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lizzardbreath's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual assault, and Vomit
rmperezpadilla'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? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual assault
taliesinrex's review
- 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, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment
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
- 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: Child abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, and Murder
Minor: Animal death and Racism
thevampirecharlotte's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Child abuse and Rape
perusinghannah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
But the pace, man. I just didn't get on with it at all. As much as I sank right into the whole vibe of it, there just wasn't much to focus on for the longest time besides a lot of slasher trivia. Me being a slasher girly myself, this also could've been top notch, but it didn't go deep enough into it to share anything I didn't already know, and then it's just a lot of rambling. Then we went from zero to sixty at the very end, and while it certainly helped me finish the book faster, it also made the ending feel sloppy and incohesive. And yet, I still love the author's writing style here, too, because he can really paint a fantastically gory picture when he leans into the horror hard.
Where does this leave me? Somewhere just right of the middle, and yet with every intention to continue the trilogy. I don't really know how to explain it, either.
Moderate: Child abuse
himinotebook's review
- 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: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, and Sexual assault
dontwalkintime's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
flexolo'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
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail