I wanted to love this book, but I did not end up finishing it. I made it about halfway through and then had to stop because I just couldn't get myself to keep going. The premise is very interesting and I think there are many people who will enjoy this book. The narrative itself is a lot to follow and there are some deep references when it comes to horror. I think I am not knowledgeable enough on horror to have appreciated some of the references that were made. I would recommend this to someone who is a serious horror fan and likes books that have a unique premise.

* I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books.

Jones truly is the master of horror. With My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Jones weaves horror and truth into a beautiful, gore soaked tapestry.

Man, I loved Jade so much. I felt like this was written specifically for the Murderinos of the world who are the former "weirdos." Our time has finally come. Jade, is a recent high school graduate who doesn't have a lot of friends but when the bodies of murdered teenagers start appearing around town she's the only one who seems to have any idea what's happening. She's seen enough movies and knows enough about the urban legends of Proofrock, Idaho that only one thing makes any sort of sense at all. Obviously, there's a slasher at work here, and she believes that recent rich-girl transplant, Letha Mondragon, is the soon-to-be final girl. Jades takes it upon herself to try and train Letha in all-things horror so that the young woman can survive her destiny in this slasher flick come to life. I could see these scenes play out like a movie, speaking of which there are references to all great slasher films like like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Halloween throughout the book. I loved these nods so much. I also loved how seriously Jade took her role as mentor to Letha. The absolute best thing about the book though, is the heart. We learn that behind the slashers, behind the dyed hair, combat boots, petty crime, and universal fuck you to the world, is, a girl who wants so badly to be loved and acceptance. She wants to belong, just on her terms. Jade was so real, and so heartbreaking, that My Heart Is a Chainsaw is sometimes painful to read, but that is what made it work for me. It wasn't gimmicky or gore for the sake of gore. The characterization and voice of Jade was perfect.

(I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

In the Acknowledgements section of My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones notes that the book took a long time to come together. I'm not surprised- My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a complicated, weird book. It took me a while to get into it, as Jade's circumstances and way of speaking took some getting used to, all dismissive references or breathless monologues.

Once I got into the story, though, I really enjoyed it. Jade is a passionate, desperate character, who isn't as bad or tough as the image she projects. Slashers are a refuge and a way to make sense of the world and a hobby. Her relationship with her parents is distant at best, and her relationship with her history teacher is weirdly sweet. I'd love to know more about her relationship with Letha after the events of the book.

While I've seen a few slashers and read a few more (including some of Jones'), I am not by any means an expert, so I really enjoyed Jade's "extra credit" essays explaining some of the slasher tropes, as well as the history of Proofrock. The Lake Witch was clearly based off an earlier story by Jones, "Raphael," which I absolutely loved and was pleased to see. The essays helped me follow along with the path the story was taking, as well as noting where it got real-life messy. The horror was tense and unsettling and at times wonderfully gory, and having Jade as a viewpoint character worked really well.

That said, there were certain elements that felt rushed or unfinished or off. I don't know how much of that was on my end, or relatively easy-to-fix (I noticed a number of typos and grammatical errors I assume will be fixed by the time the book goes to print), and how much of that was the story itself, but it made a story I thought could have been excellent down to a "solid." Which isn't bad! Jones is a great writer, and I'm enjoying working my way through his catalogue. But considering how good a writer he is, I do wish there had been just a little more tying the story together.

MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW, by Stephen Graham Jones, is a novel that imparts just about every bit of slasher movie trivia you could ever dream of. Our main character, Jade, is a "slasher enthusiast"--to say the least. In fact, the first 60% or so of the book seemed to be either her dictating, or showing copies of her essays, on the various methods utilized in these movies. I honestly felt a little "lost" during some of her monologues (internal or otherwise) in this section.

The story doesn't really seem to take off until almost 2/3 of the way through--and then, you won't stop reading for anything. While I found the idea, and Jade's character, brilliant, I only gave this one three stars because of the excessively slow start. The ending does indeed make up for this, but I had a difficult time wanting to pick it up again until that point.

Overall, fantastic idea and plot, I just wish it had taken off a little sooner into the novel.

I like to thank NetGalley and Gallery/Saga press for allowing me a chance to read this book.

With a summary like that, you have your own little rebel hero. Or so I thought. I had issues with Stephen Graham Jones' previous book that ended up winning a lot of awards this year. I found his prose confusing and or the story rather bland when I did understand what was going on.

Reading this book, I made it about 15% in when I realized I would be having the same issues. He will go on describing what a character is doing or feeling but not exactly relate it to the current moment at hand for finish that thought.

I may return to this book in time, but I don't think the author is for me. I'm glad I was given a chance to read/review before purchasing the book and loosing out on money.

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC! Unfortunately, I ended up DNFing @56% this just wasn’t the book for me. But I do think anyone who is absolutely obsessed with the idea of slasher movies and that becoming an IRL possibility should pick this book up immediately. I’ll definitely be picking up more from Stephen Graham Jones as I’ve loved his previous works, but I quickly realized this had a lot of tropes I’m often bothered by.

Jade Daniels is an unusual girl who lives in a small town, She is half Indian, an outcast in her town. She has an abusive father and her mother is not in the picture, although she lives nearby. Jade is obsessed with slasher movies. In fact, that is pretty much all she talks about.

When a lot of rich people come to town and start building their big fancy homes, strange things start happening and Jade is convinced she is about to be a player in her own slasher story.

This is a very interesting story and the main character is very complicated. Definitely not the usual type of story I read, but I must say that I enjoyed it,

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.

I’m sorry to say I DNF’ed this book at around 50%. I found the writing style impossible to stick with. While I loved the ode to slashers aspect and the actual plot itself, it was all just too buried in the main character’s chaotic thoughts for me to stay invested. From what I read, only about 10% (maybe less) of it was plot advancing action. It was too slow of a burn and too confusing. As a fan of classic slashers, I wanted to connect. It just didn’t happen for me.

This is only my second SGJ book that I’ve read, the first being “The Only Good Indians.” I’ve read both of these books now, and in both cases, I kept waiting for the horror to actually start. I put this book down after reading it and truly couldn’t articulate how I felt about it. It took me a couple of days of sitting with the story to parse out the impact. The characters are weirdly relatable because they’re horror movie tropes (which the main character Jade calls attention to throughout the book) but they are imbued with enough of their own personalities to distance themselves from those tropes. I think I was actually best friends with Jade in high school - I could really relate to her (although that may be partly because I’m a teen librarian and read a LOT of YA).

This book was a very slow burn, and the payoff was worth it, especially if you look at it as what I feel SGJ meant it to be - an homage to horror, a love letter to the great slasher movies. If you have any love of the horror genres at all, this book will definitely scratch those itches!

I want to begin by saying that I applaud Stephen Graham Jones for what he is doing in My Heart is a Chainsaw, and what he did previously with Only Good Indians. You can tell that Jones has finetuned his voice as an author, and I know that some writers will spend their whole lives never fulfilling this.

But Chainsaw didn't work for me, for a myriad of reasons.

Jade is a slasher-obsessive. She is numb by the world, by the new housing development that is gentrifying her little lake town. We meet a cast of characters that all seem to not benefit Jade's life in any way, all while she plots what she believes is a real-life horror movie coming to life before her eyes.

Jade's constant talk of slashers and horror movie comparisons didn't feel authentic to me. It reads like a writer who loves a thing and wants to tell everyone about that thing. This isn't exactly a negative. There are horror lovers out there who will love every namedrop, who will see in their head every scene that Jones is either emulating or equating. But I found myself frustrated, ready to get to the end, not at all connected to any of the characters.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a love letter to the slasher film chocked full of character depth and attention. Jade, the teenage female protagonist, is a slasher obsessed anti-heroine, colored by past trauma and a tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (or, as Jade might see it, the right place at the right time, I suppose). After catching wind of an unusual death in her forest-adjacent town, she identifies a few characteristics of the classic slasher film, taking a new classmate's presence as the appearance of the Final Girl, kickstarting her hometown slasher into existence.

The Final Girl is a concept horror fans are familiar with, though it may be new to the squeamish (or the horror newbie). That's both a beauty and a flaw in this text: My Heart is a Chainsaw is a horror novel written with horror superfans in mind. It's probably unlikely someone averse to the slasher would pick up this book, but if they did, there's a lot of casual references to horror movies that might not fall into place properly to complete the story.

The main reason I even think of this connection has to do with Jade's presentation in the novel: she's angsty, impatient, and caught up in her own storyline. On paper, this is my ideal heroine. In this text, something about her voice didn't connect to me personally. I frequently thought I would've loved her when I was a teenager. Maybe it has to do with the author's differences from the voice he was writing? Personally, this jolted me out of the narrative a bit.

Each character in Jade's world weaves together to create a rich vehicle for My Heart Is a Chainsaw. As often happens with slashers, I didn't feel there was a lack of background, explanation, or plot. It was well prepared, and I can see the care Jones put into it, rewriting and evolving the novel several times over many years. The last third of the text was particularly dynamic (and is likely not for the faint of heart). Regardless of any personal dissonance with the protagonist, Jones' writing and craftsmanship is surely that of a learned horror fanatic.

Little closer to 4.5 but I enjoy Stephen Graham Jones' work so much that I'll split the difference.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS set the bar so high for Jones that it would be near-Herculean for him to match that book's delirious heights. MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW comes so close that quibbling about which of the two is better seems silly. The latter is just as audacious in its way, telling the story of the slasher-obsessed teenager Jade Daniels and her stumble into a real-world horrorshow of mysteriously mutilated corpses, puzzled locals and enigmatic rich people new to her small Idaho town.

Jade's approach is not so much to solve the mystery of these slayings but to steer events according to the plot structure of the slashers that, per the book's title, are embedded in her heart and soul because of the haven from domestic abuse they offer. Initially this was a little frustrating because I was inclined to think, "What the hell; who would even do this in real life," until I remember, "Wait, people have parasocial attachments to pop culture and sports teams all the time, usually for less understandable reasons than Jade." So it was an easy hurdle to overcome.

I can't stress enough how well this book lets us understand Jade. That is its greatest strength, even more so than Jones' cinematic scenes or encyclopedic knowledge of horror cinema and its manifestation as a web of entertaining allusions. Jade Daniels is a great character, one that I hope (perhaps against hope) we will see again. I identified with her quite a bit and I'm sure countless others will too.

3.5 Stars.

I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to. The first half of this book was long and a little boring. The idea was there and there were solid scenes throughout, but so much of it could have been edited down for better pacing. This book had a lot of potential and I did like the Slasher 101 chapters.

The last half is where the action picked up and I started to enjoy the ride. Glad that I stuck with this one.

Is it one of SGJ’s best works? No, but it wasn’t bad and I know so many people are going to love it. I would recommend Mongrels or Flushboy to anyone wanting to give this author a try.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

This ode to the escapist power of horror movies, finding yourself, and growing up is very clever, suspenseful as hell, and filled with heart. You need not be a slasher movie aficionado to have a fun time while reading it, as Stephen Graham Jones knows how to suck a reader in and make you love his characters, even if sometimes they scare you to pieces. MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW is another triumph from this horror master.

Quirky and filled with slasher/horror film references. Die hard horror fans can sink their teeth into this compelling and disturbing novel. The writing style is innovative and different from anything I've read before with an unlikable heroine you want to love to hate. Pacing is a bit slow in the middle but builds to an exciting conclusion.

I really wanted to love this book, and I think that I felt a little let down. The premise was appealing to me, and I loved the first chapter. The plot felt like it caught and dragged for a while—the story picked up about halfway. Jade was quite the character, and I really enjoyed how she developed over the course of the book. Reading this required concentration, and the reader with knowledge of slasher films is helpful—so many quirky little details for the genre!

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book!

Being a horror movie lover, I loved how the main character is also obsessed with horror movies and their tropes. This book takes a long time to start moving, and I could see people stopping before things start to pick up. Jade was pretty unlikable.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw, by Stephen Graham Jones, is a must-read for any fan of horror. Film buffs and horror genre readers will appreciate references from notable slasher films, as Graham Jones heavily draws upon Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, My Bloody Valentine, and more, throughout the novel. The story is awash with pop culture references, which are sure to evoke feelings of nostalgia from readers familiar with the slasher genre, but are not too obscure to prevent other readers from following the plot. If anything, these references will only pique the reader’s interest in devouring more from this genre.

The story centers around the gentrification of an impoverished rugged lake community, with themes reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s film US. Themes of race, classicism, and consent loom just below the surface and subtly pervade the mood, causing the reader to look more deeply into what seems to be a standard murder mystery. The story opens with the mysterious deaths of two tourists, but luckily, protagonist, Jade, has seen it all on the movie screen and knows exactly what is coming next. Thanks to her love (bordering on obsession) of slasher films, she is certain that these deaths are only the beginning of a killing spree that will rival anything seen on screen.

Jade has been preparing for this moment for years, and is fully equipped to assist the local authorities in taking action; however, her cries fall upon deaf ears, as she is seen as a damaged young girl with a problematic past. Much of the novel centers on who will become the Final Girl. Readers will be rooting for Jade and will wonder “is she or isn’t she?” going to be the Final Girl, despite the fact that Jade does not recognize heroic qualities in herself; however, nothing is ever as it seems with Stephen Graham Jones, and readers will be on the edge of their seats until the end.

Readers looking for a simple formulaic mystery or thriller may struggle with this novel. While it is full of dark humor, just the right amount of blood and guts for a slasher, and not for the squeamish, this novel asks the reader to take a deep look inward and outward and is for readers that are looking for more than just a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this eBook in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not sure if I jive with the author’s writing style. It’s simultaneously dense and stream of consciousness. I found myself having a hard time focusing on what was actually being said and had to go back to re-read whole paragraphs and pages on numerous occasions to understand what was happening.

The pacing was also quite stilted. It was extremely slow for the first two thirds and then everything was packed into the last third. The ending in particular felt so out of sync with the rest of the book. The symbolism there was just too thick.

I thought the main character was written well though and I enjoyed her love of slasher films as well as all the references. However, something about the interactions Jade had with Letha felt off to me and even made me uncomfortable at times. Those moments were when it was clear that this book had a teenage girl MC who was written by a man.

Overall, if you enjoy the author’s style of writing and are a big horror film lover, I think you’d like the book. For me, the last third only made up a little for the rest.

(As a side note: this book should have every trigger warning on it. I probably couldn’t list them all. Go in with caution.)

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.