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ndiganci 's review for:
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
by Stephen Graham Jones
dark
tense
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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.
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.
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.