A review by rachelunabridged
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

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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