My Heart Is a Chainsaw
Ratings145
Average rating3.7
Book Review ✨ My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Jade knows everything about Slashers. She can tell you every body count for every slasher. Okay maybe the better word for it is obsessed. After a body is found in the town lake, it's Jades time to shine. She knows this is how all slasher films begin, and she knows who the final girl is going to be and it's not her. It's Letha Mondragon, she's beautiful, smart, kind and a perfect final girl. Jade must prepare her for the inevitable, the Lake Witch killings.
I'm not sure if you're aware but I'm not a fan of SGJ's writing but this book has given me a little hope. At first I wasn't feeling it but around 30 percent I was hooked. I needed to know what was going to happen. SGJ tends to rant and go off topic and characters often speak in circles and the story becomes hard to follow. However, after around 30 percent, his writing becomes more fluid only going off track a few times. If he could cut out about 100-150 pages of extra details, rants and boring information about boring subjects, this book could easily be a 5 star read.
The plot is what won me over. It's fun to guess who the slasher is, only to be completely surprised at the end. I enjoyed his characters, especially the main character. She's absolutely tapped, and definitely interesting.
I will say SGJ added perfect amounts of humor at the right moments. His kill scenes are also cringeworthy. Like any typical slasher, he throws in lots of blood and gore, so beware if you are squeamish like me.
DNF @ 29%, ~120 pages
This feels mean to say, but I found absolutely nothing redeemable in this. The main character is irritating and feels a little ~not like other girls~. Her internal monologue and essays are stream-of-consciousness and an absolute mess. The constant slasher references felt a little Ready Player One. I was literally just trying to drag myself through this, without even caring about the underlying ‘mystery' or what was going to happen. I kept wondering, “what is the POINT?” I read through some spoiler reviews and decided that the issues I had were not going to abate. I ALSO found out that a major plot point is apparently that her dad raped her and got her pregnant when she was 11. Feels unnecessary, but also I don't want to read that when it's written by a man. Maybe I'm a hater, idc.
Anyway, reactions to this seem pretty polarized. If you're a huge slasher fan you might like this. I like slashers but wouldn't consider myself an expert. Our MC is basically a walking encyclopedia, though.
Contains spoilers
This is not what I thought it would be. When I read the description I thought it would be a great slasher novel. Its not quite that. It was more of a rambling narrator for most of the book before a body count finally starts to build.
At first this book opened well with great atmosphere and felt like it was building up to the start of a good slashing novel. I like the main character at first but then it just went on. You get to hear her internal monolog about her encyclopedic knowledge of slasher flics. This was interesting at first but it never stopped. Not much happened in the story during this. As you trudge on you start to get annoyed with her. Just get on with the slashing.
There is mention of trauma and the story focuses mainly on the main characters terrible home life and its affect on her mental well being. This when on for so long that I thought the book was just going to stay that this was all in her head and she’s actually really messed up and needs help. Which the book sort of did.
Finally we get to the horror/slashing stage at about the last third of the book. As the body count builds up there is more questions of who is doing this and how are they doing it. Its not worth finding out. It was actually a little disappointing but I won’t ruin this for every one else. The major trauma event in the main characters life is finally laid out and she gets a sort of revenge.
This book didn’t really seem to address anything. It just wasn’t enough for me. I kept wanting more from the each part of the book. But this is not to say it’s an absolutely terrible book. The writing style is good and easily sucks you in. There are parts of the book with actual horror elements and the author nails these sections. It felt like it could have been a better book and that the author had the ability to do it.
I did place a hold on the next book of this series. I am not ready to give up on this. I might hate myself later but I hope it will work out.
Una joven adolescente de un pueblo en medio de las montañas está obsesionada con las películas de slashers, es básicamente su personalidad entera. Cuando unos turistas mueren de una forma sangrienta, ella lo interpreta como el ritual de sangre, la primer muerte que ocurre en los slashers, el asesinato que arranca la película. Los traumas de su pasado se entremezclan con los tropes de las películas de terror, al punto que cuestionás si lo que pasa es real o si ella se lo está imaginando. Una lectura muy buena y entretenida, en especial para los fanas del género (cosa q no soy, pero vi suficientes videos de Jorge para saber todo al respecto xD)
DNF @ 60%. I just can't do it anymore. I can't stand Jade and idk what's going on 40% of the time she is talking to anyone or doing anything
dnf @35%
I should've known that I don't like when fiction book have real event in it
I tried, I pushed through but in the end it's a no
I couldn't decide if this was scary or campy, or if Jade was just out of her mind. Maybe a bit of all of the above.
I don't know how to rate this.
I don't think I've ever read a book like this.
This is trippy because Jade is fully trippy as a character and as a protagonist. Being inside Jade's head was fun, but it was also confusing, I didn't get all the references, but the ones I got made sense and weirdly elated me. Jade is unhinged, delusional, and honest to god and needs lots of therapy and good friends. And for a second there I rooted a lot for her and Letha to get together.
The end left me wanting more, and I know it is purposeful because this is a trilogy, but I still feel a little unsatisfied by this, like something I needed wasn't delivered.
However, the author's acknowledgments were touching for me. Knowing the reason why SGJ decided to write this book and the process, shaped it beautifully, and it's ultimately the reason for my rating.
Really... odd book. I found the perspective very confusing a lot of the time. Perhaps too many references I didn't understand?
I loved the story and the message of this book, yet it was just so confusing. It's my second book from Stephen Graham Jones and it's the second time his writing style leaves me lost and guessing what's going on. I understand that part of it may be caused by the fact that I'm not a native English speaker, yet I still don't understand why the author needs to make it so complicated...
I was ready to give this a five star until the abrupt finish. I was really thrown off by the lack of resolution at the end. I know there's a sequel so I'm hoping that it'll pay off, but when the credits rolled on my audiobook, I had to scroll back cause I thought I'd missed something.
Kept me guessing up until the last minute! I can now see why everyone speak so highly of his writing and this book. Jade is wonderfully complex character and telling her story through slashers is beautiful and chilling!
Merged review:
Kept me guessing up until the last minute! I can now see why everyone speak so highly of his writing and this book. Jade is wonderfully complex character and telling her story through slashers is beautiful and chilling!
The first time I had to dnf cause I had no idea what was going on, but always knew I'd have to go back to it and I'm so glad I did. While I enjoyed this story once I understood the style, I was left very confused by the actual end and what was going on there and it seems at least I'm not alone there. Looking forward to part two.
Decided to reread the first two books before moving on to The Angel of Indian Lake. So happy I'm revisiting these — I loved this even more a second time. I'm going to miss Jade (and Proofrock) so much.
super super solid. jade is absolutely one of my new favorite characters. not sure why this isn't a five, just went with my gut.
Rating: 3.91 leaves out of 5Characters: 3.75/5 Cover: 3/5Story: 4.6/5Writing: 4.3/5Genre: Horror/Mystery/ThrillerType: BookWorth?: YeahHated Disliked It Was Okay Liked Loved FavoritedMy second book that I have liked out of the three that I have read by him. At first I didn't like Jade at first and maybe even more through to the halfway mark and maybe she just got tolerable. Either way she wasn't the best and majority of the characters as well were okay. As for the story it was good but it dragged a bit. It was worth at least a read through once, for sure. The ending had me a bit annoyed but that's just me!
Neutral 2.5 rounded up.
I somehow couldn't get invested in Jade/Jennifer/J.D. and the same things seemed to be repeated again and again so I felt like i was trying to get to the story through the fish gut soup described at the beginning.
VERY slow until the last 20% - I wanted to like it so much, and did love all the slasher nods, but there was too much story that wasn't story before we got anywhere. Got me caught in nearly a month long reading slump, but then I whizzed through the last bit. The story was written in such an interesting way, which was at times quite confusing, but did make Jade seem very real as we went through thoughts with her almost in real time.
Will read for the author's other books, and definitely the sequel, but might wait a few months as this took way longer than expected!
Great character work and writing, but the story itself never took off for me. Still, I felt like I knew Jade very well by the end and I'm glad for that. Would definitely read the follow-up when it's out.
2.8 - man I really wanted to like this book... I have to agree with the reviews that say it was so drawn out and boring at times and like what even was going on at some points?? Idk maybe I'm just not mentally equipped for SGJ's storytelling but overall it didn't hit for me the way I wanted it to. It was like a reading rollercoaster where I was really into it the writing and understood what was happening and the rest was just like wtf am I reading? When did that happen?
Whew! This book! I had difficulty jiving with the author's writing style initially. I almost dnf'd it, but about 1/3 of the way in something clicked for me. I devoured the rest of this book. Such a brilliant twist on the slasher genre, so glad I hung with it! 4.25 stars