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shomla_msawesomesaucey's Reviews (185)

No One Knows You're Here

Rachel Howzell Hall

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Pet

Akwaeke Emezi

4.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

My Heart Is a Chainsaw

Stephen Graham Jones

3.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I am not an own voices reviewer so please check out various Indigenous voices, especially Blackfeet, for a more comprehensive and honest review in terms of representation.

I gave this a 3 out of 5 stars.

At first, I did not connect or really like Jade as a character because of her antics and her confusing behavior. But as we get to know her as the story went along and the layers are pealed back when it comes to her, I came to really empathize and feel for her and became angry at the people who failed her, especially her mother.

Like how hard would it be for her mother to protect her and keep her safe from her father? Especially after she knew what happened.

The amount of depth Jade has as a character is amazing. Although, she does come off as being an unreliable narrator which added to my confusion when it came to the plot since I wasn’t sure what was actually happening and what was not.

The story tho, as in the slasher plot just went over the head. Although we were given a course in Slasher 101 via Jade’s essays to Mr. Holmes, all of it just went over my head. Honestly, I wasn’t really interested in it but if you’re into slashers or would like to be, this would be great. The pacing was also too slow for me like 80% is build up and the last 50 pages were where the action happens but I’ve read that is how a slasher is usually so it might just be me. But I will say, those last 50 pages got me sucked in and emotional. It’s amazing how much SGJ was saying and displaying throughout this novel especially when it comes to issues pertaining to the Indigenous community including the non-visibility of crimes against them. There’s no importance or outcry for them from the larger society and many of the crimes against Indigenous peoples go ignored.

Overall, if slashers are your thing, this might be a good book for you. But if it isn’t, you might want to read up on it before picking this up.