Stephen Graham Jones is becoming quite the intriguing author. I especially enjoy the elements regarding local folklore (particularly for the indigenous characters) that can be found in his stories.

I also am surprised at the number of books in the last few years to reference "final girls." These are the girls in a scary story who survive the massacre and end up killing the killer. It is a fascinating concept that several authors have touched on quite well.

This was a fascinating and winding story, but a few points do get a bit weird, even for me.

This book is told directly from the main character Jade. The reader is trapped in her mind and takes a backseat to all of her deeds, thoughts, and obsessions. Jade eats, breathes, and sleeps in retro-classic slasher and horror movies from the past. When strange things begin to happen in the area that she lives in, she has to try to separate fact from the fiction. It turns out Jade's mind is a twisted place to be. I really struggled getting and staying into this book. It almost got the point that it felt like some kind of informational comparison piece on final girls in many of the movies and what made them the ideal person to stand up to save the day. I think it would have been more effective to move into another perspective when the action begins. The rampant thoughts that were going through Jade's head took away from the action parts. The dynamic between the poor and the new rich area of town was unique, however the rich people ended up just being names and having no real rationale as to what makes them valuable to the story, or sets them apart as potential targets. This was a bit distracting. Overall, I ended up liking this book and would definitely recommend this to people that are die hard horror fans and are educated on slashers. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

This is a love letter to slasher films. NOT horror, as our main character Jade Daniels makes clear, but specifically slasher films.

What does a slasher film need (according to Jade)?

1. A Blood Sacrifice. This comes at the beginning of the book, and is as terrifying an opening as you could want. It's got all the ingredients: good looking young people, a bit of titillation, a black lake, and transgression. A side note: the hapless young couple in the intro are Dutch, and I know that the author is friendly with a Dutch horror author, so I wonder if this was a tip of the hat?

2.Adults being useless. Obviously, adults cannot believe that something is actually going on, or this whole thing might not get off the ground. As we're introduced to Jade, I got a really bad feeling about her situation, but then that's left behind and glossed over- as it was meant to be, I think. A big theme of this book is girls and their parents- the fathers who betray trust, the mothers who are absent or useless as protectors. All the girls/monsters in this book suffer from their parents. And all of them wish for better. The most pertinent question in the book, asked of Jade by the only adult she trusts, is "will she or won't she what?"

3. It must happen Overnight, preferably with a Big Party. Oh yes, there is more than one! and the final party just happens to be a party in which there's a a movie projected out over the lake, and the whole town dresses up their flotation devices/boats and watches the movie while out on the lake! And what's the movie tradition? Watching Jaws, of course. Jaws, according to Jade, is also a slasher movie in addition to being a monster movie. Also a callback to that black lake that concealed Jason.

4. Signature Weapon. Jade lovingly describes the history of slasher weapons, from Jason's machete to Freddy Krueger's slashing glove. Jade herself has kept a machete on hand, just in case a slasher does show up. There's a creepy new serial killer weapon in this novel, and I've just got to say that this author understands the inherent creepiness of so many day to day tools.

5. The Slasher themself. This is a book of dualities. The most important characters have more than one identity. I mentioned Jade's machete above, and she transforms into a being closer to Jason as the book goes on. But she's not the only one. There are several characters who make unexpected transformations, usually in really disgusting ways. Hey, no one said that change is easy.

6. A Final Girl. Jade believes that the slasher movie scenario is a crucible in which the Final Girl is tested, transformed and purified in order to become her most distilled self, necessary in order to triumph over the forces of darkness. She even thinks that the slasher themselves knows this and is complicit in it so that they have a worthy adversary. Letha Mondragon, the new girl that Jade thinks heralds the coming of the slasher, has a great Final Girl name. Is Letha referring to Lethal? Lethe? Both?

7. Masks. All good slashers are grotesque or hidden in some way.

8.Slashercam. Seeing the scene from the slasher's point of view- but also keeps the killer hidden from the audience's sight. It allows viewers to see the victim's fear, but not to see what the victims see. It heightens the suspense.

There's a lot going on underneath the surface of this book. It lurks there, with just a hint at the beginning, only to reveal its true horror at the climax. And that's funny, because there are info dumps in the form of Jade's extra credit assignments for history class, which she naturally converts into a history of slasher films and local lore, which are extremely on the nose and should be telling you exactly what you're in for. This author clearly knows his slasher movies- I caught some of his references to the hairy knuckles of the stuntman in the first Friday the 13th and the Captain Kirk mask of Michael Myers but I'm sure there is a LOT that I missed. Those of you who love these films will surely see more that I've missed. There is some slack in the middle of the book- there's a lot of background information and exposition (and red herrings) and I got impatient for the slasher to arrive just as Jade did. But that's life as opposed to a movie, I guess, and a book has more room to build tension than a movie does. Or was it all a jump-scare, intended to get me to relax before the gruesomeness of the climax? Gore hounds will get their due in the end. It felt like the author loved pouring his heart's blood into this book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Are you a fan of horror films? And I mean the horror films that defined the horror genre for everyone (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream etc) If you are, this is the book for you. Its a fun book that I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I did!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC

DNF at 33%

My thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy of this anticipated title.

The Only Good Indians was in my top 5 of 2020, so I was very excited to get another title from Graham Jones so soon. Scream being one of my all time favorite films, I was especially excited by the premise of My Heart Is a Chainsaw.

Unfortunately, I found this one very messy in execution. We're dropped in, not given time to know or understand the main character, and made to wait too long for things to ramp up.

I also found the third person narration in the chapters as underbaked as the first person essays interspersed throughout the chapters.

i really liked this book...until i loved it.

it came at me like a slasher-villain; stalking me quietly for ages before murdering me spectacularly in the last act, and i never even saw it coming.

So, here's the thing. The enjoyment level for My Heart Is a Chainsaw will be determined by your slasher film knowledge; not just the generic facts of well-known franchises such as Halloween or Friday the 13th, but also lesser known, cult classics spanning across decades. As someone who enjoys horror movies every once in a while, I was more than happy to stop and Google, but I couldn't deny that this almost constant interruption did impact my overall enjoyment.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw's pacing is possibly its biggest conundrum—restricted to the "cliche" slasher story beats by concept, and without the option to be unexpected. The constant armchair analysis from the 'presumed safe' protagonist can be quite monotonous, resulting in the first 75% of the book being extremely low-risk and low-tension, which is never a good sign in horror. The last 25% is definitely horrifying mayhem, but it's woefully short and takes a questionable narrative turn that I wasn't a huge fan of.

This is one where I enjoy the idea of it much more than actually reading it. In his acknowledgments at the end, Stephen Graham Jones mentioned this story has been rewritten a few times, and somehow in its final form I can still feel the grind and revision of getting it across the finish line. Overall I'm very happy for the existence of this heady, literary horror take on slashers, even if part of me wishes this had been a novella instead.

*dnf at 40%*
something about Stephen Graham Jones and I just does NOT vibe. this is the second book of his I've DNF'd, which makes me so sad because I've loved the premise of both. but I realllly struggle to read & process his writing. so that being paired with how slow this book was just made it really not work for me and i decided to put it down.

This book honestly let me down pretty hard. I'm not sure if I went in with the wrong expectations or if I just didn't mesh with the storytelling but I just felt like it was a drag for me.

I thought I was getting myself into a horror novel which sounded super cool and unique, but what I got was 90% girl talking in circles about slashers, 5% no one believing her, and 5% weird lake scene? After I finished the book I was just confused as to what the overall point of the story was. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to be on Jade's side or not, at some points I thought the reveal was going to be that she was institutionalized and everyone was just going along with her ramblings.

Overall, cool concept it just didn't resonate with me unfortunately.

Oij. I don't even know how to feel about this fully. Firs of, this could have been like a 100 pages shorter, and I would have been happier. Maybe.

For some reason, the style of this author just doesn't work for me. I was so hype for a slasher. All the references made me want to go on a horror movie binge and live through the old times with a passion. Though the narrative was dragging. Too much contemplation and overthinking and debating (with herself) and pondering who the slasher will be. It was boring. Though the writing is lyrical, and beautiful, it is too lyrical for a horror for me personally.

I kept waiting on the actual slasher, and when I finally got to that end, the story again, never changed MO and was too dragged out. I wanted horror, slasher, blood and gore without the monologues and contemplations of is she or isn't she? Ugh. The tention wasn't there for me.

The hidden story in between the horror movie references was the best part. And probably why I didn't quit this book till the last ten pages. Seriously, had to skim the end just because, again, it felt dragged out.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy.

🔪 I have no doubt Stephen Graham Jones is an amazing author, however I was a bit let down by this one. This is my first book from him but I definitely would check more out; horror is a genre I’m trying to get into. I was instantly intrigued when I heard it being described as 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 13𝘵𝘩.

“𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐨 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬.” ~𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨 (𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟎)

🔪 This book was very unique and creative, I had a hard time with the first half of the book. It was very slow and I just couldn’t connect with it. However, the ending was phenomenal. This story is told through our MC, Jade, and her notes she writes for her favorite teacher. I loved loved loved the slasher references, omg those were all so good and brought back all the great memories.

“𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬…𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝.” ~ 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥 (𝟏𝟗𝟓𝟗)

🔪 I don’t think this book was “scary” or “creepy” but I still liked parts of it. I think it was way too long and slow for me personally. If you love slashers.. we’re taking Ghostface, Jason, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and so many more.. then you’ll absolutely love the references. I do think this book was good, it was one of my most anticipated reads for the year so it’s a bit disheartening that I didn’t love it more.

“𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦! 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠!” ~ 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲 (𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟖)

✨Thank you so much @sagasff and @netgalley
for the gifted copy!✨

A horror novel with a fantastic premise. The cover? Perfect. The title? PERFECT. It’s safe to say my expectations for this were very high. Sadly, it fell a bit flat for me. It just took too long to get into the story and once it did, I found it to be a bit too long.

TW: Rape, bullying, family drama, child sexual abuse, abortion, racism

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: 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.
Release Date: August 31st, 2021
Genre: Horror
Pages: 404
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
• Interesting storyline
• Jade was a great character

What I Didn't Like:
• Maybe too much talk about slasher killers(I know I sound crazy)

Overall Thoughts: Sadly I hadn't liked any of the authors books, so I had to give this one a chance. I hate to just dismiss an author because of a few books that didn't mesh with me. I have a hard time getting into his writing style. It always feels like he's blurring his words together and mumbling. Not this book though. I adored this one. Jade was a character that was believable. My heart breaks for her and what she went through.

The ending was so interesting in how it tied in her obsession while giving a reason for how she was and why. How the author showed how trama can alter your perspective to reality.

Final Thoughts: I'm really starting to get into the books by this author. I think this one was great, just be prepared since there is a lot of Dark themes here.

Seriously, what a fun book. Dark in some parts, but absolutely fun. Not your average, predictable slasher.

I originally got this as an arc from a site that i used earlier this year, but I didn’t read it because I finally admitted to myself that I HATE reading on devices. Since I work in an office and stare at a computer all day I really don’t enjoy doing that when I get home. So I waited for the release of this book to read it the correct way.

Jade Daniels is an 80s slasher obsessed, rebellious teen. Doing her best to navigate life without her mom and stuck in a house with a drunk ass father, Jade adapts to these already rough teen years by making the best of it: enter Slasher 101.

This is where shit gets interesting. An honest-to-god slasher turns up in Proofrock and people just dismiss it as Jade just being Jade, but what they don’t know is that Jade might just be the only one that can save them all.

Slasher 101 was a nice, authentic touch to break up the story.

But also, this book hit me hard because Stephen Graham Jones touches a nerve that a lot of people have, but won’t talk about. The fact that some people love and latch onto horror because they’ve lived through their own horror at an early age, and they all know that people- real human beings- are the actual horror in this world, not monsters or made up ghost stories. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but once innocence is talked from us, it can never come back.

I’m seriously so happy that more and more authors are touching down on this point and putting it in their work. It ads a real human touch to a genre a lot of people do not take seriously.

If you have the time, definitely check this one out. It’s not your typical final girl story.

🔪🔪🔪🔪/5 stabs.

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a great, interesting title and a perfect representation of the book. This book is full of violence and blood and fear; it is a slasher in print. If you grew up on Friday the 13th and Halloween and other slasher movies, you will really enjoy this book. The heart of the book is its main character, Jade, who is a teenager obsessed with slasher films; she writes extra credit papers about the history and meaning of slasher films, which helps anyone who is unfamiliar with them to understand them, and this book, better. Jade is portrayed as weird and unlikeable, with a toughness to her, but the more you get to know her, you start to understand that there is so much more to her. She is such a strong, memorable character and it’s hard not to cheer for her by the end (I would love to read more books about her). This was the first book I have read by this author, but it won’t be the last.

”Brutal, beautiful, and unforgettable, My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a visceral ride from start to finish. A bloody love letter to slasher fans, it’s everything I never knew I needed in a horror novel."
-Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens


Now, in many ways and for many reasons, Stephen Graham Jones is quickly becoming one of my go-to storytellers. That might or might not surprise you, given my review and subsequent low rating of The Only Good Indians, but that’s because, in my opinion, the two are polar opposites. They shouldn’t be compared, and I’ll try my best not to. While it’s true that both are technically slashers and they were published sequentially, My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a much better, well-thought-out and stronger effort. In typical SGJ fashion, both shed light on the Indigenous culture and the impact that has on the Blackfeet, and I love that. I admire his passion. It’s an element that I’ve come to expect in his work.

I could go on and on about the different ways in which My Heart Is a Chainsaw impressed the world out of me thematically. The gentrification of smalltown America was one of them. There were also elements of progress versus tradition (paying special attention to the impact that has on the Blackfeet,) and how the lines separating virtue from immorality often become blurry. The novel, as a whole, was much more alluring and made more clear. I could also wax eloquent about the character development. Jade Daniels especially was easily some of the best character development I’ve read in quite some time. I connected with her profoundly and for many reasons, not just once or twice or even sporadically, but throughout the novel’s four hundred- plus pages. To maintain that continuity and depth really says a lot and, in my experience, you just don’t often find that in fiction. It’s almost a lost art, and in this instance, Jones nailed it.

Also, it was never once boring or dull, whereas The Only Good Indians bored me to death, more often than not.

But before I go any further, I must admit something else that might surprise you: the slasher subgenre isn’t really my thing. Yes, I love horror, but not all dark fiction is equal. Not by a long shot. I don’t get excited about indiscriminate and senseless body drops. I need more substance and intellect. I guess that’s why I’ve only seen bits and scraps of Friday the 13th, or why I only very recently saw the original Halloween. Back in the day, I did, however, find myself enamored with the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, but that stemmed less from the content and had everything to do with Wes Craven’s brilliant vision. Seriously, the dreamscape concepts were the coolest things I’d ever seen.

So, to clarify, I wouldn’t consider myself a slasher fan. That, in itself, speaks volumes, given how much I enjoyed this book. Reading it, particularly in conjunction with The Only Good Indians, helped me that much more appreciate the author’s enchanting prose, as well as his unique take on the slasher.

Shooting Glasses just sits there. Which is to say, he’s not leaving, not sloping off to whisper to his buds how weird this girl is with her throwback references, all the horror, all the gore. Jade’s face heats up, and, praying her voice won’t crack, and only saying it after she’s gone over it and over it in her head, she says, “I could like you, I think.” When Shooting Glasses looks over for more, the Dr Pepper can to his lower lip, she adds in quick, “As someone to talk to, I mean.”
“Where was I your last four years?” he sort of quotes.


Conveniently sprinkled throughout the novel were a dozen brief essay sections, written by Jade, which delved deep into the slasher genre and essentially dissected it, analyzing the very fabric of its many ins and outs; the things which make it tick, the things that work and don’t work. She took it further than that by giving insight into the actual Rules of the Slasher. That was done in such a way that it never came across as being didactic or pompous or any other negative adjective. On the contrary, I couldn’t get enough of Jade’s contributions. They were wholly fascinating and I left each one with the sense that I’d learned something. I learned a LOT. I say that fully knowing that Jones most likely wrote them with an audience of horror aficionados in mind. I also realize that a fair number of reviewers found Jade’s sections somewhat off-putting, and that’s clearly their right. The point is, I loved them. I’d read an entire book containing her essays, if I could. Even if the slasher gave me more enjoyment and if I’d considered myself fairly knowledgeable of the films, Jones is such an encyclopedia of horror that I’m sure this would’ve, at the very least, given me something more to consider, on an intellectual as well as an artistic level. He’s just that dang good.


The most exceptional yet was Jones’s full utilization of red herrings. They were more impressive than plot, setting or historical context; more exquisite than the breathtaking prose, which comfortably straddled the line separating a frenetic, almost manic prose, with that of an incredibly controlled one. And although the unrelenting suspense and built up tension between various characters was rather unprecedented (on par with nothing I’ve read in a long time,) the aforementioned red herrings were virtually everywhere. They were so masterfully executed and rendered beautifully that I never knew the identity of the killer. I never wanted to stop reading. None of that is hyperbole, either. In a world where predicting certain details of a fictional story has become increasingly easy and predictable, being completely clueless until the denouement’s Big Reveal was no small feat. Not knowing made My Heart Is a Chainsaw that much more rewarding and mysterious and fun. I cannot adequately express just how refreshing that was.
That’s precisely how it should be, too. After all, this wasn’t Stephen Graham Jones’s debut or even his second foray into the slasher. Over the years, he’s diligently honed his craft, intentionally experimenting well within—and pushing the envelope of—the deceptively simplistic slasher narrative, starting with Demon Theory in 2006, followed by The Last Final Girl, Night of the Mannequins, and the Bram-Stoker Award-winning The Only Good Indians. In fact, it would seem that his “black heart” knows no bounds, for his forthcoming novel is called Don't Fear the Reaper and on July 26th, 2022, Jade’s journey is set to continue in a direct sequel. I’m excited about that.

”Town reject, nice to meet you.”


Needless to say, the good far outweighed its flaws. In fact, there were only a handful of constructive criticisms to give. The most significant or damaging was Jones’s tendency to ramble, which made this slow burn a little slower paced. Neither are necessarily bad or even a criticism and here’s why: this is my second Stephen Graham Jones book, and both are what some might call agonizingly slow, so in conclusion, they aren’t really flaws or even poor executions. That’s just his style. He’s not the first author to do this, nor is he the last. Concerning said rambling, which had certain stream-of-consciousness vibes, they almost always revolved around the protagonist’s obsession with the string of murders, and that could feel somewhat daunting and repetitive at times. It was undoubtedly disturbing, given her already precarious mentality. But at the same time, it was utterly fascinating to be locked inside her head, to learn about her various thought processes, defense mechanisms, and knowing there were shades of gray within her made me admire and adore her that much more. I love Jade Daniels so, so much. I can’t overstate that. She’s the endearing spirit and lifeline of the book. Being that close to her lent it a palpable sense of the uncanny and of claustrophobia. That’s not a criticism, either. More to the point, that intimacy was a great method of further developing her character, and I can’t imagine a less developed protagonist, even though sacrificing some of her ramblings would’ve resulted in a significantly trimmed down book; a tighter constructed story. Oftentimes, I question whether or not he could’ve told the same story with a more economy of words, and earnestly, I’m not sure. I’d like to think the depth and strength of Jade could remain intact, but where do you draw the line? What do you keep and what would you omit? Because as lengthy as some of them were, every thought and theory and cinematic insight felt relevant and interesting. I oscillate whether any words were wasted at all.

As impactful as the overall work was, My Heart Is a Chainsaw had the potential to really GUT ME, to leave me speechless, if the supporting cast had been developed. Instead, most of them were one note characters, and that bothered me. It bothered me because with the obvious exception of Jade, the easily likeable Mr. Holmes (the primary recipient of Jade’s essays,) and the charming Letha Mondragon, I felt nothing for them, and I wanted to feel something, anything about them. Something that mattered. I longed to get to know them deeper than the surface level. And trust me, I get. I really do. The slasher is typically devoid of emotion and depth. Just take a cursory glance at Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or Billy Black from 1974’s underrated Black Christmas, which served as the blueprints for John Carpenter’s Halloween, in addition to countless imitations that followed. It bugged me even more, considering how fully realized Jade’s character was. If nothing else, there was a part of me expecting to have a decent sense of who the others were. They were basically lobotomized, intent only on personal gain, and perhaps that was the point. It unequivocally communicated a lot about greed in America and how depraved humanity has become.

I did, however, feel something for the killer. The backstory was compelling, the motivation felt authentic and was given ample consideration by the author. I actually sympathized with the slasher.

This is always her favorite part of any slasher. It’s already been established, thanks to the bodies stacking up, that somebody thinks they’ve got a good reason to be doing this, however it is they’re doing it. Now the push is to figure out what the dead might have in common, where their paths might cross. After that it’s just a matter of thinking back to who was where when a prank or accident went down. Who had stepped out to powder their nose, see a man about a horse, make a call?

Or, before Scream, that’s how you used to be able to figure a slasher out.


Which brings me to that ending. That wholly diabolical, seemingly out-of-nowhere, brutal ending. And I mean BRUTAL. Without going into spoiler territory, it was very fast paced, intense, and aesthetically pleasing. It was, in fact, beautiful, with just enough details and gore to render it classy. In other words, the opposite of gratuitous violence present merely for shock value. I found none of that here. On the contrary, it harkened to the classic slasher’s of the 1970s and 80s, where less was more, where visual stimuli wasn’t usually necessary, and was the source of Jones’s primary inspiration. (Another highlight was the author’s note, where he detailed a plethora of said influences and an anecdote of Chainsaw’s origin.)

In the midst of such insanity came a scene which was earned, but which could’ve been so much more impactful if a certain character had been granted that which was due, instead of receiving only half the opportunity. I think that character was kind of cheated, possibly in a big way. Having said that, I’d been anticipating the other antagonist (technically, there are two, but they couldn’t be more different,) to finally, finally reach a comeuppance and boy did Jones deliver. I just wish the payoff was larger, with a broader emphasis on inner turmoil and injustice.

Now, approaching the last chapter, which was aptly entitled The Final Chapter, I had no idea what to expect. The final girl was revealed, the killer’s identity was laid bare, and where Jones took the reader was unlike any culmination that I can recall ever reading. In two words: sheer brilliance. Yet, there was another chapter left. What else did Jones have in store for his audience? How could he hope to exceed the previous chapter? I had my doubts. I also had a myriad of questions, and yes, he answered them. Or most of them, I suppose. But the content given was such a disappointment and for the life of me, I cannot decipher why it was included. Which isn’t to say it was bad or in poor taste. It just felt unneeded and there was a big disconnect between it and everything that preceded it. Those parting pages, which was the shortest chapter (I don’t consider Jade’s essays as actual chapters,) felt forced and like an afterthought, as though Jones simply wanted to write a longer book. I do see what he was trying to achieve, but the execution was a feeble attempt to, on the one hand, justify her past actions. On the other, and this is my biggest complaint, I had the impression that it was a means of redeeming her, as well as a means of bringing her journey full circle. And I’m not sure he pulled it off. Not believably, anyway.

Some girls just don’t know how to die..


In summation, I still wouldn’t consider myself a fan of slasher stories. What I am a fan of, however, is the author’s interpretation of what the modern-day slasher can, and perhaps should, convey. In light of his inarguably unique and imaginative storytelling, in conjunction with Jade’s mountainous insights, what I knew (or presumed to know,) about the subgenre was so much more than the emotionless death knell and high body counts. Stephen Graham Jones suppled that often absence of substance and intellect, and fueled it with an abundance of heart and soul. Highly recommended.

In exchange for an honest review, I received an advanced e-copy from NetGalley, the publisher, Gallery/Saga Press, and the author. I’m eternally thankful. The opinions thein are my own.

This was a strong read, and a strange one. It's part of the recent spate of final girl remixes, but here, when the action gets going, and the bodies start piling up, things get seriously bonkers. Protagonist Jade Daniels is a student of the horror movie (some of the narrative is composed of her extra-credit horror movie analysis papers submitted to one of her teachers) and trusts in the slasher format. So she knows that the rich people who're encroaching on her town are not bringing anything good, and that the old closed-down summer camp (murders!) is going to play a role. But the underlying story is of a girl who's been failed by those who were supposed to take care of her. A girl who has to make her own way, figure out her own rules for survival. When Jones takes a jacked-up narrative to 11, that's the story that shines. It's a good read, but the very ending kicks it up into great territory, and not because of the body count.

Some authors have such a unique writing style that it feels like it is a new medium. Cormac McCarthy, and Kurt Vonnegut are prime examples and to me, so is Stephen Graham Jones.
I am not knowledgeable enough to know what makes his stories so different, as I detested English class in school. All I know is that it works for me and My Heart Is A Chainsaw was no exception.
There are lots of characters but Dr. Jones has created ways to make them all memorable. If you are concerned that you’re not a “slasher” connoisseur and you won’t understand any references and therefore not like the book, you can cut that worry out of your head. To me this was more about mental health and obsessions and any references to Michael Meyers jumping out of the lake, wearing a knife glove to attack the girl in the canoe while he was being chased by a shark will all be explained in the story.
This was a fun story leaving you in suspense throughout the book wondering if Jade’s predictions will come true.

Wasn't a huge fan of this book. Felt like I was reading an encyclopedia of horror movies the whole time. Shame, had really high hopes for this book!

As a fan of thrillers, this book called my name. Chilling, raw, intense and bleak this book took a lot from me. This book does a good job presenting a diverse range of characters and weaves in among the intensity great popular references.