Written with irrepressible humor and incredible pathos, this homage to slashers is a LOT of fun. (That's coming from someone who considers herself constitutionally unfit to watch horror-- last time I tried I jump-scared so hard I cramped a hammy.)

Seventeen-year-old Jade Daniels has an encyclopedic knowledge of slasher movies because they make a lot more sense to her than reality. When she gets her hands on evidence that a slasher cycle is beginning in her small Idaho town, Jade is ready, nay, eager for the coming reckoning-- something she's been waiting for her whole life.

Jade is written with self-awareness that's both hilarious and mortifying. It's impossible not to love her, and we're on board for every twist and turn of her journey, even as the thrills build and the blood spatters. A tremendous read.

Full review to be published in The Washington Post. Many thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the eARC.

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘐𝘕𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘴𝘪𝘳. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘙𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘎𝘌 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦.”

Stephen Graham Jones (SGJ) writes the kind of horror that I can’t put down. The kind that has me looking over my shoulder the entire time; it is vivid, descriptive, and quite unlike anything else I’ve ever read. My Heart is a Chainsaw is just what I expected from SGJ - a wholly unique story, addictive both in plot and style.

The main character, Jennifer/Jade is a 17-year-old slasher/horror film expert but it goes much deeper than that. Viewing the world through her slasher lens is how Jade manages to push through the pain of her life – a barrier, if you will, between her and the stressors of life in Proofrock, Idaho. And there’s a lot of crap that Jade has to deal with – an abusive father, an absent mother and feeling like she doesn’t belong. When a dead body turns up, Jade starts to see all the classic patterns of a horror film developing right before her eyes and begins to predict just how things will play out.

Fair warning: this is a slow burn build up but it is one hell of an entertaining build up and I am literally compelled to talk about the brilliant homage and sheer number (and beauty) of slasher film references that made my own little chainsaw heart go pitter pat. Another fair warning: this is gory, bloody, and not for the faint of heart!

If you are a fan of horror/slasher films and/or want to root for a spunky yet damaged heroine, pick this one up.

My thanks to @GalleryBooks and @SagaSFF for the gifted copy! Check out the chainsaw pin and Camp Blood key chain!

Have you ever yelled at the screen during a horror movie? Yeah, you have! Screaming at the girl to turn on the light or not run UP the damn stairs, right? When you can clearly see what the characters cannot? That’s how I felt most of the time while reading My Heart is a Chainsaw, and if I had really been yelling, my voice would’ve been raw by the time it was over. Stephen Graham Jones pulls out all the stops in this absolute tribute to the slasher, and it was a crazy, gory ride.

Jade is the horror-obsessed, outcast narrator, who is so lost in the world of slasher movie rules that she actually believes she is living in one. She is a snarky half-native with a rough childhood and few friends; her one cheerleader is her high school history teacher, to whom she addresses multiple papers on those rules of the slasher, and the history of their small town. Then a new, rich group of investors come to town, and with them comes a new girl in school that Jade would recognize anywhere… the final girl. Once she is in place, Jade knows that this movie will come careening to its blood-soaked finale- and she’ll be there to watch it.

I must admit that I am not the perfect audience for this novel, as I’m not a huge slasher fan, but I do know the rules. I did feel like I could see the ending just a little too soon, but that just left me screaming at the screen as usual!

Once again, Stephen Graham Jones does not disappoint!
In this novel the town outsider, Jade, is obsessed with slasher films. Once some very rich people decide to build houses in a national park across the town lake, Jade starts to see signs that a real life slasher film is starting in her home town.
She thinks that her new friend, Letha Mondragon, will be the final girl of the horrible massacre she feels coming. Can Letha rea)ly be the final girl this small town needs? Is there really someone a chance to save everyone from this person? Or is something supernatural going on here?
This book kept me enthralled and guessing all the way to the final twisted ending where real life and legend come together in a shocking twist!!
I highly recommend this book. I would give 10 stars if I could.
Stephen Graham Jones is quickly becoming a favored author. He writes some of the most unusual books in the horror genre.

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. 🙃

Also for all of you movie fanatics, there are copious amounts of slasher references and horror movie facts to brush up on your trivia.

Honestly I’m shocked to say this but I loved My Heart is a Chainsaw. I definitely recommend. 🔪🩸

Jade loves slashers. She thinks about them all the time, uses them in her school assignments, and when two Dutch kids are killed in Indian Lake, she believes the slasher has finally come to her.

My Heart is a Chainsaw will probably be a polarizing novel. Jade's captivation with 80s slashers can be annoying or compelling. In my case, after falling in love with Jade, I knew she used her knowledge of slasher movies to cope. While this story is about a slasher possibly coming to life, at the heart of it is Jade and her struggles.

It took about halfway through for me to be seriously invested, and once I was pulled in completely, I was hooked. Jones uses poetic language and sharp scenery to paint a picture of a young girl who just wanted someone to save her for once.

Thank you to Net Galley, Saga SFF, and Stephen Graham Jones for this advanced review copy. My Heart is a Chainsaw releases on August 31st.

CW: abuse, self-harm, graphic depiction of attempted suicide, sexual assault, blood, gore

"By now that coffin's pretty much all nails." - From My Heart is a Chainsaw

4 stars

Slasher film lovers: your book has arrived. Every pore of this book oozed slasher film love. After an amazing opening, we shift to Jade's perspective. Jade is a complicated, confusing, odd mess. I say that with love, but the pace dramatically shifts with her telling, slowing down for quite a long while. You will question her decisions, even what is actually happening. Her narration is interupted with her essays on, you guessed it, slasher films. I was more drawn to this book for the critique of American colonialism, so I found Jade's world of seeing everyone through a slaher film narration a bit much; but I know many readers who would enjoy this. I will say my knowledge of that film area is limited, and I think that detracted from my enjoyment and even understanding of the book a bit. I did find having such an unreliable narrator for most of the book an odd choice for a slasher film love story, to which may people adore that genre for it's predictability. That is most likely a small point for most readers, however. The pace picked up again for the end. Solid writing with an interesting story.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Horror has always been a more complex genre than most people give it credit for. Any given day on the Internet will show the ever-going debate of horror’s political commentary abilities. As it has always done, the genre has become the hot spot for confrontation with the things we do not wish to face out loud, only now more artists are letting the mask slip a little to reveal the undead and undying monster beneath — and his resemblance to humanity is shaking even those who never bothered to look. Horror’s greatest strength is its ability to tackle complex themes most other genres shy away from with deceptive simplicity, and nowhere is this tool of the trade more effectively used than the slasher.

Even among genre fans slashers are, on the whole, accepted as something on the lighter side. When you don’t want to think too deeply or be faced with something too upsetting, throw on any of the big three. The worlds of Jason, Michael, and Freddy are comforting to most of us in one way or another. Later franchise entries aside, the establishing films in each of these and most other slashers are strong stories that do something no other area of film or art is willing or even necessarily equipped to do. Part of the comfort of this subgenre is its formulaic predictability; its mask, weapon, and motive are one and the same, designed to lure you into a sense of security while creating some tension. You know going in that the Final Girl (or guy, in some cases) will ultimately defeat the Big Bad, and that most of her friends are destined to be fodder for the killer to wade through before the ultimate face off. But what sets a slasher apart is its ability to align audiences with each piece of its grimy little puzzle.

Yes, we all ultimately want to be the Final Girl, the survivor who faced the worst evil of their lives and made it to the other side. But the slasher has no shame in placing us into the role of the killer or victim either. The genre paradox is that its strict formula allows for the morality and roles to be less clear cut. We cheer for both Jason and Alice, we mourn for Annie.

Playing in the slasher sandbox effectively requires an understanding and devotion to the things that make it unique, and few show their love with more passion and urgency than Stephen Graham Jones in his latest novel, My Heart Is A Chainsaw. Horror fan extraordinaire Jade wants nothing more than for a slasher to come up from the dead and wreak havoc on the town that sees her as little more than the socially ostracized “horror girl”. But when it seems like her wish is being granted, she feels compelled to prepare the perfect final girl for survival armed with nothing but her encyclopedic knowledge of slashers and their conventions. As the stakes rise and the situation becomes more life-or-death than even she is ready for, Jade must confront some truths and face some demons she has long kept buried even from herself.

Jones has always kept his slasher love on his sleeve, but My Heart Is A Chainsaw feels constructed of the blood and sinew that keeps the genre pushing forward. While the seeds of tropes are planted, what thrives from them is a complex narrative about issues not even Jade’s own community wishes to face directly. Jade herself is a mosaic reflection of her beloved genre. Part villain, part victim, part heroine, Jade is a true composite of all of us, unabashedly herself and unafraid to keep her passions alive in the face of a community who seeks to cast her aside because of them. She is given the space to be imperfect and to mess up and misread, to both love and hate the place that has made her believe she is worth more as a story bleeding out in a lake than as a living person. She is allowed to reckon with her own angst and issues the way most horror fans do: by examining them sidelong through the genre that gives us the fantasy of justice.

Most importantly, perhaps, she is allowed to be angry and messy and complicated without being made into someone less-than in our eyes. It is no coincidence that the center of the story is someone who has confined herself to nothing more than a fringe audience role. Beaten down by a community that repeatedly casts her as either an outright freak and potential threat or someone dancing the line of becoming another statistic, the idea of being a hero is, to Jade, so uncomfortable as to be almost repulsive. The spotlight is never somewhere she wanted to nor thought she would be, yet she quietly performs small acts of heroism throughout the story.

Her violent streak of thinking that fuels her wish for a real-life-slasher scenario never makes her bad, nor any less sympathetic. Rather, if you see yourself in her the way I did you can recognize it for what it is fairly early on — a response to trauma that boils down to nothing more than the desire to be free from demons that press so hard on your shoulders you both forget and are hypervigilant to their presence. Jade’s position in and journey through the slasher of her life goes beyond paying homage to a beloved genre and instead deconstructs it in subtle yet necessary ways.

On more than one occasion Jade grapples with the idea that she is nothing more than a sideline cheerleader for the true Final Girl of her homegrown slasher scenario, Letha Mondragon. Jade shoulders the responsibility of educating the beyond-perfect trope embodiment that is the new girl in school who lives on the rich side of the lake, but never truly considers herself on par with her, or even necessarily good enough to be friends. As the story progresses and Jade’s position shifts, we recognize her for what she is and watch as she flounders to understand her place in the world through the lens of her favorite genre. Is she the villain everyone says she is? The victim she never wanted to be? Why couldn’t she be worthy of being a Final Girl after all? She flouts every one of the conventions on the Final Girl Checklist that Letha embodies, so surely she cannot fill the role, but what is a Final Girl but a survivor with a scream to pierce the night and a heart to protect the things she cares about?

Stephen Graham Jones’ love for the genre that seems to have built him grows sharper with every new release, and My Heart Is A Chainsaw does the very thing slashers are so deeply skilled at doing right under our noses: gives a voice to the otherwise silenced areas of life, and carves a space for complexity by weaponizing the world’s — and the genre’s — simplistic tools in unexpected and powerful ways.

This book was a punch to the gut! SGJ’s tone is so familiar that it’s a comfort to have read one of his books again. I loved Jade and I was rooting for her throughout the whole book, especially after coming to terms with her painful emotional arc. I did feel a little confused by her narrative style and found that it made some of the reveals less scary than I wanted them to be. But the story itself was inventive and fun and made way for some really exciting character explorations! And the spooky scenes were just as great!

Well…I could not get into this story or make myself finish reading it. I went into the book expecting to love it, the premise is totally my jam but it was so slow paced and I found Jade to be so annoying and all over the place. I just couldn’t force myself to make it through the whole thing. DNF at 43%.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

2 stars

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 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.

*3.5 stars*

This book follows Jade, who is an annoying and obsessive 17-year-old custodian who is convinced that she is living in a real-life slasher. Along the way, she tries to mentor the “Final Girl” and prepares herself as her small, gentrified Idaho town goes down in gore.

If you haven’t seen a lot of slashers/horror films, most of the mentions in this book will be lost on you, and some of them could be spoiled. This is a supreme love letter to horror!

Jones' ever-present slow writing style is abundant here, especially for the first 60% of the novel. For the last 40%, the plot really picked up and went berserk from there. Again, he masterfully wove Native American culture into a horror novel. This time though, it had a simpler plot (which was great for continuity). However, the entire narrative was a little too slow to keep me turning the pages. It definitely could have been a bit tighter.

If you are a lover of horror, I think you’ll enjoy the gems in this.

**Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books, Gallery/Saga Press in exchange for an honest review**

Stephen Graham Jones has become one of those authors whose work is an auto-buy for me. Yes I read the ARC, and I knew about 30 pages in that I needed this book on my shelf. I was lucky enough (okay, I put in the legwork because I really want my Titles with Preorder Incentives page to be of value to readers) to find out about the “Welcome to Proofrock Pack.” I ordered it immediately. Even just a few pages in I knew this was gonna be a great book. And I wasn’t disappointed.

While The Only Good Indians nearly broke me with its relentless, heavy horror, My Heart is a Chainsaw invigorated me. But then it also nearly broke me. I don’t know folks – SGJ has such a remarkable talent for heavy horror. But in this story, he also balances all the heavy with the wonderful character he’s created in Jade. Honestly, I absolutely loved her. Jade is a remarkably sweet human being who has had a truly rough time of it. She’s an outcast. A social pariah. She’s the weird, snarky Slasher Girl. Yes, she is a a deeply troubled young woman. But she’s the type of person that I think any horror-junkie could see at least shades of themselves in. After all, under our sometimes “scary” exteriors, we’re pretty much all just regular, damaged people looking for a place where we fit in. Where we feel valued.

