.

The story revolves pretty heavily around Jade's knowledge of slasher movies and I was a little nervous going into this book that I would be a little lost. I really enjoy the plots of horror movies but I'm a complete wimp when it comes to actually watching them (I blame my overactive imagination). I was forced to watch some horror movies during sleepovers in high school but they aren't my go-to movies to watch. For example, I know the general plot of the Friday the 13th movies but I've never actually watched them. I was worried that this lack of first hand experience would mean I would miss out on aspects of the story that I was supposed to pick up on. However, I found that my general pop-culture level knowledge of slasher movies was completely sufficient to understand Jade and her planning throughout the story. I think readers with zero knowledge of slasher films could absolutely still follow along in the story because Jade explains the tropes and expectations of slasher films really well to the reader through a few different plot devices. I didn't know a whole lot about the different plot beats of slasher movies so I learned about that aspect through reading this book and I didn't have a hard time understanding Jade's logic or thought process.

The way Jones is able to build in these 'teaching' moments for Jade to explain stuff to the reader was really well done. We know that Jade needs to finish a history class before she can graduate high school and throughout the book, we get these extra credit papers that Jade is writing for her history teacher that revolve around different slasher movie tropes or plot beats and how they relate to local legends or historical events. Jade needs to explain these ideas because it is an academic paper, but it is still 100% focused on slasher lore and we get a little more background information about the town with each of these papers. These short breaks also give the reader a bit of breathing room from the main plot pacing which I always appreciate. These papers also become important to the main plot of the book as it progresses which I thought was a nice touch to make them feel even more grounded in this world.

The pacing of the story was just about perfect. It did start out a little slow for me in the first 1/3 where we were just following Jade around and getting a feel for her personality quirks. We get a death or two in this time, but it doesn't really feel like anything has really started yet. The pacing does then ramp up pretty evenly during the middle 1/3 and the last 1/3 is full speed ahead (the big climax scene at the end was phenomenal). The last 1/3 really felt more like a straight-up thriller but then the horror elements came in really strong at the last 10%. I do wish we would have started ramping up the pacing and main tension a little sooner but that is just me being a little picky. I did think Jones did a fantastic job at answering questions the reader probably had at just the right moment. There were a number of times where I was reading along and thought to myself "why can't they just do X" and then a few pages later, someone in the book would pose that question and it would get answered. This happened with bigger details as well as small details where I found myself thinking "that was an oddly-specific detail to add in there, I wonder if it will be important later" and then 50 pages later, it was important. I just really love when my brainwaves and the story get in sync like this and it really ups the immersion factor for me.

The character work in this book was top-notch, especially Jade. As a former teenage girl myself, I loved how Jones was able to capture the feeling of being 17 where you're worried about things like passing history and bigger things like what to do after graduation. Jade's internal monologue is pretty constant and jumps around as her thoughts wander. She does the same thing with the conversations she has with people she actually likes. I can remember my thoughts going a mile a minute like that (and they still do at times) and I thought that feeling came across really well in the writing. It was an interesting mix of sort of stream of consciousness with a heavy literary fiction style which I did find myself having to make an effort to slow down my reading at times because my eyes were skimming over the page. Because we're so deep into Jade's mind and her POV in the story, I didn't find myself questioning her character motivations but there's a point at about the 50% mark where other characters are pointing out things about Jade that she seems to be pretty cagey about answering their questions. Which then had me reading the last half of the book while questioning if Jade was an unreliable narrator or if she was giving us a truthful representation of the events happening around her. It was a really nice way to subtly up the tension in the reader, especially as the events became increasingly dangerous and strange.

Overall, this has been my favorite horror book so far this year. I absolutely loved the premise, pacing, characters, and integration of the slasher movie lore into the story. I think the prose style leans a little heavy into the lit-fic side of the spectrum which isn't for everyone but I was so engaged in the plot arc and Jade's character that I just wanted to keep reading.


Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for review.

Expected publication date is August 31, 2021.

I am normally a fan of horror but this book did not draw me into the story as I expected it to. The author is very good, but I don't think this is really my thing. It's sad because I really thought I was going to like this author.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC in exchange for my own opinion.

I was going to give this book 3.4 stars but I jumped it up to a 4. This book, though, is not for everyone, especially with the horror/slasher trend thing going on right now . I put it down a few times but picked it back up. and really concentrated on it.

Jade is 17 years old, half-Indian who has a funny way of coping with her tragic life. She lives her life like she's in a horror movie and without many friends to speak of, she runs around town spouting every plot, every facet, and every fact of practically every slasher flick ever made. But Jade, has a feeling that something horrible is going on in her town, nobody listens. Most people find her a little kooky.

But after awhile, I fell in love with Jade. Her coping skills were weird, but had anybody listened to her, A few deaths may not have happened. She puts up a good defense, because she knows she's strange, and the book is aptly named. But Jade does have a heart and she loves fiercely with it, and you fall in love with this fact-spouting tough, but scared girl. The plot unfolds just as she predicts it will. The people of Indian Lake should have listened!

Well, that as a wild ride. I can best try to describe this book as part coming of age, part political statement, part supernatural and all horror. Not the in your face kind of horror, the creepy kind of horror. Like you know something is very VERY wrong but it overtakes you slowly.

Centered on a teen who's small town in Idaho is fast becoming a mecca for the super rich. Jade Daniels is an encyclopedia of slasher films. Since a young child Jade has watched and re-watched as many slasher films as she was able to grab VHS tapes for. Her analysis of their plot devices and characters is second to none. She is very distinct in her subgenre, it's not horror she loves, it's slasher films. The kind where a slew of teenagers die bloody deaths. The kind where, having somehow vanquished a crazed murderer, a scantily clad final girl comes screaming out of the woods into the arms of hapless police officer. You know the kind. Think sleepaway camps and hockey masks.

Jade was always an outcasts in her tiny town. Never friends with anyone. Always enduring the societal discrimination of being Indigenous, of being poor, of being the daughter of a flakey estranged mother and her town drunk father. She has used the predictable, formulaic nature of slasher films as a sort of shield against the real world. Then, her moment arrives: the summer after graduating high school she is the only one who sees the signs. Rich strangers are flooding into her sleepy town and there is a slasher film unfolding in front of her very eyes. Jade is the only one who can decipher the signs and warn everyone.

But who will listen?

This book is so crazy weird but not bananas. Bananas is reserved for books where there's fast paced action, shocking twists and turns and you can barely keep your lid on. No, this book is a slow simmer. The author fills each page with atmospheric prose that settles over you like the late night fog on a lake. It is written in a purposeful way. Done totally from Jade's POV, it is in present tense. You and Jade are seeing, feeling and deciphering each thing together as it reaches one of Jades 5 senses. Other than some flashbacks to letters written in the past or a recorded interview, you are moving through the book live, in real time with Jade. It's super surreal.

I felt so much for Jade, I want to take her and wrap her in my arms. The way she is treated, the things she endures are beyond sad. She becomes withdrawn, suicidal, she trespasses. steals, vandalizes and it's all chalked up to her being a bad kid. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jade is really a hero, but she never feels like she deserves to be a final girl, the girl who is the chosen one of the slasher genre.

Overall, I would say take the time to invest and absorb the very intentional, unsettling messages of this book. There's a thread woven through here of so many nuanced ways in which people can be used, abused, fooled and ultimately take revenge, and none of it is the way you think it will be. It's a dense read, but there's definitely something to be enjoyed in it.

The writing style of this novel made it a bit difficult for me to fully enjoy - a completely personal preference and I know other readers will enjoy it. A little too long for my taste when it comes to slasher novels. But once I hit the 60%+ mark, I didn’t want to put it down. I was routing for the main character and this story impacted me emotionally.

I didn’t finish this one because it was too crazy and dark for me. I’m sure this book will have an audience—it’s well-written and experimental, which normally I love, but the ideas took me to a dark place that made it to hard to continue reading. Thanks for the opportunity!

Jade, a high school senior and a social outcast in rural Idaho, is obsessed with slasher films. With her white mother out of the picture and her Blackfoot father perpetually drunk and abusive, she finds solace she refuses to acknowledge in the formulaic horror - the blood sacrifice, the ignorant cops and parents, the party, the masked killer, and of course, the final girl. When a new girl comes to town that fully fits the profile of a final girl, Jade is convinced that a real-life slasher film is about to begin. Then, a boy turns up dead...

TW: Lots human and animal gore, off-screen rape and child abuse.

This book is a love letter to slasher films. I even think that this is accessible to those who haven't watched many slasher films themselves (like me). I really liked Jade as a character; she's belligerent and she absolutely refuses to accept her trauma, so she filters her worldview through slasher films. There are inserts of reports she's written on different slasher tropes/elements, which were really interesting. The last act was in my opinion by far the best and most well-plotted/paced, with the action and tension ramping up to a high where (shocker) Jade finds herself in her own version of a slasher. Unfortunately, I found the writing style really hard to follow for some reason. I kept having to reread passages trying to follow what was happening and missing important details, which really took away from my enjoyment of the book. I also felt like we could have gotten a little bit more from the side characters so that the story was more fleshed out. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to those who love scary movies, and generally anyone obsessed with film, even if this wasn't exactly for me.

Heartrending, in every sense of the word. A half-Indian girl full of fierce, piercing rage, whose life's one solace is slasher films, is thrilled when signs begin to point to the slasher she's been waiting and hoping for having come to her small Idaho town. Jade watches the unfolding events and predicts the next steps, and like an angry teen Cassandra even tries to spread the word—though she knows, like all good horror film buffs, that no authority figure will believe her or be of any use. But what she doesn't expect is also the last thing she wants—that through her unheeded warnings and explanations of the developing horror, someone might begin to decipher her own history, and what lies beneath her pain and episodes of self-harm. Bloody, funny, grotesque, and a great read. Jade's thoughts on the cleansing cycle of the slasher movie, from first blood to final girl, are presented between chapters in the form of her essays for a sympathetic high school teacher and are fascinating for entry- and expert-level horror fans alike.

"18 year old Jade is a horror film aficionado, particularly when it comes to slasher films. She also lives in an area in rural Northern Idaho with rich witch lore, and even a massacre at a summer camp in the 50s. When she starts to see the elements of a slasher forming in her town (the initial kill; the final girl who transfers into her HS), Jade starts to believe that a killer is about to kick off in town. even though no one else believes her.

Jones plays with the final girl trope in this impressive, voice driven novel.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for a copy of the eArc of My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. I've seen it spelled out in the marketing that if you are a fan of Slashers and Horror you'll be a fan of this book. I've never read a more truthful statement.

Jones turned another gem. This one is steeped in 70's-90's (and beyond) slasher nostalgia, as the focal character, Jade, recites the history of Slasher films throughout the book. She's using her knowledge because she believes it has finally happened. A slasher has come to her same Idaho lake town. Jade is also treated as the Town eccentric, rabble-rouser and troublemaker because of her heritage, her father, and her fanaticism of slasher films. The book is mostly from Jade's perspective and while it isn't told from the first person, it is told with a stream of conscious avalanche of slasher lore (that could be Jade's own thoughts), which leads the reader on wild goose chase after wild goose chase. The story culminates in the most satisfying way that is a nice homage to the often referenced Jaws boat scene.

There are many memorable scenes in this book: the opening two, the concluding chapters, and of course one that features elk.

It seems that the reviews I have the most trouble writing are for books purported to be horror. I have no doubt that Stephen Graham Jones is a wonderful writer and I do think this book is quite possibly brilliant. And here you know there’s a “but” coming - but a lot of this was simply lost on me. I think I am simply the wrong audience. I read this because a couple of my friends gave it glowing reviews. They said it took time to build up but the pay-off was worth it so I stuck with it but I’m not so sure that the pay off was worth it for me.

The book started slowly. Very, very slowly. And it was long. By 16% I was already sick of Jade, our main character - 17 year old, half Indian (Native American that is) rebel, outsider and lover of slasher movies, particularly from the heyday in the 80s. I didn’t mind Jade’s character so much, I quite like teenagers and even remember being one myself but 80s slasher films - not so much. And Jade’s propensity for couching everything, and I mean everything, in her life around slasher tropes got old very quickly. I suppose I watched a lot of them back in the day but I can’t say I found them memorable.

Anyway, stuff starts to happen in and around the small town of Proofrock that leads Jade to believe the town is entering a slasher cycle. The story is told mostly from her point of view and through history papers she writes for her favourite teacher, Mr Holmes, again viewing everything, including the town’s history, through slasher goggles. To be fair there were some odd occurrences in the town’s history. There is also a new settlement being built across Indian Lake (which used to be a river until it got dammed) called Terra Nova. This is an exclusive enclave for the very wealthy. Jade meets the daughter of one of the first families to move in, Letha Mondragon (I kid you not) and she is the antithesis of Jade. So much so that Jade decides she must be the final girl and sets about trying to train her up for the dangerous undertaking she will required to face.

This doesn’t go quite as planned as Letha misinterprets what Jade is saying in the letter to her except, at the same time, she maybe doesn’t. But that knowledge shall remain for the initiated, that is those who read the book.

Anyway based on the title you would expect, eventually, that there will be blood. And so there is. The finale doesn’t quite play out the way I, or even Jade, expected it to but that’s OK. And even though I guess, in the end, it does fall into the horror genre - you guessed it, I didn’t find it creepy or scary. What I did find it was sad, really there was a lot of sadness in that book but mainly I found it sad on Jade’s behalf. It was a unique and empathetic way of telling her story. I just wish it could have been shorter and quicker. Her story was much more interesting than the horror build up. And to whoever mentioned it in their review, I agree - the last two paragraphs were stunning!

In conclusion, while I did think it was an excellent book, I didn’t like it that much so I can only give it 3 stars. And also because I came so close to throwing my iPad out the windows with frustration at the slow pace on more than one occasion. Thanks to Netgalley, Gallery Books and Stephen Graham Jones for the much appreciated ARC which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

After The Only Good Indians last year, Stephen Graham Jones set the bar higher than most authors could dream of achieving. I say that because The Only Good Indians was easily one of the best novels I've had the pleasure of reading, regardless of the genre...ever. My Heart Is a Chainsaw isn't likely to leave quite as profound of a lasting impact as that book, but it's a different sort of beast altogether. And boy, is it a beast.
Jade Daniels is a walking, talking archive of all things slasher-related, or even slasher-adjacent. She's a socially awkward outcast who speaks to others in slasher genre shorthand. To her, everything in life can be easily compared and contrasted with plot points of one or more of her favorite movies. Every occasion has an appropriate quote from the slasher genre. As a person, she's equal parts aggravating and endearing to the reader--assuming the reader, like me, is a hardcore slasher fanatic.
Finally, her dead-end life in a dead-end Idaho town appears to be heading toward a fantasy come true. With the arrival of Lethe Mondragon, the final piece falls into place as Jade determines she's located the archetypal "final girl" for the real-life slasher horror to play out.
Is Jade another Cassandra, doomed to warn everyone of the impending nightmare and tragedy, only to be dismissed as all youth are in the movies she so adores? Is she simply a troubled girl who has lost the capacity to differentiate between fantasy and reality, on the verge of returning to the institution from which she'd only recently been released? You'll have to read the book to find out. If you're familiar with Jones as an author, you should know you won't be disappointed.
As you reach the halfway point of this novel, everything begins cascading out of control with a feverish pace and such a dizzying assortment of horrors that you'll hardly see the next twist coming--and there are indeed twists.
The novel is so much more than a slasher story. I'd love to tell you more, but I'd be giving too much away. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is also a coming-of-age tale about an indigenous girl haunted by her past and fixated on the haunted history of the mountain town she calls home. This is a story of friendship, a dysfunctional family, and an even more dysfunctional community.
My Heart Is a Chainsaw should assure any readers that Stephen Graham Jones is--I say this without a doubt in my mind--perhaps the single greatest writer currently active in the horror genre.