Reviews tagging 'Incest'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

168 reviews

gstamps's review

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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Sexual assault, and Rape

horror, indigenous, slasher, supernatural

sareebeth's review against another edition

dark tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Gore

Moderate: Sexual assault, Incest, and Rape

taliesinrex's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

A really fun and tense breakdown of the slasher formula through the eyes of a highschooler obsessed with the classic horror subgenre. I greatly enjoyed this one, and found the structure really fun with its interspersion of protagonist Jade's "Slasher 101" essays addressed to her history teacher. My Heart Is A Chainsaw embraces many of the tropes familiar to the slasher genre while still keeping things fresh and interesting, creating a meta-narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat especially when you start picking up on elements that Jade, for all her love and knowledge of the genre, elects not to recognize (whether on purpose or subconsciously). 

Jade herself is a wonderful character to see this world through. She is pessimistic and troubled, though not fully without hope somewhere in her mind - though it's not always hope for her OWN survival which I think adds a great depth and adds to the ingrained tragedy of her character. Her intense love for slasher films, finding them a source of comfort in the face of all the awful things that have happened to her, is at its core a very relatable story and one that I think contributes to her being such a fantastic POV character that you really want to see succeed even though the world around her is uncaring and downright hostile to her at times. I also really enjoyed the supporting characters, and her dynamics with characters who are sympathetic to her but unsure of how to truly help like Letha, Sheriff Hardy, and her teacher Mr. Holmes.

I will say this was my first time reading Stephen Graham Jones's work so I wasn't sure what to expect from his writing style. He definitely throws a lot at you, and his syntax is quite unlike a lot of other books I have read which took some getting used to. Once I started getting into the flow of his prose, though, it became really immersive and served as a great vehicle for the violence, tragedy, and humor throughout the book. Take heed that there's some heavy stuff revealed later on, and a whole lot of gore, but I'd definitely recommend this, especially to any horror movie fan.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Racism, Incest, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

A traumatic childhood sexual assault is discussed, but not described in graphic detail. General mentions of racism/racist violence against Native Americans.

thisbookisbananas's review against another edition

I understand why people love this book. The writing style is very compelling however, this is an absolute DNF for me. I went into this blind, but I’m 90% sure this is heading toward a plot line I can’t and won’t expose my eyeballs to. Rather than peeling the band-aid to see the scab underneath, I’m putting this book down. Trauma on trauma on trauma. My heart breaks for Jade Daniels. Her own personal story might be the real horror plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Incest, Sexual assault, and Self harm

Sexual assault of a minor

flexolo's review

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

gamerreaper13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This book was hard to get through. Not because it was profound or gruesome or enlightening, it was just so damn BORING.

Jade was annoying and uninteresting. The constant call backs to slasher films was cute at first but quickly became repetitive and irritating. I signed up for a slasher book and only got the slashing in the final 100 pages of the book. 

The twist at the end was good and the gore (when it happened) was amazingly written, it was just having to crawl and claw through the first 350 pages to get there. I found myself skimming pages waaaay too often throughout this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Animal death, Gore, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Rape

Minor: Abortion

kmikitin's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Incest and Rape

sadgirlsidney's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

 I feel like I missed something somewhere along the way with this. I can't tell if it's because of the book itself or the formatting of the audiobook was hard to follow. Might have to give this another try in ebook or physical form and see if it's the same. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Incest

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