Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

134 reviews

cinderrunner's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

PLEASE CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS BOOK

This book is just okay. Its very slow moving and long winded. The action doesn't pick up til about 50 pages from the end. The suspense to get there and the buildup felt very weak. I do think its important to note that (according to a google search) the author is native american. The book features a lot of negative stereotypes that would feel very racist coming from an author who was not indigenous. I find this grown man's way of handling writing a story about underage girls to be uncomfortable. When we get introduced to our "final girl" he uses weirdly sexual language when describing her (who again, is only a HS student). There is also a very weird gay baity vibe with Letha and Jade that I don't appreciate. Jade's tragic backstory felt like it came out of left field and felt entirely unnecessary, especially comint from a grown man writing about an underage girl. The SAME effect, that one could try to use to justify why it was valid to have Jade have been through that, could have been achieved by with different less vile means. I think its an authors responsibility when writing about marginalized groups they don't belong to to check themselves on if this story is really theirs to tell and if using these plot points is just exploitative instead of genuinely adding to the story or shedding light on what that group (in this case women and young girls) go through. 100% Jade did not need to be

sexually abused by her father when she was fucking 11. Taking it from general child abuse to the level of rape in a society where females are so disproportionatelyimpacted by rape culture isnt warranted by anything in this plot.

The book does have good bones. It offers interesting themes around stuff like self victimization, accountability, how society will vilify and refuse to help people who function on the outskirts of it, and so on. I like what the author was trying to do and succeeded in doing to a degree. I get what having a heart that is like a chainsaw means and i find it rather poetic. A lot of this book could have been rather poetic and beautifu. But the execution just went flat bordering into being offensive. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cursing, Sexual content, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Self harm

readingsiren's review

adventurous dark tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

robinsong's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

If I knew anything about horror movies this probably would be 5 stars lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Gore, Alcohol, Child abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Classism, Death, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.75

The format was so interesting but also made it difficult to follow along at certain points. Definitely not something to read on audiobook.

Unrelated to the pacing/writing style, my only critique is that the author, like most (male) horror authors used

child sexual abuse

as a plot device/background on the MC when it could have easily been avoided

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Blood

keenanmaree's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

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

rachelunabridged's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I just could not get into this read, unfortunately. For something that is a homage to slashers, it was incredibly slow, and I found myself literally falling asleep as I tried to read it. Ultimately, I had to borrow the book in audiobook format just to finish it.

The main reason this ended up being such a slog fest is the POV character, Jade. So much of this read is bloated by her inner monologue where she explains to the reader all of the slasher tropes happening around her. In addition to her constant chattering, every other chapter is a selection of her history class papers that also explain how slashers work. This felt like overkill to me because it slowed the action of the book soooo much.

Additionally, I don't understand the constant holding of the reader's hand through the whole thing. Is this book written for people who are fans of slasher horror or no? If it's for people who already into slashers, the genre doesn't need to be explained to them, however, if it's not for people who already enjoy slashers, who is all the nostalgia for?

By the end, I felt like all of the interesting subtext and commentary was completely overshadowed by the nostalgia mining. I finished this read feeling like it suffers from the same issues that a lot of nostalgia-driven media has: the author leaned so hard on it that they forgot to write a proper story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Self harm, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Rape

lh_reads's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

This was definitely a rollercoaster to listen to but I loved it. I really loved Jades character

my favorite parts when she explained slasher lore between chapters. At some points it felt like a friend telling you about there hyperfixation which I loved.

it really kept me in the edge of my seat and didn’t expect the ending 100% I really love the authors writing and definitely will be adding only good Indians to my tbr. It’s really cool especially if you aren’t into slashers it still a fun read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Blood, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Abortion, Pedophilia, and Rape

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

teaandtales1's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

2.5

 

Horror sub-genre: Slasher, Paranormal

Plot: Jade Daniels is the biggest 80s slasher fan you'll ever meet. Unfortunately she's also an outcast of her small Idaho town that's also changing due to a new development being built for the uber rich. As people start dying Jade is ecstatic that her vast knowledge of horror movies is finally going to be of use - of course that also leads her to be the prime suspect.

Review: ⭐⭐ I was so hopeful for this book. I'm a big fan of SGJ and of horror movies, so this seemed like a perfect match. Unfortunately it was a long slog to a chaotic ending, to an even stranger coda at the end. I'm used to horror books and movies being dark, but this story was such an incredibly depressing downer of a novel. I also literally couldn't tell you everything that happened at the end because it was such a jumbled mess. I've liked every other book Stephen Graham Jones has written, but this is definitely my least favorite books of his. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Animal death

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