Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - My Heart Is a Chainsaw

I’m so very torn on how to rate this book.

On one hand, I found Jade’s story excellent and riveting and genre-defiant yet so obviously reverent of all the slashers that came before it and so, so raw. I found parts of myself in Jade that I almost didn’t want to see. I really like Jones’ writing style and the way he approached the story.

On the other hand I really didn’t like the whodunnit

which may be on me as I evidently hadn’t researched thoroughly enough to know that there was any supernatural aspect to the novel

and the end of the book felt rushed.

I may come back and change this rating on further thought, but for now 4 stars feels about right, if a lot lower than I anticipated 75% of the way in.

Content Warnings

librarian_elle's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0

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bookedaroundtheworld's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

3.0

Jones has a very particular writing style, and I don’t know that it is my favorite. For the way I read I find it disjointed and hard to picture the events in my head. He is a fantastic writer, but I just didn’t love this book. I wanted more slasher whereas most of this book does not contain the slasher plot.

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kelseyalbig's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

This book is so much more than I thought it was. It was confusing at times I think because Jade is such an untrustworthy narrator and the first 250 pages of the book is extremely slow paced until everything is happening at once without being able to take a breath! The way my heart aches for Jade… I really grew to love her character. The ending was extremely tense, and it became clear that maybe Letha was right that traditional slasher rules do not apply here. I thought the writing was beautiful and I loved the horror references throughout. Overall, if you give this book a chance I think a lot of people would enjoy it.

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raesengele's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Entertainment: 🌟
This book had me hooked from page one. And while it's pretty character driven for a lot of it, there's enough of a mystery that I think it would keep those who aren't into that kind of stuff going. What I loved the most is that Jones managed to ride the line between character study and genre fiction so fascinatingly well and honestly, that's all I've been asking for lately.

Story: 🌟
The story goes exactly how you want it to, while also shoving you under the water so you can burst back out gasping for air and going "what the fuck just happened?!" There is not a single nugget of information presented that I can think of that isn't used to it's full potential by the end. It takes true talent to deliver that and clearly Jones has it. I envy you, good sir.

Character: 🌟
Jade took her machete and carved her way straight into my heart. What I loved the most is despite Jade's trauma, you never pity her and it's never played up for drama points. Yes, I want to hug her at times and tell her everything's alright, but I also believe that she can handle herself and doesn't need my sympathy to get through life. There were points where when other characters brought up her trauma and she rolled her eyes, I kind of felt it, too. Like, my nosey self wanted to know what happened, but I was also like there are more important things going on here, people! I kind of like this depiction of trauma. It's always there and always looming, but it's also periphery. It's not the nexus of Jade's every thought. And there is an argument in there that's it's entirely because of unhealthy coping mechanisms, but that's how mental health works. It's messy and it's hard. This is a discussion without being an after school special and I love it.

Writing Style: 🌟
Jones has such a captivating writing style. There are chapters in here that are upwards of 60 pages and they flew by without a second thought. You melt into Jade's head until you're no longer questioning the slasher in real life that she's laying out in front of you.

Descriptions: 🌟
If this isn't already in the works to be a movie, it needs to be. How Jones manages to simultaneously keep us in Jade's head while also delivering such cinematic writing is beyond me. Just 👏👏👏

Content Warnings

bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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