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taliesinrex's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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.artemis7's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Sexual assault, Gore, Murder, and Child abuse
Minor: Animal death and Racism
himinotebook's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Vomit, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
gamerreaper13's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
school_for_scandal's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol and Addiction
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Racism, Self harm, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Rape
grp101's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Gore and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Racism
uhhlexiconic's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Death, Racism, Animal death, Vomit, and Violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Child abuse
danimacuk's review against another edition
- 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
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
auteaandtales's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book was ultimately about trauma, both Jades’ personal trauma from her abusive family and others but also the trauma that came with being Native American. Jade uses horror as a way to cope with this, and it also makes her an unreliable narrator as we cannot tell what is real and what is Jades’ imagination. Unreliable narration, especially in mystery/thrillers, is one of my favourite things to read. It also has other themes of gentrification, which provided some extra commentary on the horrors persistent within the book.
I thought it all flowed together quite well, especially at the start and the end, I couldn’t wait to get back to the book and read more. The middle felt pretty slow and dragged, it felt like the pacing was off, but once it got back on track it was amazing again. However, the way it was written overall felt like a representation of the mental state of Jade as she struggles with what she has been through and copes with grief.
I recommend this a lot. It felt like a love letter to the horror genre and I’d especially recommend this to people who love the horror genre, and those who used the genre as a way to cope with their own real life monsters. I may give this a go via a different format, though. I listened to this via audio, so a lot went over my head and I didn’t feel like I could engage properly. Maybe both audio and written text, even. Either way, I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series at some point.
Some quotes I liked:
“Horror is not a symptom, it’s a love affair”
“It’s perfectly natural for you to want to defend him. It’s the…it’s like you consider yourself an accomplice just because you were involved, but your involvement wasn’t complicit. Wasn’t voluntary. It never is, it can’t be. You don’t even know you can say no to a parent. Parents are good. Parents are shining and bright, they are the Gods of our world, so whatever they do can never be wrong. It must be your feelings that are wrong. Their mask is that they’re parents. Some of them are more, though. Some of them are monsters”
Graphic: Racism, Child abuse, and Cultural appropriation
emory's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gore, Child abuse, Death of parent, Rape, and Abandonment
Moderate: Racism and Vomit