Reviews tagging 'Child death'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

44 reviews

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.75

Stephen Graham Jones, you've done it again.

In the beginning, I disliked Jade as a character but when the book ramps up at about the 70% mark, I'm rooting for her the whole way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Cultural appropriation

jaydoncornell's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Violence, Self harm, Murder, Cursing, Child death, Gore, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pedophilia

Minor: Racial slurs and Pregnancy

alex_e_stone's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, Child death, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Forced institutionalization

carrionkid's review

5.0

Extremely heartfelt and equally gory, everything a horror fan could've wanted. Full of twists and turns and the miserable loneliness of a traumatized teenager.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Incest

saintyeehaw's review

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

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

bi_n_large's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Child death, and Alcoholism

Minor: Pregnancy

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

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, and Racism

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

boundforinfinity's review

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

drjoeby's review

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

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

painausten314's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Incest and Rape