Reviews with content warning for Gore - My Heart Is a Chainsaw

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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ekw0036's review against another edition

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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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spacecataz's review

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tense fast-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i very much liked the story, but the style made it hard to get through at times. i felt as though i had missed something, like when you get to class and realize everyone's done the reading but you and you can mostly get through discussion but you're not quite on the same page as everyone else.

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crabbynico's review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

I loved the overall premise of the book and there were definitely the bones of an intriguing story in there. Unfortunately, it’s bogged down by very uneven pacing with jarring shifts between scenes and an excessive amount of interior monologuing. It feels strange, too, given the third person limited POV, to be so inside the protagonist’s head all the time. And not just between the action. Sometimes right smack in the middle of it, we are treated to far more thoughts than could possibly fit into the moment, rendering the momentum dead (ha, slasher joke) and leaving me thumbing backward through the book to recall what is even happening.

Now I’m dipping into spoiler territory.

The root and cause of Jade’s hyper-fixation is compelling, really compels you to hate her father as much as she does. And while the very end does employ some allegory with the mother bear that feels totally tacked on, we don’t get much in the way of exploring her non-relationship with her mother. Her mother who apparently was concerned about “being a grandmother”, who abandoned her with her abuser and whose sole good deeds are… looking the other way when she steals? Lying about what happened to her daughter (as if that doesn’t also serve her)? We don’t even see her get taken out by the killer in the climax. She just sort of fades into the background.

And speaking of the killer. Maybe there were clues sprinkled throughout the book. Maybe with better pacing, they would have stood out more. Maybe it wasn’t an entire ass-pull. But it sure felt like one. The kind that leaves unanswered questions. Why did Theo Mondragon kill the construction “grunts”? Why was he still gunning for Shooting Glasses even after he saved the kids? Was that one scum bag involved with the sheriff’s daughter’s drowning part of the same killings, or was that good old revenge? What of Grayson Brust, who we never saw but was described in a way that would suggest he was possessed by the spirit that was apparently off fully corporeal and doing its own thing?

The Scream films were referenced many times throughout this book and were a clear inspiration. The problem with that is that the later films don’t hold up to a shred of scrutiny in the same way this story doesn’t. There may be answers to these questions, but we don’t get them. Maybe you have to read the sequel for that? But as a reader who loves a tight mystery, where all the puzzle pieces eventually fall into place, I was left less than satisfied.

All that harsh criticism out of the way, I’m giving it 3.5 stars. It may have been a slog at times, it could have benefited from heavy editing (and trimming) and it may not have stuck the landing—but I also couldn’t wait to get off work to finish it, so it clearly built enough suspense to keep me hooked. I’ll even read the sequel (already have it checked out from the library anyway). You can have a good time with this book, especially if you enjoy slashers. Just maybe take some of the hype with a pinch of salt.

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squisheebee_'s review

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

I absolutely loved the narration of this book. Jade stole my heart & maybe it biased my rating.🤷🏽‍♀️

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falloutofmyactions's review

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dark mysterious medium-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

3.5

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bre_'s review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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imaginary_space's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If you read it, read the author's notes at the end! (After reading the book, because spoilers.) He talks about his process writing My Heart is a Chainsaw and it's very informative.

This book hit me harder the second time around. Probably because, as often happens, the first time I was occupied with keeping up with the story. This time I could appreciate all the little nuances, the hints and the small moments of foreshadowing so much more. And for me, it's all those layers that make this book so good.

The first time I read My Heart is a Chainsaw, the revelation about Jade towards the middle of the book completely took me by surprise, I had not seen it coming at all. Which I found shocking, and it made me take a long, hard look at my privilege.
The second time, I suddenly realized why I had not seen it. Because in a lot of ways, I was Jade at that age, so her inner monologue and her behaviour seemed completely normal to me. Which is astounding, because my circumstances growing up were very different from Jade's, and our experiences weren't even the same, just similar enough that we reacted in very similar ways.
So yeah, that fucked me up. Thank you, SGJ. (I mean that unironically. I try to read diverse stories not just because I find it to be a more interesting experience, but also to actively learn about lived realities different to my own, and be a better educated citizen of Earth. Which is why I like my horror to be mixed with a good dose of real-world horror.)

The fact that Stephen Graham Jones wrote a character that I, a person from a very different background halfway across the globe, could identify with so much I didn't see the obvious, proves two things:

He is a truly skilled writer.
Adult men can write believable teenage girls if they just write them as persons and not try to write them as "teenage girls(TM)". Thank you for that, too. Yes, I, too, am sad the bar is that low.

My teenage emotions aside, there's more I like about this book:

The story is multi-dimensional, there's a whole mythology around Proofrock and Indian Lake that feels very much alive - an abandoned camp, a creepy local legend, real past tragedies, things that happened in the past people don't want to talk about ... it feels like a real place and it gives so many layers to the story.
Also, I just love a
creepy little girl
, I'm biased like that.
I like an unreliable narrator, so to me it's refreshing and interesting to see the story through Jade's eyes and her eyes alone.
SGJ is a fan of "show, don't tell", and I appreciate that a lot. In general, his writing style is right up my alley, which is extremely important in horror.

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