Scan barcode
A review by perthalus
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
My Heart is a Chainsaw is a chainsaw that just can’t quite cut it. With a strong setup and a vivid image of the book’s location and its inhabitants, it’s main set back is it's characters, which despite being fairly strong, are hard to understand. I wish that was a positive in that it is complex, but it feels more misguided and confused.
It is not clear whether our main character Jade, is an unreliable narrator or not. She is written as a suicidal, delusional “horror chick”, but her backstory is filled with harmless high school pranks, and pretty much everyone but her father’s circle is welcoming to her. This makes the loner “nobody likes me” archetype unbelievable, and furthermore makes her delusional thoughts blurred, am I supposed to believe her or not?
At the end of the book I did like Jade and many of the other characters, but the confused intentions combined with the endless, sometimes unnecessary referencing of other slasher stories felt frustrating. I myself love slasher movies and knew pretty much every film mentioned in this book, but it didn’t do much for me and I can’t imagine it does anything to someone who doesn’t know them. It felt like the story was trying to be better than the slashers mentioned, whilst only being in their shadows. Also, Just Before Dawn sucks and it’s a crime it’s mentioned so many times in this book.
There was an attempt of elevating the slasher genre and subverting it, but it ultimately disappointed me, turning a grounded story into something that looked ridiculous in my head. There were many unanswered questions too, I’m confused why many different things happened in this book, but none of it is explained by the end. I’d read how the ending of this book was great and how it was surprising, but it was only surprising because it wasn’t set up well. It made the climax feel weightless, the story was no longer down to earth.
Somehow though, despite all of this, I was excited to read the book. I read chapters at a time and felt invested enough to get to the end because of how strong the town of Proofrock felt. It didn’t reach it’s potential, but the potential is what kept me reading it. The strongest point of this book is the atmosphere, how the characters look, the lake at night and the rampant gore described during is darker moments. It is satisfying to visualise, and though the characters didn’t fully connect, the world they were in did.
Besides that, I didn’t enjoy some the writers decisions here, such as including themes of sexual assault. With a book subverting the tropes of horror movies, you’d think the writer would avoid the problematic tropes of female sexual assault victims in horror stories. To me it’s a touchy subject that at this point should be left alone by male writers.
I truly hope that as this trilogy continues, Stephen Graham Jones improves on his characters and shortcomings to make an even stronger sequel. Hopefully there will be answers to the unsolved mysteries in this too, otherwise I will be quite disappointed.
It is not clear whether our main character Jade, is an unreliable narrator or not. She is written as a suicidal, delusional “horror chick”, but her backstory is filled with harmless high school pranks, and pretty much everyone but her father’s circle is welcoming to her. This makes the loner “nobody likes me” archetype unbelievable, and furthermore makes her delusional thoughts blurred, am I supposed to believe her or not?
At the end of the book I did like Jade and many of the other characters, but the confused intentions combined with the endless, sometimes unnecessary referencing of other slasher stories felt frustrating. I myself love slasher movies and knew pretty much every film mentioned in this book, but it didn’t do much for me and I can’t imagine it does anything to someone who doesn’t know them. It felt like the story was trying to be better than the slashers mentioned, whilst only being in their shadows. Also, Just Before Dawn sucks and it’s a crime it’s mentioned so many times in this book.
There was an attempt of elevating the slasher genre and subverting it, but it ultimately disappointed me, turning a grounded story into something that looked ridiculous in my head. There were many unanswered questions too, I’m confused why many different things happened in this book, but none of it is explained by the end. I’d read how the ending of this book was great and how it was surprising, but it was only surprising because it wasn’t set up well. It made the climax feel weightless, the story was no longer down to earth.
Somehow though, despite all of this, I was excited to read the book. I read chapters at a time and felt invested enough to get to the end because of how strong the town of Proofrock felt. It didn’t reach it’s potential, but the potential is what kept me reading it. The strongest point of this book is the atmosphere, how the characters look, the lake at night and the rampant gore described during is darker moments. It is satisfying to visualise, and though the characters didn’t fully connect, the world they were in did.
Besides that, I didn’t enjoy some the writers decisions here, such as including themes of sexual assault. With a book subverting the tropes of horror movies, you’d think the writer would avoid the problematic tropes of female sexual assault victims in horror stories. To me it’s a touchy subject that at this point should be left alone by male writers.
I truly hope that as this trilogy continues, Stephen Graham Jones improves on his characters and shortcomings to make an even stronger sequel. Hopefully there will be answers to the unsolved mysteries in this too, otherwise I will be quite disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Child abuse
Minor: Vomit and Pedophilia