Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

43 reviews

sarahmcg's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This one had been on my TBR for awhile and I’m glad I finally got to it! I think this maybe just isn’t my genre, so take my rating with a grain of salt because I think if you like horror, slashers, and don’t mind gore, you’d love it! I haven’t read books by Grady Hendrix but from what I hear in reviews of their books, maybe this is a similar genre!

I was highly entertained - the plot and the story were very interesting. Our FMC/narrator Jade was… so wild, an unreliable narrator for the books. I wasn’t sure if anything she was saying was real or a figment of her wild imagination/bloody daydreams.

I think finding out why Jade is the way she is gave me a lot of empathy for her and helped me to understand why she lives breathes and only talks about slashers. I also loved Hardy, Mr. Holmes, and Letha as side characters! What ever happened to Shooting Glasses though? I thought he might end up playing more of a role in the ending but he really didn’t.

Besides the gore (which was extensive and descriptive), I ended up feeling like the motives behind the violence got lost and there was just a lot of chaos going on so by the end I wasn’t even sure who killed who 🙈 also, the chapters were wayyyy too long for me!

Rep: FMC is Native American Indian, side FMC black. Most other characters are white besides the FMCs family’s.

⚠️ CW/TW: suicide attempt, violence, murder, blood/gore, injury detail, animal death, vomiting, alcoholism, misogyny, racism, reference to underage drinking, reference to pedophilia/rape/child abuse (in past), fire

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Gore, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Vomit, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Racism, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation

clrouse's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Abortion, Classism, Cursing, Mental illness, and Abandonment

shysheepys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.0

I love Jade Daniels and I want nothing but the best for her. 
I'm personally not a slasher fan, but I love horror and wrote a few college papers on slasher tropes and the theories behind slashers and why slashers are popular. I loved being able to read this without having to think to hard about the things Jade was talking about, because I already knew them too, and it all made sense. For someone that hadn't done research on slashers, though? I can't imagine them being able to read this easily. 

But anyway, I love Jade Daniels. I love this book. I can't wait to read the next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, Body horror, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Incest, Murder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Colonisation

mlewis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Suicide attempt, Violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Self harm

Moderate: Rape, Xenophobia, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit and Pregnancy

averagesparrow'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Animal death, Cursing, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Incest, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

apestforwrens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

SGJ is an incredible writer and the way he presents Jade really lets the reader ride along with her. I literally stayed up all night to finish this book because I could NOT put it down. It is a horror book, so there is a lot of genre-typical heavy content, but it did not feel gratuitous to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Gore, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Grief, Animal death, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Medical content, Gaslighting, Racism, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Classism, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Stalking

Minor: Rape, Cultural appropriation, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

chloseencounter's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

An ode to the slasher, this novel really stole my heart pretty quickly. I enjoyed the MC (and maybe related to her a little too much…) The reason this isn’t a 4⭐️ for me is that the first 100 pages and last 100 pages where so fun but in between it was rather dense. As someone who has loved the slasher genre ever since Scream graced my eyeholes for the first time, I really enjoyed exploring the mind of the MC and all the slasher input she had on the genre, but I think this could be a harder read for most general audiences. The second book in the trilogy comes out this month and I’ll be excited to see how the story continues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Confinement, Abortion, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Misogyny

sprender13's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.0

this was going to be a 2.5 except the literal last 20% of it was so good. 

very VERY slow build up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Incest

uv_sensibility's review against another edition

dark 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

snovella's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse