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arushireads 's review for:
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
by Stephen Graham Jones
So let’s talk about my entire fucking personality for a second, because the moment I opened My Heart Is a Chainsaw, it was like Stephen Graham Jones looked into my soul, saw every horror movie I ever watched alone in the dark, every time I felt like the outsider in my own life, and said: “Here you go, kitten. Let’s scream through it together.”
This book is not for the faint of heart—or the faint of brain. It’s layered, like trauma lasagna, with slasher movie references, raw emotional wounds, social commentary, and holy hell, so much heart. At the center of it all? Jade Daniels, your new problematic comfort girl. A teenage girl soaked in horror trivia and teenage bitterness, who’s basically been surviving life like it’s a never-ending B-movie. I love her. No—I am her. She’s fucked-up, sarcastic, obsessive, and brilliant. She’s trauma-wrapped-in-flannel, and I would fight God for her.
The plot, in short (and no spoilers): Jade’s living in this dusty, messed-up little town called Proofrock, where everyone’s either a rich outsider or poor and invisible. She’s convinced a slasher massacre is coming—like, literally believes it’s building. She starts mapping out the tropes, identifying the Final Girl (hint: it’s not her), and waiting for the carnage to begin. But the real horror isn’t just what’s coming… it’s what she’s already survived. The genius is how the slasher elements mirror her very real trauma—because yes, baby girl’s got scars deeper than any machete could leave.
Fav line? Oh, yall know it’s this one:
“Horror’s not a symptom, it’s a love letter.”
Bitch, when I read that I had to stop and just stare at the wall. That line? That was for us. For every girl who found comfort in bloodied VHS tapes and survival arcs instead of romcoms. For every time you felt safer with Jason Voorhees than with your own goddamn reality.
There’s this one scene—and you know the one—where Jade’s entire world collapses in a single moment of cold clarity. Like she’s been chasing ghosts, trying to make her life make sense in a slasher framework, and suddenly it hits her… none of it follows the script. It’s so much worse. The way the writing shifts, from gleeful horror nerd to broken little girl with no armor left? I screamed. I genuinely felt that in my bones.
And the ending? Let’s just say it doesn’t hold your hand. It doesn’t give you clean closure. But it gives you truth. And catharsis. And a whole lot of goddamn power. Because Final Girls? They don’t just survive. They evolve.
What makes My Heart Is a Chainsaw such a great read? Because it’s a horror novel that knows horror. It’s meta, yes, but also deeply raw and emotionally gutted. It’s about what it means to live when you’ve been chewed up by the world and expect nothing but carnage. It takes everything you love about slasher films—the blood, the masks, the tropes—and turns it into a story about agency, pain, and gritty goddamn survival.
It’s funny, brutal, chaotic, and somehow still tender. It made me laugh through my tears and whisper, “You’ve got this, babe” to Jade even when she was spiraling. Because let’s be honest—sometimes the girl with the chainsaw heart is the only one who knows how to save the town.
10/10—read it, bleed with it, worship it. Jade Daniels forever.
This book is not for the faint of heart—or the faint of brain. It’s layered, like trauma lasagna, with slasher movie references, raw emotional wounds, social commentary, and holy hell, so much heart. At the center of it all? Jade Daniels, your new problematic comfort girl. A teenage girl soaked in horror trivia and teenage bitterness, who’s basically been surviving life like it’s a never-ending B-movie. I love her. No—I am her. She’s fucked-up, sarcastic, obsessive, and brilliant. She’s trauma-wrapped-in-flannel, and I would fight God for her.
The plot, in short (and no spoilers): Jade’s living in this dusty, messed-up little town called Proofrock, where everyone’s either a rich outsider or poor and invisible. She’s convinced a slasher massacre is coming—like, literally believes it’s building. She starts mapping out the tropes, identifying the Final Girl (hint: it’s not her), and waiting for the carnage to begin. But the real horror isn’t just what’s coming… it’s what she’s already survived. The genius is how the slasher elements mirror her very real trauma—because yes, baby girl’s got scars deeper than any machete could leave.
Fav line? Oh, yall know it’s this one:
“Horror’s not a symptom, it’s a love letter.”
Bitch, when I read that I had to stop and just stare at the wall. That line? That was for us. For every girl who found comfort in bloodied VHS tapes and survival arcs instead of romcoms. For every time you felt safer with Jason Voorhees than with your own goddamn reality.
There’s this one scene—and you know the one—where Jade’s entire world collapses in a single moment of cold clarity. Like she’s been chasing ghosts, trying to make her life make sense in a slasher framework, and suddenly it hits her… none of it follows the script. It’s so much worse. The way the writing shifts, from gleeful horror nerd to broken little girl with no armor left? I screamed. I genuinely felt that in my bones.
And the ending? Let’s just say it doesn’t hold your hand. It doesn’t give you clean closure. But it gives you truth. And catharsis. And a whole lot of goddamn power. Because Final Girls? They don’t just survive. They evolve.
What makes My Heart Is a Chainsaw such a great read? Because it’s a horror novel that knows horror. It’s meta, yes, but also deeply raw and emotionally gutted. It’s about what it means to live when you’ve been chewed up by the world and expect nothing but carnage. It takes everything you love about slasher films—the blood, the masks, the tropes—and turns it into a story about agency, pain, and gritty goddamn survival.
It’s funny, brutal, chaotic, and somehow still tender. It made me laugh through my tears and whisper, “You’ve got this, babe” to Jade even when she was spiraling. Because let’s be honest—sometimes the girl with the chainsaw heart is the only one who knows how to save the town.
10/10—read it, bleed with it, worship it. Jade Daniels forever.