Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

142 reviews

regaliaofchaos's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse and Abortion

fatherprozac's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I loved the premise of this book going in but found the writing style difficult to enjoy--just not my cup of tea. It was also hard to feel any positive feelings while reading because everything just seems to go so unfairly wrong for Jade. This kept me from getting overly invested because it was just too painful to read about her continued misfortune at the hands of willful misunderstandings.

I also really did not appreciate Mr. Holmes being framed so endearingly--this is a man who withheld graduation from a student for missing homework due to her SUICIDE ATTEMPT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Cultural appropriation

abbie_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.75

Far and away the most brutal book I may have ever read?! Definitely has the highest body count! Please check the content warnings before deciding to embark on this bloodthirsty book, honestly brutal doesn’t begin to cover it. 

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a love letter to slasher movies, and since I have not seen even a single slasher, I’m as surprised as you are that I enjoyed this book this much. Jade even made me slightly want to watch a slasher but given that I live alone, I shall not be doing that. 

A lot of the readers who didn’t enjoy this one felt they couldn’t click with Jade’s stream-of-consciousness narration, which is pretty slippery at first. But I love a good stream of consciousness narrative, so that part worked well for me! There are also lots of good scares in here, even a jump scare - how does a book have a jump scare? I don’t know but SGJ managed it!

Super creepy, super bloody, super tragic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

thehistoriette's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

mr_cain's review against another edition

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

3.0

Very slow paced in the beginning and too quickly paced at the end. I found the ending kind of confusing and an out of left field plot twist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, and Racism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

boundforinfinity's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

My Heart is A Chainsaw was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. I was really excited to start it. Unfortunately, the large majority of the book didn't love up to my expectations.
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The main character, Jade, is a hard character to like. The assumption that you have to be "gothy" to like horror movies such as Saw, the $1 Billion dollar film franchise that's been running for almost two decades, was an annoying catch to the novel. Of course teenagers like horror movies - they need to prove their hard. (This is coming from one of said teenagers that never grew out of their gothy/horror phase).
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The constant allusions to the famous slashers felt pretentious at times and I really struggled at times to read the book knowing that a good portion of the text could go over my head if I hadn't seen these other works.
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Onto the good however, I really did enjoy the story and the twist ending. I loved the references to the Native American culture, Stephen Graham Jones own signature no doubt. The layout of an extra credit project alongside the actual story itself was refreshing and a fun way to engage the reader with Jade. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

badvision's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

soopushie's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

rachelgronbach's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

drjoeby's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

FUCK!!!!!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment