Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

99 reviews

maximauve's review against another edition

dark funny reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide attempt, Gore, Self harm, Death, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pedophilia, Incest, and Rape

himinotebook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Picked this one up on the vague recommendation of a Youtuber I like (shout out to Laura Crone) as part of my concerted effort to get back into reading as an adult, and wasn't quite expecting this book to hit me as hard as it did.

This one is really for the horror movie girlies, I'm a film fan above all else and this one really really spoke to me, it was a passionate love letter to the slasher genre that could only have been written by someone who lives and breathes it. I was constantly delighted and surprised by the observations it made about the form and how it turned them on it's head. I was also enamoured with the writing style, Stephen Graham Jones really throws some sentences down that made me go "damn I wish I could write something that poetic." The world of My Heart Is A Chainsaw feels textured and alive, like it's some great half-dead and decaying eldritch creature that the characters are crawling around on the back of.

The character work was also smooth as silk, this book uses the expanded scope of the medium of literature to do what slasher movies often can't, which is really put us in the main character Jade's head. You find yourself empathising with her and following the logic of even the admittedly bad decisions she ends up making because her mental state and who she is as a person is just so seamlessly communicated in every other facet of the writing.

My only minor criticism was this book had some slightly odd... I guess spatial pacing issues? I'll concede this might have been a me problem but I often found myself losing track of where characters were supposed to be, how they got from one location to another, how long it would take them to do so, whether it was still day or night etc. etc. A minor gripe but really not one that significantly detracted from my overall reading experience.

Also worthy of note that when I finished this, I closed the book, lay there for a minute on the couch and just burst into tears for like 10 minutes, the ending is so frenetic that the emotional gut punch of what was actually happening didn't hit me until I had a moment of peace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

flexolo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Death, Incest, and Suicidal thoughts

kingsteph's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Incest

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Rape, and Child abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

school_for_scandal's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Addiction

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Racism, Self harm, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Rape

falloutofmyactions's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Suicide attempt, Blood, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Murder, Violence, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape, Incest, and Pedophilia

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Child death, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Minor: Vomit, Racism, Rape, and Pedophilia

tesshersh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I’m not sure if I extra enjoyed this book because I’ve read so many BAD books lately, or if it really IS that good, so take this with a grain of salt. But WOW. One of my only gripes is that it touches on some themes that I’m not 100% sure I love being talked abt from a teenage girl’s perspective written by a male author, but I think it was respectfully done. 
Spoiler for my other complaint:

I wish that the conclusion/reveal of the killer DIDN’T have a supernatural element. I think the author’s point of regarding real life not being like a horror/slasher movie, about things like gentrification & colonization being a type of horror and violence of their own, was backtracked a bit by letting jade’s theory of a supernatural element be true at the end.

Also: cannot recommend the audio book enough, cara gee was amazing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Abortion, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Suicide, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Child death, Incest, and Gore

HUGE trigger warnings - not just in the gore/violence you would associate with a thriller but for other content as well, please check content warnings before reading

melchncookies's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

If this hadn’t turned supernatural,

it would have been at least a 4 star book, if not higher. The setup for the killer was amazing and I didn’t guess who it was.

I didn’t love that the little girl ended up coming back.

I wish that could have just been Jade’s imagination. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Self harm

Minor: Child abuse and Fire/Fire injury

lancemama's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Bullying, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Rape, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death