Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Saga Press (2022), 432 pages
Description
Fiction. Horror. Literature. Thriller. HTML:Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that "will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course" (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones. "Some girls just don't know how to die..." Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called "a literary master" by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and "one of our most talented living writers" by Tommy Orange. Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw "a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre." On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies...especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold. Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges...a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Jade has learned to lean into being the scary girl, the one who smokes and is obsessed with slasher films, the one who stands on her own off to the side with a disdainful expression on her face. In the small mountain town in Idaho where she grew up, she stands out. But just around time for her to
This is the first of a trilogy and the author's homage to the slasher movies of the seventies and eighties (with more than a few shout-outs to the Scream franchise). It's certainly a testament to both Jones's writing and his sheer enthusiasm that I happily kept turning pages despite how much slasher films bore me. Jade is both a delightful character and a dark one and the way Jones kept the tone of the novel flipping between lightness and horror was engaging.
Show More
graduate from high school and leave the town of Proofrock behind her forever, things start to happen, things that only Jade can see are linked together, very bad things. And now she has to try to prepare people for what is coming, from the new girl Jade recognizes as a "final girl," to the chief of police, to the retiring high school history teacher who is the closest thing she has to a friend. But just knowing bad things are happening is not enough to stop them sometimes.This is the first of a trilogy and the author's homage to the slasher movies of the seventies and eighties (with more than a few shout-outs to the Scream franchise). It's certainly a testament to both Jones's writing and his sheer enthusiasm that I happily kept turning pages despite how much slasher films bore me. Jade is both a delightful character and a dark one and the way Jones kept the tone of the novel flipping between lightness and horror was engaging.
Show Less
LibraryThing member richardderus
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: There are all sorts of ways to read a Stephen Graham Jones book. Surfaces work...there's always a story hanging around, you won't be wandering lost in thickets of writing-armpit sweat-watered weeds...references work too, you
The reason I feel that last works best is that, by the time I'd reached the end of this read, and then read Author Stephen's Acknowledgments after the wrenching and impossibly sad final scene, I was so wrung out that I simply accepted that everything I'd just been through had been intended to do what it did to me. As I'm not one to write book reports (ask Mr. Singleton! never turned so much as one in during high school) I'm not going to try to do that at this late date. I referred to this book's immediate older sibling, The Only Good Indians, as "gore with more" and that's an assessment I stand by as applied to all of Author Stephen's books. Part of that "more" is the strangely hypnotic effect of the story arc receding from view...the interstitial "SLASHER 101" essays addressed to the One Good Teacher (of history, naturally) Mr. Holmes are well and truly weirding Your Faithful Reader out. When they switch addressees, it gets even weirder...but in the end, it's painfully intimate and deeply instructive to read them.
In common with all Author Stephen's books, you mere peon of a purchaser have no rights. You're not stupid, you've read some of his other work (at least The Only Good Indians!), you're aware that horror is in store. So surrender your volition. Then the entire experience of being in Jade Daniels's rage-filled head makes all the sense in the world. Because then you're not actually sure if ANY of this is happening in meatspace. Is this an adolescent with anger and abandonment issues responding to the end of what never was childhood? Is this a young woman processing the pain and rage of a life that was wished on her by weaker, worse people than she was? There's a sparkling moment of fizzing delight when Jade meets Letha, a beautiful rich kid whose father has a trophy wife and whose presence in the town of "Proofrock" (think a minute, and hard, for more than the surface snicker; that's all it takes to turn it into a shiver), when Jade anoints her "the Final Girl." That's both when the tale gets grounded in consensus reality and when its ascent into the dark and cold vault of Jade's own head is cemented.
I'm always a fan of gerunding done with panache...Author Stephen does it with panache. At one point, Jade Holden Caulfields across a lawn, and that's me dead cackling. I think there are few greater pleasures than easter-egging your readers' experience...hoping they'll get most of them. I think the fun of reading a book whose author has chosen a niche to write in, one with an astoundingly vast mythos/history/background to explore, is in part the recognition factor of word-play. Yes, it's about slasher-film homage, and no Holden Caulfield isn't slashed to death (though generations of English students have no doubt fantasized that Salinger met that fate after writing it), but he *is* the prototype of the Angsty Teen too smart for easy answers. With everything Jade's carrying around, she's not one whit less burdened than Holden and possibly by some similar troubles given that she's got A Thing growing up strong for Letha.
Adolescent sexuality is always fraught. Parents play their roles in shaping it, either with rule or without them, with clamp-downs or without supervision, there's no right way to ride this roller-coaster. But the issue facing Jade isn't made any easier by her absolute conviction that Letha is The Final Girl, that staple of the slasher film, therefore of necessity being lustrous and almost superhuman in her glorious Otherness. That's how she's supposed to be, right? Jade "doesn't make the rules...just happens to know them all." Her unique and defining obsession with slashers is gong to pay dividends, right? Because she's preparing the Final Girl for her role, unlike most...she won't be surprised by the tragedies.
I think I speak for all readers when I say that the way this blows up can only be described as FUCKING EPIC.
And from that point on, the cigarette boat is away and the pace does not let up.
There are the obligatory twists and turns, the reveals that aren't *quite* reveals, and the accustomed ways that Author Stephen's practiced to get your kishkes kicking and your shvitzer sprinkling. You can't fault the man on delivering the suspenseful goods! If you're in the market for a low-gore delivery of suspense, however, look elsewhere. The way this works is for your expectations to be manipulated so I won't be discussing particulars. Suffice to say I was taken in. More than once. And I'm a pretty well-broken-in reader....
Still, there's no point it wondering why no good deed goes unpunished or how exactly it is that one's expected to walk away from what can not help but feel like a set up straight from a film. The pain and the passionate pull of it will reach some screeching crescendo, won't it, just give it a little more time and it has to!
Nonsense, says the Great God Author.
By the time we've reached the moment when there is no more to give, when the entire story's gone to the most extreme place that it can go...there is something more in the tank for a send-off, and there's no way that you'll believe your eyes when you get there.
Some things just can't be put right. And others can't be left wrong. The issue is...who decides.
My Review: There are all sorts of ways to read a Stephen Graham Jones book. Surfaces work...there's always a story hanging around, you won't be wandering lost in thickets of writing-armpit sweat-watered weeds...references work too, you
Show More
can unpick your memories of the midnight movies or frightfrests your friends threw (or open IMDb if you're really young)...but I think the best way is to make it through as it's happening, to be there as Jade walks across the graduation stage or through walls or up into skies limited only by the basic laws of physics.The reason I feel that last works best is that, by the time I'd reached the end of this read, and then read Author Stephen's Acknowledgments after the wrenching and impossibly sad final scene, I was so wrung out that I simply accepted that everything I'd just been through had been intended to do what it did to me. As I'm not one to write book reports (ask Mr. Singleton! never turned so much as one in during high school) I'm not going to try to do that at this late date. I referred to this book's immediate older sibling, The Only Good Indians, as "gore with more" and that's an assessment I stand by as applied to all of Author Stephen's books. Part of that "more" is the strangely hypnotic effect of the story arc receding from view...the interstitial "SLASHER 101" essays addressed to the One Good Teacher (of history, naturally) Mr. Holmes are well and truly weirding Your Faithful Reader out. When they switch addressees, it gets even weirder...but in the end, it's painfully intimate and deeply instructive to read them.
In common with all Author Stephen's books, you mere peon of a purchaser have no rights. You're not stupid, you've read some of his other work (at least The Only Good Indians!), you're aware that horror is in store. So surrender your volition. Then the entire experience of being in Jade Daniels's rage-filled head makes all the sense in the world. Because then you're not actually sure if ANY of this is happening in meatspace. Is this an adolescent with anger and abandonment issues responding to the end of what never was childhood? Is this a young woman processing the pain and rage of a life that was wished on her by weaker, worse people than she was? There's a sparkling moment of fizzing delight when Jade meets Letha, a beautiful rich kid whose father has a trophy wife and whose presence in the town of "Proofrock" (think a minute, and hard, for more than the surface snicker; that's all it takes to turn it into a shiver), when Jade anoints her "the Final Girl." That's both when the tale gets grounded in consensus reality and when its ascent into the dark and cold vault of Jade's own head is cemented.
I'm always a fan of gerunding done with panache...Author Stephen does it with panache. At one point, Jade Holden Caulfields across a lawn, and that's me dead cackling. I think there are few greater pleasures than easter-egging your readers' experience...hoping they'll get most of them. I think the fun of reading a book whose author has chosen a niche to write in, one with an astoundingly vast mythos/history/background to explore, is in part the recognition factor of word-play. Yes, it's about slasher-film homage, and no Holden Caulfield isn't slashed to death (though generations of English students have no doubt fantasized that Salinger met that fate after writing it), but he *is* the prototype of the Angsty Teen too smart for easy answers. With everything Jade's carrying around, she's not one whit less burdened than Holden and possibly by some similar troubles given that she's got A Thing growing up strong for Letha.
Adolescent sexuality is always fraught. Parents play their roles in shaping it, either with rule or without them, with clamp-downs or without supervision, there's no right way to ride this roller-coaster. But the issue facing Jade isn't made any easier by her absolute conviction that Letha is The Final Girl, that staple of the slasher film, therefore of necessity being lustrous and almost superhuman in her glorious Otherness. That's how she's supposed to be, right? Jade "doesn't make the rules...just happens to know them all." Her unique and defining obsession with slashers is gong to pay dividends, right? Because she's preparing the Final Girl for her role, unlike most...she won't be surprised by the tragedies.
I think I speak for all readers when I say that the way this blows up can only be described as FUCKING EPIC.
And from that point on, the cigarette boat is away and the pace does not let up.
There are the obligatory twists and turns, the reveals that aren't *quite* reveals, and the accustomed ways that Author Stephen's practiced to get your kishkes kicking and your shvitzer sprinkling. You can't fault the man on delivering the suspenseful goods! If you're in the market for a low-gore delivery of suspense, however, look elsewhere. The way this works is for your expectations to be manipulated so I won't be discussing particulars. Suffice to say I was taken in. More than once. And I'm a pretty well-broken-in reader....
Still, there's no point it wondering why no good deed goes unpunished or how exactly it is that one's expected to walk away from what can not help but feel like a set up straight from a film. The pain and the passionate pull of it will reach some screeching crescendo, won't it, just give it a little more time and it has to!
Nonsense, says the Great God Author.
By the time we've reached the moment when there is no more to give, when the entire story's gone to the most extreme place that it can go...there is something more in the tank for a send-off, and there's no way that you'll believe your eyes when you get there.
Some things just can't be put right. And others can't be left wrong. The issue is...who decides.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sublunarie
I'm clearly in the minority here, but this was not a good book.
If all it took to write a good horror novel was to drop as many horror film references as possible in every conceivable sentence, then why aren't we all writing books? I was not impressed by the horror encyclopedia of Jade (which we
The plot of the novel actually plays second fiddle to the incessant horror name-dropping and gets murkier and murkier as the book progresses. Unresolved plot threads are expected in low-budget horror films, but when you're writing a 400 page book you truly have no excuse.
None of the characters are likeable. The plot is a mess. The walls of inner monologue are brutal reading. You'd be better off reading 1001 Horror Films You Need To See Before You Die.
If all it took to write a good horror novel was to drop as many horror film references as possible in every conceivable sentence, then why aren't we all writing books? I was not impressed by the horror encyclopedia of Jade (which we
Show More
know is really just the horror encyclopedia of the author), I was annoyed.The plot of the novel actually plays second fiddle to the incessant horror name-dropping and gets murkier and murkier as the book progresses. Unresolved plot threads are expected in low-budget horror films, but when you're writing a 400 page book you truly have no excuse.
None of the characters are likeable. The plot is a mess. The walls of inner monologue are brutal reading. You'd be better off reading 1001 Horror Films You Need To See Before You Die.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jfe16
Review of advance uncorrected reader’s proof
Seventeen-year-old slasher film-obsessed Jade [never to be called Jennifer or Jenn] Daniels is an angry young woman who can’t wait until she graduates and can leave the small lakeside town of Proofrock behind forever. She feels as if she’s an
Jade may not have the things she most desires, but she understands slasher films as well as she understands the horror that befalls the town when Indian Lake turns bloody. But will she be able to convince the new girl that she’s really come to Proofrock to be the Final Girl?
In this veneration to the slasher film trope, Jade is the empathetic central character. Complicated, gritty, introspective, and heart-rending, it is a story that grabs readers and doesn’t let go. The plot twists a bit, leading to an unexpected denouement in the epilogue.
Interspersed throughout the telling of the tale are chapters of Jade’s “Slasher 101” paper for Mr. Holmes, her state history teacher. Although highly informative . . . and offering intriguing insights into the young woman’s thoughts . . . they tend to disrupt the flow of the story being told. Nevertheless, fans of slasher films will find much to appreciate here, and readers who aren’t so well-acquainted with that particular genre may well learn a thing or two, especially when it comes to the final girl.
Recommended.
I received a free copy of this eBook from Gallery Books -- Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley
#MyHeartisaChainsaw #NetGalley
Seventeen-year-old slasher film-obsessed Jade [never to be called Jennifer or Jenn] Daniels is an angry young woman who can’t wait until she graduates and can leave the small lakeside town of Proofrock behind forever. She feels as if she’s an
Show More
outcast in a town that doesn’t want anything to do with her even as she deals with an abusive father and an absent mother.Jade may not have the things she most desires, but she understands slasher films as well as she understands the horror that befalls the town when Indian Lake turns bloody. But will she be able to convince the new girl that she’s really come to Proofrock to be the Final Girl?
In this veneration to the slasher film trope, Jade is the empathetic central character. Complicated, gritty, introspective, and heart-rending, it is a story that grabs readers and doesn’t let go. The plot twists a bit, leading to an unexpected denouement in the epilogue.
Interspersed throughout the telling of the tale are chapters of Jade’s “Slasher 101” paper for Mr. Holmes, her state history teacher. Although highly informative . . . and offering intriguing insights into the young woman’s thoughts . . . they tend to disrupt the flow of the story being told. Nevertheless, fans of slasher films will find much to appreciate here, and readers who aren’t so well-acquainted with that particular genre may well learn a thing or two, especially when it comes to the final girl.
Recommended.
I received a free copy of this eBook from Gallery Books -- Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley
#MyHeartisaChainsaw #NetGalley
Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
Seventeen-year-old Jade is stuck as the town bad girl in her small-town life in Idaho, but she escapes through slasher movies. When the new pretty girl in town discovers a body in the lake, Jade fixates on her as a "final girl" in the slasher she is convinced is finally coming to real life in her the abuse angle . Or maybe it did, but they weren't delineated enough to have the impact they should have. Jones, as usual, is an exciting writer, but I thought this lacked the emotional weight or cultural insight of The Only Good Indians.
Show More
town. Jones has a quirky writing style that's turned on full force here, since the point of view is a teenage girl who drops movie references as much as she possibly can and likes to end her sentences with question marks. This gave the novel something of a frenetic quality that prevented me from fully connecting with it at first. Those references do fulfill a purpose, though, as becomes clear in the book's final over-the-top, gore-filled, cinematic scenes. It did seem like pretty much everything got tossed into this book, though, and I would have appreciated some more layers to it beyond Show Less
LibraryThing member JJbooklvr
I am continuously amazed at how each of the author's books are so different and yet get to the heart of what a good horror book should be. A must read for slasher movie fans that takes you right to the edge and then gleefully jumps over with both feet!
LibraryThing member WhiskeyintheJar
2.5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Some things you just don't touch.
If you ever wanted Randy from Scream to be the star of the show, My Heart is a Chainsaw would be the story for you. Told from first person pov and
No, Jade will never be any kind of final girl, she knows, and has known for years.
I loved how the story started out, two Dutch teens touring America decide to take a canoe out in the lake and skinny dip. It brought in that sense of glee, as all horror fans know where this is going and while we get the dread and murder, the question of why and how is left unanswered as the story does that shift from dark to light, a town that has no idea what is coming. Except we have our Randy, or Jennifer who has tried to reinvent herself as Jade, so she can be the girl that knows all about slashers and not known as something else. When she learns about the death of someone in the lake (the Dutch boy's body is found), she's gung-ho that a slasher has come to her town, especially since one of the rich girls from across the lake has Final Girl written all over her.
Everybody has a function, everybody in a slasher cycle has a role— isn’t that a line from the Bible, even?
A problem I have with newer slashers is that they take too long to get to the gory fun, and this story falls into that. The ramblings of Jade about how everything she is seeing and in her life that she ties, compares, and sees alluding to slasher movies takes up way too much time. I love slashers, so I enjoyed the name dropping of so many (unless I missed it, sad Chopping Mall didn't make the cut but grinned at Thankskilling) but after the numerous Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street references, even I was ready for the story move on; I can see many fighting some boredom in the beginning middle. Getting to know Jade and her life, is intricate to the end and following her allows readers to get to know the fodder, excuse me, townspeople but it all takes too much time.
Maybe, since the slasher’s been going for nearly four decades, the only way to still surprise is by breaking its rules.
The last 65% is where the show really gets going and while there were some nicely gory scenes, readers still don't get to “see” the slashing as redherrings are still playing a part and Jade doesn't come in until the killings are done. Instead of enjoying the danger, thrills, and fighting to stay alive, the tone was still cloaked in a bewildering and confused mist as Jane and the reader still don't know what is happening. The last 20% gave the reveals and frankly, it was a mess of too many threads coming from every direction. Jade's own trauma comes to the forefront in the middle of the slayings and while it's supposed to be this big emotional moment, it didn't feel like it had created space in the story for me as the reader to really get there.
Some girls just don’t know how to die.
If I didn't know that this was being turned into a trilogy, I would be annoyed with the ending and probably lower the rating. We get the killing reveals but then Jade has another tie-in to her emotional trauma that, again, felt out of place and not hitting right. As it is, knowing Jade's story continues, I'm curious about the sequel and how Jade will prevail against a video taken of her that shows the facts but not the truth, who some surprise survivors could be, and if she'll have another battle with the Lake Witch. If some of the repeated Nightmare on Elm Street and the like, Final Girl talk had been condensed, and some plot threads cut to strengthen others, I think the shorter page count would have served this story better. As it was, I did enjoyed the slasher talk, some unexpected elements, and Jade's fight for survival, physically and emotionally.
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Some things you just don't touch.
If you ever wanted Randy from Scream to be the star of the show, My Heart is a Chainsaw would be the story for you. Told from first person pov and
Show More
literary past tense, Jennifer Daniels is a seventeen year old high school senior who uses her love of slasher films to write Slasher 101 extra credit papers to help her pass history class. Her history teacher, Mr. Holmes, sighing accepts them as she ties in the town's, Proofrock, ID, gory history. The town has a Camp Blood, a sleepaway camp where children were murdered, a past fire that burned people, and Indian Lake, where little girl Stacey Graves was murdered, a preacher drowned, and more recently, the sheriff's daughter was killed. The lake is seeing more action as rich developers are building luxury homes across the lake from Proofrock, bringing in new people (redherrings) and stirring up old and present issues.No, Jade will never be any kind of final girl, she knows, and has known for years.
I loved how the story started out, two Dutch teens touring America decide to take a canoe out in the lake and skinny dip. It brought in that sense of glee, as all horror fans know where this is going and while we get the dread and murder, the question of why and how is left unanswered as the story does that shift from dark to light, a town that has no idea what is coming. Except we have our Randy, or Jennifer who has tried to reinvent herself as Jade, so she can be the girl that knows all about slashers and not known as something else. When she learns about the death of someone in the lake (the Dutch boy's body is found), she's gung-ho that a slasher has come to her town, especially since one of the rich girls from across the lake has Final Girl written all over her.
Everybody has a function, everybody in a slasher cycle has a role— isn’t that a line from the Bible, even?
A problem I have with newer slashers is that they take too long to get to the gory fun, and this story falls into that. The ramblings of Jade about how everything she is seeing and in her life that she ties, compares, and sees alluding to slasher movies takes up way too much time. I love slashers, so I enjoyed the name dropping of so many (unless I missed it, sad Chopping Mall didn't make the cut but grinned at Thankskilling) but after the numerous Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street references, even I was ready for the story move on; I can see many fighting some boredom in the beginning middle. Getting to know Jade and her life, is intricate to the end and following her allows readers to get to know the fodder, excuse me, townspeople but it all takes too much time.
Maybe, since the slasher’s been going for nearly four decades, the only way to still surprise is by breaking its rules.
The last 65% is where the show really gets going and while there were some nicely gory scenes, readers still don't get to “see” the slashing as redherrings are still playing a part and Jade doesn't come in until the killings are done. Instead of enjoying the danger, thrills, and fighting to stay alive, the tone was still cloaked in a bewildering and confused mist as Jane and the reader still don't know what is happening. The last 20% gave the reveals and frankly, it was a mess of too many threads coming from every direction. Jade's own trauma comes to the forefront in the middle of the slayings and while it's supposed to be this big emotional moment, it didn't feel like it had created space in the story for me as the reader to really get there.
Some girls just don’t know how to die.
If I didn't know that this was being turned into a trilogy, I would be annoyed with the ending and probably lower the rating. We get the killing reveals but then Jade has another tie-in to her emotional trauma that, again, felt out of place and not hitting right. As it is, knowing Jade's story continues, I'm curious about the sequel and how Jade will prevail against a video taken of her that shows the facts but not the truth, who some surprise survivors could be, and if she'll have another battle with the Lake Witch. If some of the repeated Nightmare on Elm Street and the like, Final Girl talk had been condensed, and some plot threads cut to strengthen others, I think the shorter page count would have served this story better. As it was, I did enjoyed the slasher talk, some unexpected elements, and Jade's fight for survival, physically and emotionally.
Show Less
LibraryThing member stretch
A teen obsessed with slasher films, in a small town, begins noticing the patterns of a slasher flick come to life. Jade our teen protagonist is a very damaged girl, neglect, abuse, and low standards have dragged her down. And like many residents of this small mountain town, she needs an escape. She
On its merits, My Heart is Chainsaw is good. Jones is able to create a damaged, selfish character that is likeable and while obsessive, still functions in the world. It's a very literary type horror, the writing is elevated to something a bit better than your typical horror story. The slasher 101 asides are fun. Everything works together and when Jade comes to terms with her personal demons, it is cathartic. In every way this is an excellent book, except the climax goes completely hare wire in an orgy of blood, that is both hard to follow and breaks with the logic of the slasher. If only we didn't try to kill the entire town off in a single orgy could this had been a better and even more drawn out story.
Show More
chooses horror. Giving her an insight to the strange going happenings that no else sees as anything more than a battle with rich, entitled folks destroying their peaceful habitat. There are plenty of hidden secrets and dark history in town boiling beneath the surface, perfect for the classic slasher setup. After stumbling upon the 'final girl', Jade hatches a plan of education and indoctrination in her well versed subject, to prepare the final girl for her inevitable battle. The final chapters unleash plenty of gore and tragedy fitting of the slasher genre.On its merits, My Heart is Chainsaw is good. Jones is able to create a damaged, selfish character that is likeable and while obsessive, still functions in the world. It's a very literary type horror, the writing is elevated to something a bit better than your typical horror story. The slasher 101 asides are fun. Everything works together and when Jade comes to terms with her personal demons, it is cathartic. In every way this is an excellent book, except the climax goes completely hare wire in an orgy of blood, that is both hard to follow and breaks with the logic of the slasher. If only we didn't try to kill the entire town off in a single orgy could this had been a better and even more drawn out story.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheYodamom
Slasher movie fans will love this story. Imagine living through a combination of slasher movies in real life. Where you play one of the characters, the director or the misunderstood youth ? Hold on this book will take you there.
I felt like I was walking though was it deep mud while drunk trying to
I felt like I was walking though was it deep mud while drunk trying to
Show More
understand this story. I struggled, it seemed to take forever to finish, I should have quit but I have loved this authors books before. I didn’t understand most of the references to horror movies, so I didn’t get how they connected to the characters of the moment. Many parts I had to read 2-3 times to understand, other I just gave up and moved on. It felt so complicated. I was frustrated, I could feel the brilliance but couldn’t connect. I may not have enjoyed reading it but I am amazed at the genius in the writing and weaving the movies/characters and actions together to fit. It ended. I was left feeling sad for one character I think, were they broken, brilliant or just crazy ? The book left me questioning this till the end. I have to give this a good rating for the writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member CaseyAdamsStark
What can I say about My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. It's a mess. Why give it 5 stars then, you say? Because it's a mess as seen through the lens of a very messed up main character, Jade Daniels, and that messed up, hyperactive, suicidal point of view rings true. Jade's character
Jade isn’t even her real name, but it suits her because she’s become so jaded by the people in her life, that her only outlet for pleasure is horror movies. Slashers in particular. And this is where Jade proves that she has a brilliant mind, something to offer the world, if the world wasn’t so cruel. She buries herself so deep in slasher movie lore that, when things start to go awry in her small and picturesque Idaho town, she’s the only one who sees it coming. Because she knows how slashers work. And does that scare her? No. That excites her because she has nothing to really live for, except in terms of a slasher movie, and what a way for her to go out. For her, it’s ending on a high note.
Jade will come to that end with a shocking revelation, something that she refuses to admit to herself from the start. She can never be the final girl in this nightmare come true for a very specific reason. But she can play her part, and she struggles with that.
Of course, if you’re a true horror movie aficionado, you’re in for a treat. I consider myself a mid level horror aficionado—I remember writing a paper in my college days about the importance of horror films as social commentary, so when Jade writes extra credit homework for her history teacher doing essentially the same, I could really relate. Also, Jaws and The Shining are two iconic movies that shaped my own movie viewing tastes in a big way. What I’m getting to is that it doesn’t hurt to be a horror movie fan on some level. Or even an 80’s movie fan. I felt like there were a few nods to movies like The Breakfast Club and Heathers too.
I highly recommend this book. The only dissatisfaction I have is with its symbolic end that I wish had more closure regarding Jade and the mother who essentially abandoned her. The metaphor is clearly apparent but it doesn’t quite reflect how it turned out for Jade.
Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.
Show More
has some major issues, and a mind that is all over the place as she tries to navigate the hell that is her life. There’s a good chance that you won’t like her from the start, but cut her some slack. She really deserves it..Jade isn’t even her real name, but it suits her because she’s become so jaded by the people in her life, that her only outlet for pleasure is horror movies. Slashers in particular. And this is where Jade proves that she has a brilliant mind, something to offer the world, if the world wasn’t so cruel. She buries herself so deep in slasher movie lore that, when things start to go awry in her small and picturesque Idaho town, she’s the only one who sees it coming. Because she knows how slashers work. And does that scare her? No. That excites her because she has nothing to really live for, except in terms of a slasher movie, and what a way for her to go out. For her, it’s ending on a high note.
Jade will come to that end with a shocking revelation, something that she refuses to admit to herself from the start. She can never be the final girl in this nightmare come true for a very specific reason. But she can play her part, and she struggles with that.
Of course, if you’re a true horror movie aficionado, you’re in for a treat. I consider myself a mid level horror aficionado—I remember writing a paper in my college days about the importance of horror films as social commentary, so when Jade writes extra credit homework for her history teacher doing essentially the same, I could really relate. Also, Jaws and The Shining are two iconic movies that shaped my own movie viewing tastes in a big way. What I’m getting to is that it doesn’t hurt to be a horror movie fan on some level. Or even an 80’s movie fan. I felt like there were a few nods to movies like The Breakfast Club and Heathers too.
I highly recommend this book. The only dissatisfaction I have is with its symbolic end that I wish had more closure regarding Jade and the mother who essentially abandoned her. The metaphor is clearly apparent but it doesn’t quite reflect how it turned out for Jade.
Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Veronica.Sparrow
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.
LibraryThing member tibobi
The Short of It:
Dark. An homage to slasher films of the 80s.
The Rest of It:
Jade Daniels is an angry young woman living in the small town of Proofrock. Forced to live with her abusive father, she takes comfort in the form of slasher films, especially ones where the killer deals out revenge for
Something is amiss in Proofrock though. Two young people were ripped to shreds by something while out on the lake. The town calls it a bear attack. Jade sees it for what it is, the beginning of all slasher films and immediately acts to find the killer.
This was a very strange read. It reminded me a lot of American Horror Story: 1984, which brought up the concept of “the final girl”. You know the girl. The one that lives at the end of the killing spree. Jade pieces things together but in doing so, has to also find the final girl. It can’t be her. She is not final girl material. When she finds her, the action quickly ramps up and it’s hard to keep track of who is alive and who is dead. It’s a crazy ride.
I’m not sure this book is for everyone. Yes, horror fans will enjoy it to a degree but it’s very surreal in the telling. By the end of the book, I was fully into the characters but also felt like I had been taken for a wild ride. It is very different. I anxiously waited for this book to come in for the RIP Challenge but although it totally fits the challenge, it wasn’t the atmospheric read I was hoping for.
For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.
Dark. An homage to slasher films of the 80s.
The Rest of It:
Jade Daniels is an angry young woman living in the small town of Proofrock. Forced to live with her abusive father, she takes comfort in the form of slasher films, especially ones where the killer deals out revenge for
Show More
something, think Jason from Friday the 13th. Her knowledge of such films is extensive. So much so that it spills into her schoolwork. As the story unfolds, some of it is told through the term paper she is about to submit. Slasher 101.Something is amiss in Proofrock though. Two young people were ripped to shreds by something while out on the lake. The town calls it a bear attack. Jade sees it for what it is, the beginning of all slasher films and immediately acts to find the killer.
This was a very strange read. It reminded me a lot of American Horror Story: 1984, which brought up the concept of “the final girl”. You know the girl. The one that lives at the end of the killing spree. Jade pieces things together but in doing so, has to also find the final girl. It can’t be her. She is not final girl material. When she finds her, the action quickly ramps up and it’s hard to keep track of who is alive and who is dead. It’s a crazy ride.
I’m not sure this book is for everyone. Yes, horror fans will enjoy it to a degree but it’s very surreal in the telling. By the end of the book, I was fully into the characters but also felt like I had been taken for a wild ride. It is very different. I anxiously waited for this book to come in for the RIP Challenge but although it totally fits the challenge, it wasn’t the atmospheric read I was hoping for.
For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ToriC90
I really enjoyed this - but I can see how it could be a little difficult as a physical read. The audiobook was a great way to go for a first read through. This was my first book by this author, but from this book I feel like SGJ is so intentional with his writing and storytelling that I will have
Show More
to go back and annotate because there was SO MUCH there and I feel like most of it had a reason and that’s why I didn’t mind the “ramble” of Jade. The audio also made it feel more like Jade was telling you a story through the only perspective she knows how to relate to the world - which is through slasher movies. I would classify this as a thinker. I don’t know that I would call it an all time favorite but I do think I will purchase and reread and keep thinking about it for quite a while. Show Less
LibraryThing member dagon12
It's been said in a bunch of reviews that this book is a love letter to slasher films. It might be a tad more accurate to say the heart of the book is slasher films. I consider myself a pretty big horror fan but throughout the book I had to stop and look up a slasher film that was referenced. Or
Jade Daniels is a half-Indian teenager in a small town; she lives with her abusive father and wants nothing more than to be rid of the town. Her one solace is slasher films. Her knowledge and love far surpasses Jamie Kennedy's character in "Scream". Then when blood spills and people start to die, Jade knows exactly how things will go. Or she thinks she does.
Jones does an amazing job with the novel. His love and understanding and passion for slash films comes through from start to end. Jade tells us the rules while the book follows them. And then deviates. Or does it? The meta-feeling of fitting the book into the formula runs throughout the length. Then all that changes and is no longer important because at the very end Jones gives a gut punch that I should have seen coming but was too distracted to see. Something so emotional that I was left stunned. He did the same thing to me when I read THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS. I'm not going to give anything away. You should simply read this book and enjoy! Stephen Graham Jones is an amazing author.
Show More
look up a name that was mentioned because I knew it was in some horror movie but I didn't know which. My Netflix and Amazon Prime watchlists both had multiple films added to them as a result of MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW.Jade Daniels is a half-Indian teenager in a small town; she lives with her abusive father and wants nothing more than to be rid of the town. Her one solace is slasher films. Her knowledge and love far surpasses Jamie Kennedy's character in "Scream". Then when blood spills and people start to die, Jade knows exactly how things will go. Or she thinks she does.
Jones does an amazing job with the novel. His love and understanding and passion for slash films comes through from start to end. Jade tells us the rules while the book follows them. And then deviates. Or does it? The meta-feeling of fitting the book into the formula runs throughout the length. Then all that changes and is no longer important because at the very end Jones gives a gut punch that I should have seen coming but was too distracted to see. Something so emotional that I was left stunned. He did the same thing to me when I read THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS. I'm not going to give anything away. You should simply read this book and enjoy! Stephen Graham Jones is an amazing author.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Kristelh
This is the second book I've read by Stephen Graham Jones. He is able to tell a story. This is the story of a young gals fascination with slasher movies and her way of coping with her life. I never watch them but needless to say I learned everything there is about the slasher movies. I found it
Show More
curious that two books came out in 2021 that are both about final girls, an element of the slasher movies; Grady Hendrix's book The Final Girl Support Group and My Heart is a Chainsaw. Show Less
LibraryThing member bibliovermis
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member clrichm
Oddly enough, perhaps, one of the things that immediately struck me upon finishing the book was the symmetry of it: going from the idea that the threat will be supernatural to that it’s actually a human killer, and then to the suspicion that perhaps the entire thing is the delusion of an
My head spun.
Perhaps it was a little too complicated/deliberately nebulous, but for the most part it was really well-written. The epilogue was…huh…but then I read that a sequel is coming, so that makes more sense now.
Still want to know about Letha and the “how did she” thing.
Show More
unreliable narrator, and then cycling back through “yeah, human killer” and landing on “witch spirit kill-kill-kill.”My head spun.
Perhaps it was a little too complicated/deliberately nebulous, but for the most part it was really well-written. The epilogue was…huh…but then I read that a sequel is coming, so that makes more sense now.
Still want to know about Letha and the “how did she” thing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sennebec
Definitely not for the squeamish, but for those who aren't, this is a very well crafted story of a teen girl who's locked-in on the slasher genre of films. Her encyclopedic knowledge of them is blended with mysterious deaths in her small Idaho town and historical events that add to the growing
Show More
tension between Jade and many in her life. Is her obsession and prophecy regarding what she believes is an impending massacre real, or part of her defense mechanism regarding events in her past? Add in a strange cast of characters, some local, others mega rich who are building a fancy bunch of homes across the lake, plus a gradual ramping up of the tension and body count, and you have a terrific horror tale. Show Less
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
This book sucked me in almost from the moment I picked it up, and for the first half of it, I couldn't stop reading it. I was in love with the voice, the style, the compulsively readable plot--pretty much everything. Though the voice was sometimes exhausting, it was exhausting in a good way,
So, why did it take me so long to finish, and why did I call such attention to the first half being so readable? That's more complicated, and to be fair, I'm not sure how much is related to the book and how much to me. I was reading this with my book club, and at a certain point, I stopped being able to keep up simply because I didn't have quite enough time. And then I was on to reading another book with them, and this one got left in the dust for a week or so. And then when I did get back to it, the adrenaline rush of the last third of the book especially was just...well, a lot. Kind of like an action movie where the action just never stops, so there's not enough of an emotional ride or enough of a break from the action to really appreciate what's unfolding. I understand why the book unfolded as it did, and I enjoyed the whole of it in a lot of ways...but the last third is one long adrenaline ride, and that part wore on me a bit. At the same time, I was dealing with a lot of stress (including a hurricane evacuation and lack of electricity), so maybe that exhaustion was partly on me? It's hard to tell, but what it comes down to is that for much of the read this was a five-star book for me, and then it dropped a star by the end simply because the last third was so break-neck that I was being rushed along more than engaged for a lot of it.
Still, I'd recommend the book to horror lovers, and I'm absolutely looking forward to reading more of Jones' work.
Show More
pulling me along and taking me back to the days of being a teenager with all of the angst/doubt/wonder/imagination/outsiderness involved. (Make no mistake, though, this is not a YA book--it's an Adult book with a teenaager protagonist, and there is a big difference.) So, why did it take me so long to finish, and why did I call such attention to the first half being so readable? That's more complicated, and to be fair, I'm not sure how much is related to the book and how much to me. I was reading this with my book club, and at a certain point, I stopped being able to keep up simply because I didn't have quite enough time. And then I was on to reading another book with them, and this one got left in the dust for a week or so. And then when I did get back to it, the adrenaline rush of the last third of the book especially was just...well, a lot. Kind of like an action movie where the action just never stops, so there's not enough of an emotional ride or enough of a break from the action to really appreciate what's unfolding. I understand why the book unfolded as it did, and I enjoyed the whole of it in a lot of ways...but the last third is one long adrenaline ride, and that part wore on me a bit. At the same time, I was dealing with a lot of stress (including a hurricane evacuation and lack of electricity), so maybe that exhaustion was partly on me? It's hard to tell, but what it comes down to is that for much of the read this was a five-star book for me, and then it dropped a star by the end simply because the last third was so break-neck that I was being rushed along more than engaged for a lot of it.
Still, I'd recommend the book to horror lovers, and I'm absolutely looking forward to reading more of Jones' work.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Christilee394
The pacing in the first half of this novel was slow, but it did pick up in the back half. It was not a deterrent and I found it enjoyable. Mainly, because I could feel that the story was building to something...building to something big. The, "Ahh, I see what you did there" moment. Definitely a
Show More
love letter to all slasher movies and people that love the genre. Even though this was not a favorite of mine from Stephen Graham Jones, he goes all out! Especially the ending, whoa, NAILED IT! Show Less
LibraryThing member purplepaste
I read, loved, and assigned The Only Good Indians in my American Literature course. My Heart Is a Chainsaw has a teenaged female lead and fully formed secondary characters. I found the action harder to follow due to the filtering of the action through the rather unreliable narrator. It felt almost
I ended the book with a lot of questions.Who was actually the killer? Why were the better father figures murdered? Why so much jaw-based gore? Why were the Danish kids killed?
Show More
like American Psycho when trying to determine if the action was *really* taking place or not. It also felt like there were intentional plot holes. So, full of horror tropes! The school papers folded into the book throughout were fun and gave a different perspective of the main character. I only wish I got papers like those! This is the third "final girl" novel I've read this year, and it is the most believable of the narrators.I ended the book with a lot of questions.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lsnow11
I adored this book. I read it for a horror book club run by the local library and I was reminded so much of myself in high school - the weird kid with an affinity for horror movies. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this book reignited my love of slasher films, as well as driving me to
Show More
explore a bit into giallo. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but it was certainly mine! Show Less
LibraryThing member mstrust
Seventeen year-old Jade is obsessed with slasher movies to the point that in any given situation, she's thinking about how a movie character behaved. She often sees herself as a character in one of these movies, usually as the killer.
Living in a very small town in Idaho with her lousy father and a
This is a 400 page deep dive into 80s slasher flicks, most of it taking place in Jade's head as she constantly reminds herself of plots and how characters responded. It's about 100 pages too long. Being in the head of someone as messed up as Jade can get tedious as she flits between reality and fantasy. Not to say this isn't well-written, it is, and it takes in the history of everyone in her life, but all her anger, resentment and movie info became a blur about page 200, though the action picks up around 300 pages in.
Living in a very small town in Idaho with her lousy father and a
Show More
mother who moved out but remained close enough for Jade to wonder why she isn't involved in her daughter's life, Jade is the outcast in town, the weirdo everyone stays away from. Then a group of super wealthy people arrive and buy up the land the abandoned summer camp sits on, which is surrounded by the cursed lake. The lower working class townspeople hate the newcomers, who respond with good jobs and opportunities for the kids, but their arrival also brings a string of deaths, and people wonder if Jade finally making good on her wish that a slasher would come to the town where she was never accepted?This is a 400 page deep dive into 80s slasher flicks, most of it taking place in Jade's head as she constantly reminds herself of plots and how characters responded. It's about 100 pages too long. Being in the head of someone as messed up as Jade can get tedious as she flits between reality and fantasy. Not to say this isn't well-written, it is, and it takes in the history of everyone in her life, but all her anger, resentment and movie info became a blur about page 200, though the action picks up around 300 pages in.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Danielle.Desrochers
The more I think about this book, the more I enjoyed it.
It is totally a love letter to the slasher genre, and I loved every twist and turn. Jade was a great MC, so unreliable and fun! I loved her.
It is totally a love letter to the slasher genre, and I loved every twist and turn. Jade was a great MC, so unreliable and fun! I loved her.
Awards
Shirley Jackson Award (Winner — Novel — 2021)
Locus Award (Finalist — 2022)
Bram Stoker Award (Nominee — Novel — 2021)
British Fantasy Award (Nominee — August Derleth Award — 2022)
RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist — Horror — 2022)
Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize (Longlist — Fiction — 2022)
Premios Kelvin 505 (Finalist — 2024)
Dragon Award (Finalist — 2022)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Genre Fiction — 2021)
NPR: Books We Love (2021)
Boston Globe Best Book (2021)
Indie Next List (September 2021)
LibraryReads (Monthly Pick — August 2021)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2021)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2021
Physical description
432 p.; 8.38 inches
ISBN
1982137649 / 9781982137649