Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

8 reviews

flexolo's review against another edition

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

shysheepys's review

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.0

I love Jade Daniels and I want nothing but the best for her. 
I'm personally not a slasher fan, but I love horror and wrote a few college papers on slasher tropes and the theories behind slashers and why slashers are popular. I loved being able to read this without having to think to hard about the things Jade was talking about, because I already knew them too, and it all made sense. For someone that hadn't done research on slashers, though? I can't imagine them being able to read this easily. 

But anyway, I love Jade Daniels. I love this book. I can't wait to read the next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, Body horror, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Incest, Murder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Colonisation

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

meggs1005's review

dark 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: Self harm, Death, Animal death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Alcoholism, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Incest, and Pregnancy

animalsmals's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child abuse, and Cursing

Moderate: Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Vomit, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Incest

saintsunshine's review

I feel bad doing this, especially when I genuinely enjoyed The Only Good Indians. My Heart is a Chainsaw feels like a book that was meant for me (I, too, am a neurodivergent brown girl obsessed with horror) but Chainsaw is inevitably less refined and enjoyabl than Indians.

Jade is a protagonist I do genuinely enjoy, but her internal monologing eventually crept into the territory of an author indulging in his own knowledge. Where Indians was distant from its troubled protagonists, Chainsaw spends most of the time in its protagonist's thoughts — so much that the third-person narration feels a bit pointless at times. Jade herself is a morally gray character — someone who eagerly predicts and watches the violent action that inevitably takes place. Most of the book is rather uneventful, so much that most of the thrill was just wondering if Jade's predictions would inevitably come true. But by the time the action really started up, I was disappointed in the turn of events.

I'm sure there would be more twists and surprises down the road. But unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to care.

Also

the book kinda lost me when there was an entire chapter dedicated to characters debating whether or not Jade was sexually abused as a child.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Self harm, Gore, and Animal death

Minor: Vomit and Drug use

libraryofdoe's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I’m so very torn on how to rate this book.

On one hand, I found Jade’s story excellent and riveting and genre-defiant yet so obviously reverent of all the slashers that came before it and so, so raw. I found parts of myself in Jade that I almost didn’t want to see. I really like Jones’ writing style and the way he approached the story.

On the other hand I really didn’t like the whodunnit

which may be on me as I evidently hadn’t researched thoroughly enough to know that there was any supernatural aspect to the novel

and the end of the book felt rushed.

I may come back and change this rating on further thought, but for now 4 stars feels about right, if a lot lower than I anticipated 75% of the way in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Bullying, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Incest, Medical content, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Ableism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Pregnancy, and Drug use

anishinaabekwereads's review

challenging dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

 

In May, Stephen Graham Jones released an essay called “Open Letter to the Cons from the Indians No Longer in the Background of a John Wayne Movie” (really recommended, by the way) and in this short but profound piece he asks a question I’ve seen him ask us all to consider before. Instead of “who is your favorite Native writer?” why are we not asking “who is your favorite writer” which can include Native authors? Now Jones presents this question in the context of questions or comments Native authors experience at panels at cons (and honestly anywhere), but this question is a valid form of inquiry for any one at any time when engaging with writers who are Indigenous.

What does this have to do with Jones’s forthcoming My Heart Is a Chainsaw? Well it reaffirmed for me that Jones is one of my favorite writers. His writing style is not for everyone (seriously it can be very flow of consciousness) and the gore represented in so many of his books (SO MUCH GORE) probably turns a lot of people away from his work, but I have never been so captured by an author’s ability to create a scene, an atmosphere, a feeling of waiting for the next jumpscare if you will.

Now is My Heart Is a Chainsaw a new favorite book? Well, no. I liked it, I did. But, for me, it wasn’t my favorite. This novel is written for those who love slashers. You know the films: last girl [standing], a villain who is maybe human, maybe not, with a slow but steady method of racking up the body count, lots and lots and lots of death. The main character Jennifer (Jade) Daniels is a recent graduate of her small town high school in Proofrock, Idaho and everything is absolutely hate-worthy. The place, which she has a kind of love for, rejects her oddities. Her peers are too predictable. Her abusive father and his creepy predator of a friend are real life horror. Jade has spent her life wishing and hoping that a slasher would come to Proofrock. When a new girl who lives in Terra Nova, the new rich enclave across Lake Indian, moves right before graduation Jade is positive that Letha Mondragon is the final girl and finally (finally) things are being set in motion.

Here’s the thing. This novel is an ode to slashers. Jade’s massive understanding of the genre pulls you through much of this novel. Though there are deaths throughout, they’re not exactly harbingers of what most casual viewers will think of as slasher, except for the prologue which is very Friday the 13th meets Jaws meets what the hell is in this Indian Lake water. Yet there’s a clear undercurrent of anxiety, of discomfort throughout this that really shows Jones’s skill. The horror in My Heart Is a Chainsaw is slasher, but it’s also honest-to-goodness real life. There are monsters all around us. The people we expect to be the monsters might not be and the ones we know are monsters, but convince ourselves, protect ourselves from naming are the ones who need exposure.

I can already pinpoint why people won’t like this book. 1: it’s too slow. A lot of the action doesn’t happen until the final third or so of this novel. I felt like this was fairly evenly paced and I appreciated knowing what was inevitably coming because this is a Stephen Graham Jones book. If you’re hesitant or feeling like you might not finish, I beg of you to keep reading. The ending is pure slasher gold. 2: it’s not really about Indigenous people. Let’s re-reroute to the beginning of this review. Now, let’s think about how Indigenous authors don’t owe you tropes, stereotypes, or expectations. I know Native girls like Jade. I, in many ways, was a Native girl like Jade. It’s not all powwows and sacred teachings. Sometimes we just cope with trauma and also obsess over gorey movies just like anyone else. 3. It’s too gorey. This is obviously opposite point number 1 and I want to end of this one because Stephen Graham Jones knows gore. His books are not horror lite. They are visceral. If you cannot do gore (squishiness, blood, body parts, animal death, rot, etc.) you should probably not read this book. Jones does have others that aren’t as graphic. I always recommend Ledfeather.

All in all, I liked this book a lot. It was the kind of summer read I needed. It’s got a lot going for it, especially if you like your horror slasher-y. For me, it wasn’t my absolute favorite by Jones, but it reaffirmed my adamant declaration that he is one of my favorite authors. I could write a completely different review about being an Indigenous reviewer reading an Indigenous author (and I did for The Only Good Indians last year), but really my love of his work transcends that. This man has a skill and devotion to his craft that is so tangible in My Heart Is a Chainsaw. And like I’m sure Jade would say, some films (or books) are better than others for whatever purpose they serve when we watch(read) them. This is being filed away under: “remember this one. Who knows when it will come in handy.”

A final note that may not be strictly necessary: this book has a lot of content warnings. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Incest, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, and Vomit