Reviews tagging 'Child death'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

54 reviews

devilledgreggs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is my second Stephen graham jones book and I have to say I’ve fallen in love with his writing style. This book wasn’t as scary as The Only Good Indians but I was much much more emotionally invested. I really loved Jade as a character, her framing the world through slasher movies along with her essays kept me really engaged. The first three quarters of the book is a more of a mystery narrative which explodes into a gore fest in the end. I genuinely didn’t know what would happen next. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Incest, and Rape

moonlitemuseum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Hey man I love Scream too

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

incestuous father-child rape is alluded to as part of the protagonist's history

theoldestbennetsister's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

doomluz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape

Minor: Child death

ehmannky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So. So good. It's one of the books where I can see where it lost people and is not going to appeal to everyone, but I loved it. The first 75% of the book I was just loving being in Jade's head (it was very dense though and I did have to go back and read things a few times to make sure I got it all right). And the last 25% of the book is simply wild and unexpected and had a twist I just honestly didn't see coming (even though looking back the clues were there!). It's a horror book and it's about the ways that buried trauma left untouched and untreated will simmer until it burns and slashes through in a burst of violence. It's so good. 

My second read through of this book and it's honestly better on a second read. Jade's longing for someone to care for her, her desire for safety in her life, the emphasis on what parents should do are just all so well done. Beautiful writing, beautiful characters, just a beautiful story. I also appreciated the ending so much more than I did the first time. 

The way Tab rises from behind Jade on the lake mimics the horror fantasy Jade plays out during her suicide attempt? The way she is the final girl of her dreams and can't see it? The last chapter where she goes and saves the town and sees the mother bear protect her cub and it just emphasizes that she's never had that? It's all so, so heartbreaking.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Racism

backfrompluto's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault

harley_sage's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

kyliebloch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

rhyanashah's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

I spent more time frustratedly talking to others about this book than I did reading it. I've never DNF'd a book but this is the closest I'd ever been 

From the absolutely infuriating main character, incredibly slow moving plot, messy finale, and a bordering obscene amount of referencial head-nodding that makes Ernest Cline's Oasis/Wade Watts series look timid. 

I struggled with every aspect of this book, and it's genuinely a shock considering how this book has almost everything i love.
Horror, non-white protagonists who must personally grow in spite of trauma, small town secrets, potential Queer storyline. 

Instead i have.... whatever thiw was. An insufferable lead, about 200 unnecessary pages and a lot of loose threads that were "Yada-Yada"'d through at the end. How can i be bored when there's MURDER happening? And yet. The "sisterly" relationship between our main and another character just came across like "historians will say they were friends" energy. 

Also TW/Spoiler warning

did not enjoy whole scenes of our protagonist being effectively deadnamed and outed as a child victim whilst 4 other characters try and force them to confront/confess allegations against their parent. 

I must also add that i never EVER feel comfortable about men writing from the perspective of young women/female children who have been S/A'd or R****d.

Whilst not all of the topics i've put in the content warning are Graphic, they are all frequent and i do emplore anyone considering reading this book to consider if they will be affected by these topics, and to avoid if that is the case.

In a summary, i think the book is about 50% too long and i was disappointed by about 150 pages in, but continued on. The ending was VERY disappointing. I only said "medium paced" because 300 pages are slow and 150 aren't but there is no "inconsistently paced" option.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Abortion

As said in my full review: Whilst not all of the topics i've put in the content warning are Graphic, they are all frequent and i do emplore anyone considering reading this book to consider if they will be affected by these topics, and to avoid if that is the case.

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

CHECK CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
I sorta loved this. I will def be checking out more from this author.
I know some people didnt like Jade info-dumping about slashers (quite a few people said it was annoying or unnecessary), but as someone who is neurodivergent, I thought it was kind of nice to read, and I didn't think it detracted from the story or flow. 
There was a scene towards the end at the big town party that made me a little teary eyed and quite a few scenes throughout the book that really sucked me in where I didn't want to stop reading but I had to. 
Final girls are no joke and Letha plus

Jade and to an extent Shooting Glasses whom I'm actually not sure if he survived or not but I'm counting him anyways

were great finals girls who would not go down without some sort of fight.
I have mixed feelings on who the "slasher" was though, and that's why I don't think I could say this was a perfect book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism