A year and a half ago, I wrote that Stephen Graham Jones' My Heart is a Chainsaw was, among other things, a love letter to the slasher genre. If that's the case, then its sequel, Don't Fear the Reaper, is like an increasingly passionate correspondence with a long-distance lover. Also, the ink is blood and the paper is made from crushed-up bones.

In Chainsaw, Jade was the one trying to warn others of danger. Since the massacre that summer, though, she's become far from the only one who has devoured slasher films. Previously, her devotion to the genre was one of survival and escape. In Reaper, the reasons why others find resonance in the genre vary: some as part of a way to work through their trauma, some to feed a sick fascination with the bloodbath they've only heard stories of, some to use as a training manual for next time. It's an exploration of why people are drawn to movies centered on violence and death and fear. It's the kind of thing Jade would love, but all Jennifer wants to talk about is anything but slashers, while the people around her, and the events surrounding her, refuse.

A lot of the emotional force of the book circles around that issue. When our heroine was Jade, she was forcefully trying to define herself contrary to what her father and community saw her as. As Jennifer, she wants peace and quiet, but doing so means ignoring all she once was. It's a fascinating parallel to the push and pull of identity when you grow from teenager to adult, albeit pumped full of steroids and steeped in buckets of blood. Who is she? Who does she want to be? Who would she have been if she were not fighting all the time against the assumptions of others?

In my review of Chainsaw, I called Jones' writing "unflinching," which is consistently true across his work. Chainsaw was violent, for sure, but in Reaper, Jones ups the horror. He might not blink from the deaths in this book—spilled innards or people impaled on antlers or a killer musing about what it would take to skin a victim alive, and then trying it out—but there were moments when I needed to take a moment. Collect myself. Think of daisies. Make sure my skin was all where it was supposed to be. I get most of my reading done before bed, but there were nights reading Reaper when I wished I'd gotten my reading done earlier. Maybe morning. Whether this is a criticism or an endorsement depends on the reader, but don't every say I didn't warn you. I do recommend reading or re-reading My Heart is a Chainsaw immediately before reading Don't Fear the Reaper, since so many of the events and people from the last book are crucial to this one.

Still, I can't stop thinking about the world Jones has built, as violent as it is. Somehow, beneath all the gore, there's a heart beating with as much substance as there is blood (and there's a lot of blood). I can only imagine how much the violence and body count will escalate when Jones wraps up this trilogy, and where—and who—Jade/Jennifer will find herself at the end of it all.

Keep it coming, Jones.

(A longer version of this review will post to RingReads on 7 February 2023 at 2:44p.m. MST)

Rating: 3.5
I liked this, but thought that the first book was better. I found this one hard to follow at times. If you didn't like My Heart is a Chainsaw because it wasn't enough of a slasher, I'd definitely recommend you read this one.

This gets way way deeper into the horror movie cannon than I'm willing to go, and, possibly more importantly, relies on that for structure. So, not for me, but evocative just the same.

I received this ARC copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Since this is the second book, Stephen Graham-Jones doesn't waste anytime getting into the slasher. I love his style of writing and his storytelling abilities. This is well-written and a wild ride.
We are back in Proofrock following Jade's return the same time a killer shows up. This story gets right into the killing and has very little downtime. There are some supernatural elements, but we mostly focus on the slasher. There is also a good twist that I kind of got from some hints dropped throughout the book, but I did not guess it completely.
Jade is one of my favorite characters from a book. I really love how she has grown from the first book to this one. Also, I loved as she finally seemed to understand more about herself and her true character.
Loved this book!

Thanks to Stephen Graham Jones I have the song, Don't Fear the Reaper, stuck in my head. And a desire for more cowbell.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. People die in all sorts of weird postures and from all kinds of pointy instruments. What's the point of all this? The killer is copying every single slasher movie that's been made and doing it in blinding snow. You have to admire a killer who doesn't get cold feet.

But who is this stabbing and slicing killer? Only a young woman with encyclopedic knowledge of slasher films can figure out the answer. In addition to a slasher, there are underwater ghosts, a blob, and an elk with a really bad attitude. It's also a story of friendship, families, redemption, and lots of broken glass.

Readers might want to read or reread My Heart is a Chainsaw. I hadn't read it in a while, so I was occasionally wondering who or what something was.

Don't Fear the Reaper combines gore with a literary style, making it more than the average horror story. Take a stab at reading it.

Thank you to Saga Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Don't Fear the Reaper even if I can't get that song out of my mind.

So I loved the first book and how most sequels go this was not as good but I still enjoyed it. I love Jade and all the movie tie ins. This is a perfect book for any movie horror loving reader. Definitely recommend.

A stunning follow up to My Heart is a Chainsaw. The character development is phenomenal across the board. The plot is exceptional. Callbacks to the first book were perfection. A must read series for all horror fans. Stephen Graham Jones continues to be an automatic buy.

I love SGJ's prose, his ability to form complex emotions into lovely turns of phrase. DON'T FEAR THE REAPER had that going on in spades (especially sections from Letha's POV, which I particularly enjoyed). That ability to mesh emotional impact with a horror story is something he does so well. It keeps me coming back to read him again and again.

However, I found the plot for DON'T FEAR THE REAPER confusing at times, and while I absolutely adore Jade/Jennifer (who doesn't??), this story wasn't totally what I hoped for.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this free ARC.

Jades back. We’re in Proofrock. What else could even happen? Fuckin everything apparently.

Such a great read. It’s easy to get bogged down from all the horror movie references but there’s so much more to this book than that. I’m obsessed with Jade and I just enjoy her development in this book. She’s my favorite final girl.

I was super excited for this release, and holy crap was it great! It really explores the idea of slashers being revenge stories, and who deserves to be a slasher in a story. Lots of bodies drop, so much blood is spilled, and vengeance is absolutely a focus. Jade Daniels evolves as a character in the most satisfying ways. The story really broadens mythology, and sets up potential story lines for the third book in the trilogy. Jones, as is the jones way, really elevated the genre with this one.

It pains me not to rate this book higher because I loved "My Heart is a Chainsaw". But sequels are tough, especially writing during a COVID year.

The issues I had with the book:

1. It burned through POV characters and I had a hard time following a plot because of it. In the first hundred pages I think there were five or six different character's heads that I visited? Part of the reason for this is because the author is using the time-honored device of putting you in a victim's head before death strikes. This means that I was inside the skulls of several horny and oblivious teenagers and I just don't enjoy that headspace as much as I used to.
2. Jade, the main character of the first book, is not herself for a good part of the sequel. She's decided to go by Jennifer and she is trying her best not to get involved. It's always hard to be reading along with a character who doesn't want to get involved with the plot when you know damn well that they're going to. Jennifer refuses the call to action several times. This is also a time-honored device, but it's one that I don't enjoy.
3. The new characters in this book are not as compelling as the characters from Chainsaw. This is yet another time-honored device- you need fresh blood for a sequel, someone for the main characters to play off. But, inevitably, these new characters end up taking space from the characters you really want to hear about.
4. There's what seems to be a red herring for most of the book that plays out in a very strange way by the end. I wasn't sure this was necessary. But YMMV. Watch out for antlers! Jennifer and Letha spend a lot of time trying to figure out the Why when really the What and How are more than enough. The unraveling of complicated lore was more confusing for me this time and I missed the Slasher Rules that the author used in the first book.
5. In the first book, the killings were tied to the history of Proofrock(Prufrock? I know the author is doing something with this name and wait to hear his thoughts). In this one, much of the killing is random and it could have been any town. Proofrock has its own stuff going on and then there's the imported killer and it's confusing again.

I think that is my main issue. The feverdream feel of the narrative, combined with the very complicated plot that the author is pulling together behind the scenes, was confusing to me. There was too much information and not enough time to digest it. Maybe I'm getting old; horror is a young person's joy I think.

The touchstone for this book seems to be the Scream movies, which were shoutouts to and mockeries of the horror that had gone before. The horror of the 90's was a very different feel from that of the 70's or 80's, which is what the previous book paid homage to. The 90's were almost too self-aware in horror, very arch, more about imaginative ways to die than visceral horror- at least that's how the Scream movies seem. They were also about red herrings about who the killer was and they were the beginning of the wrenching plot twist to surprise the audience. Sometimes the logic of the movies suffered because of this and perhaps this book does too. Be warned- this book might be more gory in its descriptions than the previous one too, and that's saying something.

So, I'm sorry, SGJ. It's probably me. I wanted to read this during the horror month of October but my brain just didn't seem to want to do horror even though it was the month for it. Now I'm going to go baby my brain with stuff that's easier and more fluffy. If you're ready for it, I think you'll like Reaper, I just wasn't.

A mighty fine read that kept me turning pages. Lots of raw emotion, twists, and surprises. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend.

I would give this a 3.5 rating. I just don't think it was as tight a story as the first one. It seemed like it was trying to do too much and it definitely was bogged down by too many POV characters. I liked seeing where the characters from the first book have ended up and grown. I absolutely adore Jade and Letha and that is still the case, 100%. But, overall, this was just a little muddled for me.

However, I did really enjoy the last 20%. It was exciting and page-turning and bloody in the best way. I just wish the rest of the book had read like that.

Regardless, I still definitely plan on returning to the trilogy once the 3rd book rolls around. I love the setting, concept, and characters -- even if this dragged a little.

As a librarian with a penchant for horror, I recommend My Heart is a Chainsaw more than almost any other horror novel. Now I wish I had a list of everyone I recommended it to so I could tell them to keep an eye out for this sequel. And just like My Heart is a Chainsaw, I wish I could read Don't Fear the Reaper again for the first time.

Stephen Graham Jones' conversational writing style in this book is engaging and fun, even as both the body count and tension in the town rises. With all the subtle or obvious references to slasher movies, this novel is filled with little gifts for the slasher fan. Jade (now Jennifer) is just the person you want ushering you through a bloody blizzard in this lakeside town, and she's as compelling a character as ever. I know it's too soon to be after the third in this trilogy, but I am waiting!

Enjoyed this much more than book 1 of this trilogy. Jade struggling through keeping her references/interests behind her was an interesting way to show her growth from the previous book. Deaths kept you on your toes but stringing them together after the twist made it slightly confusing.
So grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.
4.5 stars

"Don't Fear the Reaper" continues the story of Jennifer "Jade" Daniels who readers met in "My Heart is a Chainsaw," four years later. She reunites with her friend Letha who is now married to a deputy sheriff (Banner) and has a small child that she named after final girls in horror films. In fact, in the past four years, Letha has become just as much of an expert on slasher films as Jade/Jennifer is. A blizzard is happening, a real serial killer is on the loose, and several high school students are dead with a new "final girl" (Cinnamon). The knowledge of slasher films becomes imperative for survival from all involved in the confrontations that ensue. Most chapters in the book are the names of horror films.

I enjoyed the book because I like horror films and really loved slasher films when I was growing up. It is definitely for a specific audience because there are a lot of pop culture references that might not hold up for someone reading this in the future. I look forward to the conclusion of the trilogy.

Am not a slasher novel reader. But can I say this book series has me rethinking that. I am totally hooked.

Am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. So exciting. Great plot, great characters and in your seat terrifying

Don't read this one alone at night unless you want to sleep with the lights on

Recommend

Thank you so much to NetGalley for granting me an advance copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

Alright, so I know I’m partial to SGJ - I haven’t read a book of his that I didn’t love - but dammit, I loved Don’t Fear the Reaper.

We’re back in Proofrock, where just a few years before, the town experienced a horrific and gruesome mass casualty. I read My Heart is a Chainsaw about a year and a half ago, but it still stays fresh in my mind. If you haven’t read it, read it now.

Jade, now going by Jennifer, isn’t the girl we left her with in MHIAC; she’s reserved, she’s quiet, she’s no longer slasher obsessed, and when I thought she was broken before, she’s even more so now. It’s like the little spark she had is gone. I remember being so annoyed with her at first, until you find out so much more about her, and your heart breaks for her. I was able to connect with her in ways that maybe I wish I didn’t have to, but I did and I loved her even more for that. Anyways, Proofrock has been quiet for the most part since she’s been away, and with her return, coincidentally violence is upon them as well. Is it Jade? Is it someone after Jade? Just a bad coincidence… you don’t know, because there’s not one, my friends, but TWO slashers in Proofrock and they’re both looking for blood.

SGJ does a phenomenal job at going into incredible detail on all the blood and guts, which being the morbid person I am, I love. But it’s not just the slicing and dicing that hooks you, there’s twists and turns galore and I was here for it all. I can’t wait for book 3. Thanks to Stephen Graham Jones, Gallery Books and NetGalley for my review copy. Don’t Fear the Reaper will be published in February, but don’t worry - I will remind you relentlessly.

Oh, and please read the acknowledgments 🥺🖤

The sequel was a great addition because the first book was more slow in an aspect where this one was more of gore focused! The complexity of the character and the eerie vibes from the book gave me chills! Unforgettable!

While still a good book, I wasn't as hooked as with last year's fave, My Heart is a Chainsaw. I was often confuse by the time we circled back around to certain things because I had already sorta forgotten the who, what, where. A lot of the conversations are murkier too if you're not up on slasher movie lore.

Still really excited for book 3, I absolutely love Jade as a character!