Name: My Heart is a Chainsaw
Rating: 3.652892561983471 (121 reviews)
ISBN: 9781789098099

Stephen Graham Jones

My Heart is a Chainsaw

ashwitherow

Jonnie

When it's finally pin-drop silent, he leads off with, "The saying is actually 'Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'" 

"It's from George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher from the first part of the twentieth century. He also famously said that history is a pack of lies about events that never happened, told by people who weren't there."

In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that “will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course” (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones. “Some girls just don’t know how to die…” Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange. Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold. Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw

M. Sosotris

What a delight! I loved the quirky idiosyncratic main character and her encyclopedic knowledge of slasher films and their conventions. On top of that, there’s a really emotionally powerful story of trauma and redemption at the heart of this novel.

It keeps you thinking throughout, and you are never really sure what is really going on until the final moments. 

I will say, the author isn’t the kind to go on and on about the setting. He’s razor sharp and minimalist, keeping the focus on the character arc of Jade, the protagonist. Her growth is really satisfying. There are moments that are so coloured by her perspective and the quirky things that she is focusing on in that moment that you may feel a bit lost here and there, but everything does eventually come together and makes sense. You just have to trust that the author knows where he’s going.

I’m jumping right into the sequel.

In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones. “Some girls just don’t know how to die…” Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange. Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold. Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.

I will start by saying the Narrator, Jade is completely unreliable and that is what makes this book so scary. You don't know what's actually happening in real life or just in her slasher movie brain. The last 100 pages was packed with action and I still can't really discern what happened and didn't. 

Macy M

Sometimes you read a book and it reminds you of everything a book can do and be, and this was one of those books for me. 

I read it just after reading The Only Good Indians, which was fantastic and like nothing I've ever read before. Chainsaw was nothing like it and also one of the best books I've ever read. I am not a good enough writer to explain how good this novel is, but it is VERY GOOD. Where have Jones' books been all my life?

Sometimes you read a book and it reminds you of everything a book can do and be, and this was one of those books for me. 

I read it just after reading The Only Good Indians, which was fantastic and like nothing I've ever read before. Chainsaw was nothing like it and also one of the best books I've ever read. I am not a good enough writer to explain how good this novel is, but it is VERY GOOD. Where have Jones' books been all my life?

Patrick Book

kelsey

tw: mentions of sa, brief flashback leading up to sa

gonna be honest i was just left utterly confused at the end… hopefully the sequel makes up for that… but that last paragraph is very gutting emotionally

Loved the lake witch and felt Jade’s pain when she finally faced her truth but the horror knowledge stuff was so much and so constant, I had to flip through and take breaks, but I did finish it and will read the rest of the trilogy.

Patty Pforte

i really tried yall. i tried powering through but i just had to dnf with 120 pages left for my own sanity. presumably if you picked this up, you’re a fan of horror movies, yes? obviously it’s crucial to establish the main character’s slasher knowledge but i don’t think it was necessary to looney tunes style hit me over the head with a frying pan with them. we get it. we all love halloween and friday the 13th and scream etc etc etc. putting that aside, this story is also just… boring. i held on for far longer than i wanted to in the hopes that it would pick up eventually but i couldn’t slog through it any longer. if someone can come in here and tell me its worth it to pick up after page 262, please do!

neen

this app hates me bc i wrote out such a long review and it didn’t save it at all BRUHHH anyway this was a fun read with a quirky and captivating cast of characters! in particular, i liked letha and mr. holmes. jade was giving autistic vibes w her obsession with slashers, and at first i doubted her predictions and wrote them off like everyone else in proofrock, but was pleasantly surprised when her predictions started to come true. i think it’s important for stories w an mc like jade to affirm and empower them, so 👍 there are a few things i felt could have done w more exposition; why exactly was theo looking for letha and jade with a chainsaw?? and who exactly was behind which deaths? i also felt like certain phenomena — like stacey graves as well as hardy’s daughter — could have used a bit more backstory, tho maybe it’s just because it took me a whole three months to read bc libby kept SNATCHING IT FROM ME 

 I WAS READING!! and so i might have forgotten some things from the beginning and ig i cannot fault sgj for what may very well be my own human fallacy. i really loved the acknowledgements — reminded me why i continue to read them for every book i somehow manage to finish. not sure if i will read the sequel, but probably not because my brain is too small and i wasn’t DYING to know anything by the conclusion of this novel! 

lucia

this app hates me bc i wrote out such a long review and it didn’t save it at all BRUHHH anyway this was a fun read with a quirky and captivating cast of characters! in particular, i liked letha and mr. holmes. jade was giving autistic vibes w her obsession with slashers, and at first i doubted her predictions and wrote them off like everyone else in proofrock, but was pleasantly surprised when her predictions started to come true. i think it’s important for stories w an mc like jade to affirm and empower them, so 👍 there are a few things i felt could have done w more exposition; why exactly was theo looking for letha and jade with a chainsaw?? and who exactly was behind which deaths? i also felt like certain phenomena — like stacey graves as well as hardy’s daughter — could have used a bit more backstory, tho maybe it’s just because it took me a whole three months to read bc libby kept SNATCHING IT FROM ME WHILE I WAS READING!! and so i might have forgotten some things from the beginning and ig i cannot fault sgj for what may very well be my own human fallacy. i really loved the acknowledgements — reminded me why i continue to read them for every book i somehow manage to finish. not sure if i will read the sequel, but probably not because my brain is too small and i wasn’t DYING to know anything by the conclusion of this novel! 

I was reluctant to pick this up but it turned out to be very, very good - even if I do not enjoy slashers, as few of them as I have come up in contact with. Jade was a bit of a wacky POV but I found this to work in favour of the novel as reality often seemed to bend and made for an interesting experience. Putting trauma at the centre of the novel was also an excellent choice; I was a little worried about how it might be executed but SGJ dealt with the topic appropriately (my heart nearly broke for Jade).

My full length SGJ and really enjoyed it! He’s so funny and I loved Jade as a character, super excited for the next in the series.

John Vetter

Lara Engle

Stephen Graham Jones is one of the best authors writing horror today. There are twists, but the plot doesn't rely on them. There are mysteries that don't seem contrived. There is depth to his characters and their culture. Plus, there is true visceral horror that is not gratuitous. He uses gore, but there's also the deep honest horror of life and the cruelties people inflict on one another. I've only read two of his books, but both are in my favorites. I'll definitely read more.

Payge

This was a fun book to read! Jade is a relatable character and the references to horror films will have any horror enthusiast fully engaged in the story! The essays within the book take me back to high school and are a fun break in between reading! They serve as a breakdown, further expanding the main characters passion for the horror film industry and explaining where her theories are derived from.

Mae Erceg

I gotta give this one 3 stars because there is a lot I liked but there’s a lot I didn’t like. The plot was pretty good, I loved the backstory on our heroine Jade but man she frustrated me so much because of her obsession with the movies. If you’re NOT into slasher/horror/scary movies (in which I’m not at all and haven’t seen most of them), you won’t get a lot of the references the author uses in the story which is just exhausting.

I enjoyed the actual gore of the book and was happy when I finally got to it like 150+ pages in but damn did I hate that ending so much. It is meant to get you excited to read the sequel but there was absolutely no closure and ended with an anxiety inducing scene and what felt to me as absolutely no redemption for our well deserving MC.

I read the acknowledgements and do love that the author attempted to create a conversation on Native American women as making our MC native while telling the audience what native women actually struggle with (mental and emotional trauma to keep it abstract). I hated the writing style of the entire book though. Very sarcastic, very dark humor (but not really the good kind imo), and just overall very stuffy and over-detailed. I was exhausted about 50 pages in but overall glad I kept with it until the end. I CAN see people DNFing it tbh. 3 stars of 5 cause I hated the ending but would recommend for a time filling slasher read.

Boothby

Saturated with joy, pain, and blood. Narrated from Jade's jagged but witty inner monologue, the action skips along fast. Unskimmable, but why would you want to?

Charlie Jabens

Concept is cool, but it seemed to drag on. I was listening to the audio book (12 hours) and ended up not finishing it because it seemed to build forever.

A neurodivergent BIPOC horror geek finds out that they’re in the middle of an actual horror moment? 

Rabia Sitabi

A neurodivergent BIPOC horror geek finds out that they’re in the middle of an actual horror moment? 

Take my money.

Joey Baker

**Updated after completion**

So I finished it. And I'm still annoyed by the constant referencing to movies. Even if it's talking about lesser known slashers, it's still just fucking obnoxious. And the people who like it because of that, are just losers all the same trying to tout their inside knowledge of horror movies as if that will be the thing to finally get them a friend. Shit's annoying. You're beaten over the head with references to movies every other fucking sentence. It comes off as pathetic and desperate. 
With that aside, I was somewhat engrossed in the story itself. I found myself being able to enjoy it on some level. 
This guy has some decent prose half the time, the other half is just unnecessarily convoluted and unclear. Some scenes I just had to skim over until it made any fucking sense and I could tell what was happening again. 
The ending is so abrupt I thought there had to be at least one more page. 
Also, it's still not clear to me what actually happened? It turns out to be supernatural, and not Theo. So why was that guy shooting nails at the other guy? And explicitly going after him in the end? That's never explained, at all. This shit is just a confusing mess. I wish reddit would stop jerking this guy off.




I'm 12% into this novel, according to Kindle, and I'm so fucking annoyed that I have to start writing my review now. If this gets posted on accident, just know I'm not even done with it yet, just needed to get these thoughts down while fresh. 
So, let me start off with saying that I've heard about this author and this book before, and immediately knew it was something to approach with trepidation. If something has universal praise on the echo-chamber that is reddit, and it's modern horror especially, it's probably garbage. Even more unappealing is modern horror that is being described as meta-horror (and boy was I right on that, but we'll get to that in a sec, as it's the primary motivation for my anger). Anyway, the prologue in this novel wasn't bad. Seemed like a good setup for a summer slasher - pleasantly surprised. 
Then the next chapter you're introduced to the main character, and again, nothing to be all that annoyed with. That is until she's allowed to meet some random characters for her to sound off her fucking oh-so-meta horror...I mean, what the fuck is it even supposed to be? She has no point to what she's saying, and had no prompt to even bring it up. All it serves is to show "oh wow she's such a horror fan! Look she memorized Laurie Strode's name! Wow she's really committed the most basic facts of some of the most well-known horror movies to memory! She must be a mega giga ultra horror fan!" It's fucking stupid. She literally just rambles about horror movies and about final girls to the first group of strangers she encounters in the most autistic, directionless fucking way. 
This is the same shit that drove me crazy about Scream 5. Yes, Scream is supposed to be meta about horror movies, but that entry did it in the most obnoxious way where there's these zoomer high schoolers that are supposedly into horror, once again spouting off very basic fucking trivia facts, and coining the oh-so fucking pretentious term of "elevated horror" for the A24 movies. Which, most of those I like, but can't stand how people have to justify what makes them good horror movies as having some kind of deep social commentary. And I'm getting increasingly concerned that horror is becoming some kind of zoomer fashion trend, considering that I've seen that both Target and Wal-mart are carrying Halloween (the movie) shirts. Like I'm really worried that these obnoxious know-it-all "horror fan" characters from books like this and Scream 5 are a reality. I know in my heart that they are, and it's really depressing. