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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ARC provided by NetGalley for an Honest Review
Unfortunately this book did not work for me from practically the start. I hate saying this too because I’m a horror movie whore and was really looking forward to this. Sadly the heroine aka MC narrating her own story and blurring reality with what’s in her mind was so confusing. Not to mention the book is told in third person and this did not help keep my interest in the slightest. I just felt like I couldn’t stay on track or focused on what was happening especially when reality was very unclear. I think this is definitely something you should try for yourself though!

The heroine lives in a small town and is just ready/waiting for a final girl to show up so her imaginations and obsessions with slasher flicks can come to town and become real. Some such character shows up and Jade has so many expectations and hopes now that fate seems to be working in her favor. Convincing said final girl will not be easy however. Jade has to not only convince Letha that she has a role to play in what’s to come but guide her along the way. Things seem to be heading in this direction as Letha just keeps finding dead bodies.

I wasn’t sure throughout the book if Jade would end up being the villain in her own story. Not only is her mind a confusing mess, we learn she has a very tarnished and damaged home life. There are mentions of abuse and issues within her family. A alcohol drinking good for nothing father who molested Jade a while back and a mother who lives in the same town working in the Family Dollar but they’ve not spoken for years. In essence jades obsession with slashers makes sense especially when you hear of her past. She just recently tried to commit suicide on the lake and as she’s starting her community service work is when everything starts to culminate. Honestly this is all that I gathered from the book and it bums me out how little I retained or was even able to grasp. It may be the authors style is just not for me. Love the concept but wish the execution was more gripping for me.

Also just me or anyone notice the first scene is very reminiscent to one of the Creepshow films?!

Another hit by Stephen Graham Jones! As a huge fan of slasher films, I was super excited to see the subject for his new book. The novel does take some patience, as it feels like a very long buildup, but the finale makes it all worthwhile.

This is an ambitious and unquestionably well-written piece of fiction that ultimately connected with the wrong genre of horror freak in this reader. You see, I am absolutely OBSESSED with horror movies. I am that person who goes on Reddit to post long philosophical analysis of a Japanese horror film only three other people have seen. But my preferred genre has always been psychological horror. As a kid I obsessed over Psycho rather than Friday the 13th. So I suppose that’s why this book, which is a very intense and detailed ode to slasher films, missed me somewhat, despite all the skill with which it was executed (so to speak).

In order to like the premise of this book, it helps to have a fondness for the type of slasher film where, say, an undead camp counselor is picking off victims out in a secluded wilderness location. It will also be necessary for you to have a working knowledge of the old school slasher canon. (I personally also wished some more modern horror movies were incorporated here — if a chick like me who watches Suspiria several times a year for funsises doesn’t know the 70s giallo film you are referring to, I’m not sure how many will?) The best analogy for me for this book is when you’re watching a movie you can tell is good, and you know others will enjoy, but it just doesn’t hit the spot for you. I was surprised and a little disappointed by this because this was such a hotly anticipated book for me. But I also think I will try another book by this author to see if I can enjoy his work in an adjacent horror setting or genre, because his talent is undeniable.

Thanks to Gallery Books, NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

Somehow I’ve made it this far in life without reading a book by Stephen Graham Jones, and I’m baffled. Because he is the real deal. My Heart is a Chainsaw is not only an engaging story about a small-town girl who has never and will never fit in, but it is a love letter for anyone who is obsessed with slasher movies.

Jade not only doesn’t fit in at school, but she painfully stands out. She’s half-Indian who lives with her alcoholic good for nothing father, and is estranged from her mom who although they don’t talk, works at the Dollar store downtown the street from her school. She has no friends, no allies, and no hope for the future. But she does have horror movies and an imagination that has figured out exactly how and when her town will get taken out by a masked murderer.

I really can’t share much more without giving it away. Just know that My Heart is a Chainsaw is a masterpiece and likely to be a valuable edition to any horror movie aficionado’s bookshelf.

I had a hard time with this one. I liked the story line about horror movie final girls, and I liked the characters, but it was hard to read. The narrative was confusing and seemed to be a bit stream of consciousness. Maybe that was the problem.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for an advanced digital reader's copy

This is a hard one for me to review. I have a love-hate relationship with it.

I loved the story line - town black sheep and "difficult" teenager, Jade, loves slasher films. In fact, she's hoping that one day her dream will come true and her entire town will be wiped out by an avenging slasher. When it starts to look like Jade just may get her wish, she realizes that there may be more to her town and herself than she realized and that annihilation might not be the answer.

I loved Jade (and her favorite teacher, Mr. Holmes). Although an unreliable narrator, Jade is funny and complicated and contradictory and a wealth of slasher trivia and philosophy. I was rooting for her throughout.

I loved the supporting cast: Letha, whom Jade suspects is the story's final girl and may be Jade's first real friend, Mr. Holmes, Jade's history teacher, Sheriff Hardy, who isn't perfect but seems to be genuinely trying to help Jade and his community, and many others. Each felt like they had their own complex backstories, and their relationships were real, but never simple.

Now, the two things I struggled with.

One, I struggled with Jones' writing. At times it felt disjointed and disconnected to me. Not sure if that's due to Jade's voice being that way, or if that's just the style chosen for this story, but something didn't quite work for me for the first half.

Two, I'm not sure about the ending. I loved it all, except ***SPOILER***

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*SPOILER* the supernatual addition of Stacey Graves being the central slasher. The rest of the book, while a bit bonkers, felt grounded in some sort of reality, so the skip to the supernatural just didn't work for me. I get it - Golden Age of slashers and pretty much all of the ages were thrown in there as partial answers to the many killings - but I didn't love it. I don't hate it, and there were sort of several endings, so I'll go with it, but it did throw me out of the story. However, Jones also gave me Jade and Mr. Holmes' moving ending that nearly made me tear up and allowed Jade to face and admit the trauma she'd experienced, so I'll consider it even.

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*END SPOILER*

All in all, a must-read for slasher fans, and solid read for horror fans.

*graphic violence, language, adult situations, sexual references

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. Very captivating with amazing character development. A horror story set up comparing itself to all horror stories you have ever read in your life. At every twist and turn when you think oh geez what a cliche the boo acknowledges it and makes you chuckle. Highly recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

DNF. I found the book to be trite. The reader should be familiar with current horror films. It might be appropriate for high school students.

Not my cup of tea, but an intriguing story just the same. The writing is long and meandering, I found my attention wandering while I read it. However, I do appreciate the depth of the characters, and the mystery at the heart of the story.

I received a digital advance copy of My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones via NetGalley. My Heart is a Chainsaw is scheduled for release on August 31, 2021.

My Heart is a Chainsaw is an ode to the slasher flicks of the 70s to 90s. It centers on a young woman who focuses her thoughts and energy on horror films rather than directing any of her focus to the issues in her own life. Below the slasher veneer, this is really the story of a woman finding her own power in the midst of the real-life horror unfolding around her.

Jones’ absolute love of slasher flicks shines through every moment of this novel, projected primarily through the main character. Jade lives and breathes these movies, even using them in assignments for her teacher. She is so obsessed with the films that she begins to see them in events around her, convinced that a slasher is active in her town and the new neighborhood developing across the lake. This obsession is a shield that Jade uses to hide herself from non-movie events in her past and present.

Jade is such a well-developed character in this novel, that I stopped seeing her as a character, instead seeing her as a real person. She has goals (of a sort), but is drowning in both events happening to her and her own deeply flawed interactions with the world around her. She is a beautiful disaster and I love her.

The story is set in Proofrock, a small town on the shore of Indian Lake. Around the lake, we also find an abandoned summer camp and a new (very fancy-pants) neighborhood that is being developed. This setting helped support all of the slasher flick vibes (summer camp on a lake anyone?) as well as gave Jones a place to address both colonialism and gentrification.

Throughout the novel, Jones weaves together expected slasher tropes, commentary on those tropes, and several deeply important plot threads. I loved what he did here throughout most of the story, but did struggle a bit at the story’s climax. We end up in a specific location (no spoilers) that is unfamiliar to me. I had a difficult time following the narration of what exactly was happening in the climactic moments of the story.

In the end, this slight confusion on my part did not matter. My Heart is a Chainsaw is a great homage to the slasher flicks Jones loves woven together with the tale of a girl who deserves more than she gets from the world.

Stephen Graham Jones delivers another phenomenal story, with heady mix of shocking horror and slow burn dread that sinks into your skin. My Heart is a Chainsaw is a tightly woven story that’s horrible in multiple different way, and each new element is a gut punch. I loved it.

Stephen Graham Jones has a way of writing unlike anyone else. His narration and dialogue can be so poetic at times, and then suddenly there's blood everywhere. His characters are grounded and feel very real. The atmosphere and descriptive settings lent themselves beautifully to the story.

The opening scene! I was immediately creeped out. My Heart is a Chainsaw is full of tension, throwbacks to pop culture slasher films and books, and a main character you don't know whether to trust or not, but who you definitely root for.

I want this made into a movie. The characters are so interesting though, I don't know how they'd ever cast it!

In MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, by Stephen Graham Jones, Jade is a young woman who has an amazing knowledge of and is obsessed with horror films. She is an outcast in town and has no family who support her emotionally or financially. When Jade starts to see incidents happening in her town of Proofrock that strongly resemble a horror movie plot, Jade uses her in-depth knowledge of that genre to help her discover what is really going on.
The author creates the atmosphere that is the epitome of a town in a horror movie. There are all of the major components, from the police that is tired of Jade's antics, to the crappy home life, to the mysterious new group of elitists who seem to have ulterior motives. All the while, though, everything is done in a way that is both familiar and fresh; none of these tropes of horror seem tired or flat. Jade's knowledge and constant reference to horror flows throughout the book and while I am not as versed in horror as some, Jones describes the references enough that I didn't mind not having the knowledge ahead of time. Another tool in the horror toolbox is red herrings, and the book spends time talking about them and there are several throughout the book. While red herrings are fun and instrumental in horror, in this book there was so much about them that it slowed down the story. The ending of the book, though, is a doozy and one of the craziest last fifty pages I've read in a long time.
For horror fans this book is a must, but unless horror specifically turns you off, I think anyone who reads MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW will have a scary good time.

If you know SGJ, you know his love for slasher films. Most of them imitate the style of slasher films, but My Heart is a Chainsaw is unique in that his main character, Jade, is also obsessed with slashers. So much so that if you haven’t seen the classics--Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc.--parts of the book might be lost on you. The book is told entirely from Jade’s perspective and includes some papers written for school (about slashers, obviously). Jade is half Native American, just graduated high school, and lives in a small town in Idaho. She has hardly any friends, a deadbeat dad, and a totally absent mother. Slashers are her escape; they encapsulate her entire being. Obsessed would be an understatement. She’s quirky and troubled, she does things that want to make you shake her, but ultimately she’s loveable. Odd occurrences lead Jade to believe that a slasher is playing out in her town; everyone else thinks she’s delusional and it’s a cry for attention. The events that unfold are terrifying, horrific, intense, disturbing, and gory. My jaw was on the floor. I truly had to put the book down a few times. My heart rate was THROUGH THE ROOF. Absolute insanity. Loved every second of it.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a horror movie wimp -- I cannot handle gore, jump scares, or slashers. I do read horror, however, thinking I am alright as long as I am not watching it. But, phew, similar to the last book from this author I read, this was almost too much for me. We have Jade, a reject of all kinds on all accounts, seventeen and obsessed with horror movies, just waiting for a slasher episode of her own to sweep into town and save her from a horrible dad who is anything but a father and a high school career ending with few prospects. Then the land across the lake gets bought and developed and a few rich families move into town and Jade feels something changing. And she's right -- the blood starts flowing, the final girl shows, and Jade is determined to see it all through.

There were some things that worked for me. Because Jade is extremely unreliable as a narrator, or at least she is framed that way by everyone around her, I was constantly unsure if she was just losing her mind. That kept me on my toes but also kept me frustrated. I wasn't too sure how I was feeling for about 3/4 of the book but it really picked up in the end and I had to keep reading. I also thought the variety of relationships Jade had with adults was really interesting -- from absolutely horrific with her father to something close to mentorship with her teacher and the sheriff.

But there were a lot of things that didn't work for me. It took a while to pick up, for starters. and when it did I almost thought Jade was making it all up as she saw it happen. I think this author's style is a bit dense for me -- I trip over the flashbacks and ramblings and in this one, especially, the horror movie jargon. I do not know a lot about horror movies so Jade did seem a bit too obsessed to me, but maybe that's the point. I think that the violence was not to my taste -- but again, it was very slasher-y, so that seems to work with this. And lastly, the ending. I found myself thinking, "Really?" Obviously I felt like things were a bit unresolved but the big bad was a bit underwhelming to me.

I give this three stars, but I think that existing fans of Stephen Graham Jones or even Grady Hendrix will enjoy this.

Oh my god, I don't know how to review this book. How can anyone review it? It was just such an absolute EXPERIENCE that I don't even know what to say about it. I haven't read anything like it.
It was stunning and disgusting and beautiful and real and I didn't know if I wanted to laugh, sob, or dry heave by the end, but I did take a shower to wash that feeling of elk innards and lake water off my skin. It was a masterpiece. I don't know if I necessarily want to recommend it to others, it's sort of one of those books I want to squirrel away to sit on my shelf and keep close to me, just to see it there and remember. Because this one is completely unforgettable.

*Full review to be posted closer to publication on my blog, NetGalley, Goodreads, and Amazon!*

Stephen Graham Jones is easily one of the best storytellers of the past decades, and I am so glad I recently discovered his books over the few years. My Heart is a Chainsaw was no exception to the greatness, and reads very much as an ode to slashers intermixed with some deeper and more difficult topics, which are explored via the main characters' slasher focus. This book had a slow start, but by the end I was completely gripped by the story and completely in awe of what Stephen Graham Jones had created.

While the love of the subject matter by Mr. Jones shines through in this story, the build up to the action was just too long for me. If it was not for reviews by people whose opinion I trust, I think I might have given up at 50% - I actually took a break and read two novellas before continuing with this one. From the 69% mark, it was brilliant and Ioved every second of it.
This could be recommended to horror fans who likes the slow burn, perhaps, or those who feels character development is the most important aspect of a story - while it is important for me, the story needs to grip me and keep me interested.

I do like the writer's ideas, though, and I'm sure I will read more of his work in the future.