Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

44 reviews

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

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

The Details:
Narrated by Cara Gee
Unabridged

Unexpectedly angsty and for some reason, I didn't know what was going on. I think I was thrown off by how horror movie central it was - like there were essays as in between chapters - and I just haven't consumed enough of the classics to really appreciate it.

I also found Jade really unlikeable and because I had issues with following along with the plot, this wasn't something I could bypass over. Also the ending just seemed to appear out of no where, and made no sense.

I did manage to grasp some of the deeper tones and that's another reason I kept listening. I do think a revisit at some stage could encourage a better reading experience for me.

I am disappointed I didn't enjoy this one, I possibly could have just dnf'd this one and contemplated doing that a few times, but I enjoyed the writing. So in saying that, I would like to try The Only Good Indians, but I think I'd try that as a physical read rather than an audio. Depending on how I get on with that one, I may come back to this title to reread in a different format. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Incest, Murder, and Rape

apestforwrens's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

SGJ is an incredible writer and the way he presents Jade really lets the reader ride along with her. I literally stayed up all night to finish this book because I could NOT put it down. It is a horror book, so there is a lot of genre-typical heavy content, but it did not feel gratuitous to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Gore, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Grief, Animal death, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Medical content, Gaslighting, Racism, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Classism, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Stalking

Minor: Rape, Cultural appropriation, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

lottieingham's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Vomit, Animal death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Rape, and Incest

chloseencounter's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.0

An ode to the slasher, this novel really stole my heart pretty quickly. I enjoyed the MC (and maybe related to her a little too much…) The reason this isn’t a 4⭐️ for me is that the first 100 pages and last 100 pages where so fun but in between it was rather dense. As someone who has loved the slasher genre ever since Scream graced my eyeholes for the first time, I really enjoyed exploring the mind of the MC and all the slasher input she had on the genre, but I think this could be a harder read for most general audiences. The second book in the trilogy comes out this month and I’ll be excited to see how the story continues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Confinement, Abortion, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Misogyny

bambooboy's review

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Cursing, Self harm, Alcoholism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Grief, Rape, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

ehmannky's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

So. So good. It's one of the books where I can see where it lost people and is not going to appeal to everyone, but I loved it. The first 75% of the book I was just loving being in Jade's head (it was very dense though and I did have to go back and read things a few times to make sure I got it all right). And the last 25% of the book is simply wild and unexpected and had a twist I just honestly didn't see coming (even though looking back the clues were there!). It's a horror book and it's about the ways that buried trauma left untouched and untreated will simmer until it burns and slashes through in a burst of violence. It's so good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Suicide, Gore, Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Incest, Child death, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Racism

sphinxofblackquartz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

juliana18's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

aformeracceleratedreader's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

CHECK CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
I sorta loved this. I will def be checking out more from this author.
I know some people didnt like Jade info-dumping about slashers (quite a few people said it was annoying or unnecessary), but as someone who is neurodivergent, I thought it was kind of nice to read, and I didn't think it detracted from the story or flow. 
There was a scene towards the end at the big town party that made me a little teary eyed and quite a few scenes throughout the book that really sucked me in where I didn't want to stop reading but I had to. 
Final girls are no joke and Letha plus

Jade and to an extent Shooting Glasses whom I'm actually not sure if he survived or not but I'm counting him anyways

were great finals girls who would not go down without some sort of fight.
I have mixed feelings on who the "slasher" was though, and that's why I don't think I could say this was a perfect book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Rape, and Suicide attempt