I can’t quote the book yet, as it hasn’t reached publication so technically nothing is final. But I will say that it brings to mind a quote from Stephen King’s The Shining (hello first and last time I’m likely to quote Stephen King):

“Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.”

This, I think, is why SGJ consistently succeeds in telling what could otherwise be just plain deeply traumatizing stories. He never loses sight of the extreme importance of the human element. His characters are at the heart of every story. Even the Big Bads have not been stripped of all ties to humanity. They are never just vengeful beasts – they are creatures born of trauma. They are in that way relatable – shaped by monstrous circumstances.

This book is a horror lover's dream. It does for horror movies what Ready Player One did for video games. I loved all the references to movies I was familiar with, and have so many more I want to go watch now!

Synopsis: Almost-high school graduate Jade Daniels is an outcast in her small town in Idaho - half Native American, obsessed with horror, refusing any and all relationships. When a new girl arrives at their school, Jade is convinced this is a slasher movie "final girl" come to town, indicating that her obsession with horror is about to pay off because she's convinced a real-life slasher is also coming to town. 

This was slower to get into than The Only Good Indians. Like any good slasher, it starts off with an early kill to get you invested, but then things return to normal for about 2/3 of the book. I spent much of it wondering if this was going to end up being an unreliable narrator trope, instead of a slasher-horror book. 

But be warned, it gets there. And does not hold back! 

I didn't like this quite as much as The Only Good Indians, but the ending had me completely hooked and appropriately horrified! And the ending up getting pretty disturbing in a way I hadn't expected, giving the climax more depth than a standard slasher movie might. 

Thank you @gallerybooks @sagasff for the gifted advanced copy! This one will be available on Tuesday

Oh my gosh, this book is perfect. I love Jade so much. As a hardcore slasher connoisseur myself, all of the slasher lessons using obscure movies and breaking down the recipe for a good slasher movie made me so happy. I took longer to read this then I normally do because I was savoring it, trying to stretch it out as long as I could. I highly recommend this book to fans of cinematic horror and all of the lessons we learned there within.

I received this as an arc through Netgalley. I DNF'd at 100 pages. I would be the target audience for this book as I enjoy horror, suspense, and slasher movies. However, it is so peppered with references on almost every page to Slasher movies, it makes it extremely difficult to actually get into whatever story is trying to be told.

My Heart Is A Chainsaw is a love letter to the slasher movie. It features Jade, an outcast slasher movie junkie who has almost encyclopedic knowledge of the genre. She comes across at times as unlikable, but once you get farther into the story, you begin to really sympathize with her.

This book is very complex. There are many layers to the plot and to Jade. There are a lot of slasher movies mentioned, so if you haven't seen them, prepare to be lost at first and educated on them by the end. I liked getting to know the other characters and how they fit in. I also liked the dark humor that was mixed in with all the gore. It will also pull at your heart as you get to know Jade and follow the social commentary that Jones includes. It does start a bit slow, but its very much worth it in the end. Also, read the author's note at the end!

Thank you to Gallery/Saga Press, Steven Graham Jones, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ugh the idea is there and it shows in the last fourth of the book. Getting to this point is a slog. Jade is too much even for my ADHD self though following her perspective isn’t too hard.

I’ll read more of this author but this isn’t for me.

I was so excited to read this. The premise sounded great. I was hoping for a book that would read like a horror movie. The opening chapter was exactly that. But the following chapters were from the main character, Jade's, point of view and she was a lot to take in. While I sympathized with her character and wished for her situation to improve, I didn't like her as much as I would have liked.

I found most of the writing confusing and it took a long time to get through the story. I didn't feel that much was happening and then all of the action happened at once. It was a lot to take in and I didn't feel the impact I should have. I'm still not clear on what exactly happened.

There were some cool moments and I enjoyed the horror movie references. However I didn't like the direction it went at the end. I feel that Jade deserved better.

This book really is a love song to Slasher films. Luckily, I am very familiar with them so I understood everything. But I think if you are not familiar with them it could be hard to follow along.

I was drawn to this book because of the slasher film grabs. I grew up watching horror movies and weirdly enough they helped me through hard times of my life just as they do Jade in the book.

This story is very dark and everything you would want in a horror story. My problems with it was the writing, which I believe is on purpose because it is a literary thriller. But it seemed very choppy to me and at times it made it very hard to follow along. But I do not know much about literature nor do I read a lot of literary books. So, I think the writing was intentional and if you know literature it will probably make sense to you. I also think it could have been like 70 pages shorter.

But if you are into slasher films then this book is one you should give a try. All the references is really cool. It also goes into their hidden meanings and that was nice. I actually took an English class based on watching horror movies and writing papers about their social commentary, so this was fun in that sense.


Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery books for this eARC.