Reviews tagging 'Blood'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

203 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

mulletapologist's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Self harm, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Animal death

Moderate: Vomit

cebadgley's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0

 I had the most difficult time following the frenetic writing. While reading I almost DNF bc of style and my inability to “hear” the characters voice while in 3rd POV. The twist at the end and the final couple of paragraphs has me heated and rolling my eyes. This is going to stay with me for a bit, and bc of that, I’ll rate it a 4.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, and Child abuse

sakuramom's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Death

sammybee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

2.5

Boring but interesting at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual violence

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Murder, Rape, Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

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

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

plantybooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

• 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

4.25

 Ahhhh 5 stars for really great writing. bumped down to 4.25 because the conclusion... was not entirely satisfying to me.
My Heart is a Chainsaw is indeed, as most have mentioned, a celebration of the Slasher/Horror film genre, as told by Jade, a 17 yr old who is singularly focused on them, after experiencing a traumatic life event.
The author toggles between Slasher 101 chapters and the current events of Jade's life in a small town of Proofrock, Idaho (and YES- I hope ProofRock is a nod to T. S Eliot's Prufrock....it sure seems to be) - In the Slasher 101's we are treated to all sorts of Slasher lore, key elements (like mask, weapons, back stories, revenge plots and final girls. In Jade's life chapters- we are reminded how hard it is to be the odd one in a small community, and we are see the actual... slasher is it? evolve and gradually devolve gloriously on the 4th of July with some confessions from Jade and just abject horror, we have dead animals, dead people, macabre misuse of construction tools, (and chainsaws as well)... It was so hard for me to decide if the murders were actually occurring or if Jade was just kind of having a psychotic episode, as both seemed equally possible by the end of the book. There was probably quite a bit of symbolism that just flew over my head, especially as I was using an audio book, and thus was not always 100% focused only on the narrative.
Because I don't like Slashers at all, I didn't really find this book funny- like many did. It seemed more to me a tragedy, but, for the right audience, I think it's both hilarious and tragic. And even though it's a slow build up, the writing is always on point.
Will I read book 2? yeah... I am entirely hooked. I'm rooting for Jade. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Child abuse, Car accident, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Mental illness

ekw0036's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.25

Oh my actual god.

I need to stare at the ceiling a bit over this. I won’t pretend this book is without flaws but it’s def the first true horror novel I’ve read in a while. It’s a cerebral, dark, devastating book and I can’t wait to read more from him

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment