7.01k reviews for:

My Heart Is a Chainsaw

Stephen Graham Jones

3.62 AVERAGE

gannetsneverdie's review against another edition

4.0

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(3.75) i have a few mixed thoughts about some parts of this, some to do with the manner in which the final plot was resolved (and what parts of it maybe..weren't?) and some to do with the writing style itself (because it took a while for me to get back into the rhythm whenever i'd come back to it, with the sort of run-off thoughts that gallop in different directions and can sometimes make you doubt if you're following if you're not paying enough attention). not to say i didn't enjoy it because i really did!! it takes a lot of work to so precisely build the texture of how it feels to be inside someone's head and it was done beautifully here with jade, whom i also loved. the structure, with the interspersed essays on the formal elements of the slasher, was really interesting to see side by side, and honestly i'd have even loved to see some more of them, to establish even more meta throughlines, because those are of course my favourite thing, to see even more of the outside world brought to life through the eyes of these learned patterns and learned expectations from different people. i think when i come back to the sequel a lot of thoughts about this book will also get a bit more sorted out, because there's been a lot of momentum built through this character, and that is always so interesting in horror.

ndiganci's review against another edition

2.5

dark tense slow-paced

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really wanted to love this book. I've heard such good things about Stephen Graham Jones I was excited to start reading. 

But. Through the first several, several pages, I HATED Jade. She was annoying and so hyper-focused on slashers I thought, there's no way I can read 400 pages of her as the main character. She DID get better the longer I read, but her obsession with slashers and with turning Letha Mondragon into The Final Girl still grated. And it took SO LONG for anything to really start happening. The first 70% of the book was a complete SLOG to get through. I have no problem DNF'ing books, but I did want to finish this one, see if Jade's slasher prep paid off. 

Then stuff started happening, and the story started to get interesting -- people are dying! Jade keeps finding all these dead bodies and she keeps pushing Letha to research final girls and her place in whatever is happening in Proofrock.

Then we get to the actual reveal of the killer, and though it was staring us in the face the whole time, I was supremely disappointed to find out the killer was the local ghost story, Stacey Graves, and NOT a human antagonist. This reveal took what could have been a real-life horror story and flipped it into a supernatural one, and I did NOT like it. I love supernatural horror, but generally you realize that's what it is right near the beginning and not 80% of the way through.

Not sure if I'll continue on to the next one, since I know this is a trilogy. Haven't ruled out Graham Jones yet - I'll give another one of his books a chance before deciding if I like him as an author or not.

sieger_aardweg's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional 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

briarcole's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

harpistvanessa's review against another edition

1.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I unfortunately hated this book. To read a book about slashers and have it be completely predictable and boring is disappointing. I also hated how the main character perceived and talked about the world around her and I wish the narrator could've been anyone else. I just didn't enjoy the writing style, the characters, or the plot. 

acidquill's review against another edition

4.5

dark tense medium-paced

abbystapleton's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense slow-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

__sbw__'s review against another edition

3.0

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This book just needed to condensethe first 200pgs down by like half. But the intensity of the slasher was SO good like the last 100pgs were four stars for sure (their were a couple very cheesy moments which it why it was not five stars but the gore was so good it made up for it)

waterbear0821's review against another edition

3.0

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I can’t say I enjoyed this book but it was interesting. It made me think, but Stephen Graham Jones’s style is just really challenging. And Jade is an unreliable narrator and not particularly likable or relatable through 90% of the book. I did want to know what was happening and what was going to happen, but it’s a slasher after all, and the payoff is bloody and bleak. I am a casual horror fan, and when I caught an obscure reference, it made it more fun to read, but I’m nowhere on the level to catch all these references. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment

ideateolive's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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