Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

35 reviews

janeanger's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Blood, Incest, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Vomit, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cultural appropriation, and Fire/Fire injury

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

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Body horror, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Rape, Violence, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Gore

demon_catheter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Really fun read, a bit confusing at times but not in a bad way. Keeps you asking questions right along with Jade and really sucks you in. Also loved how fleshed out the setting was, I’ve never been to a town at a high elevation in Idaho but My Heart is a Chainsaw makes me feel like I have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Body horror, Gore, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Incest, and Vomit

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Car accident, Colonisation, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

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

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

kitsune_kae's review

dark informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, and Stalking

Minor: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Cursing

Trauma, childhood trauma,

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

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

kadearang's review

dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault