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A review by perusinghannah
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This was... A bit of a mixed bag for me, if I'm being honest. On the one hand it very much is the classic Stephen Graham Jones writing style that I love in a horror novel. It constantly nudges you off center in a way that leaves you permanently wobbly, and paired with a main character who is exactly my kind of weird, this should have been a homerun. Especially when adding in the not-so picturesque small town as a backdrop, and some delightfully creepy local lore, I really did not see this going wrong for me.
But the pace, man. I just didn't get on with it at all. As much as I sank right into the whole vibe of it, there just wasn't much to focus on for the longest time besides a lot of slasher trivia. Me being a slasher girly myself, this also could've been top notch, but it didn't go deep enough into it to share anything I didn't already know, and then it's just a lot of rambling. Then we went from zero to sixty at the very end, and while it certainly helped me finish the book faster, it also made the ending feel sloppy and incohesive. And yet, I still love the author's writing style here, too, because he can really paint a fantastically gory picture when he leans into the horror hard.
Where does this leave me? Somewhere just right of the middle, and yet with every intention to continue the trilogy. I don't really know how to explain it, either.
But the pace, man. I just didn't get on with it at all. As much as I sank right into the whole vibe of it, there just wasn't much to focus on for the longest time besides a lot of slasher trivia. Me being a slasher girly myself, this also could've been top notch, but it didn't go deep enough into it to share anything I didn't already know, and then it's just a lot of rambling. Then we went from zero to sixty at the very end, and while it certainly helped me finish the book faster, it also made the ending feel sloppy and incohesive. And yet, I still love the author's writing style here, too, because he can really paint a fantastically gory picture when he leans into the horror hard.
Where does this leave me? Somewhere just right of the middle, and yet with every intention to continue the trilogy. I don't really know how to explain it, either.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse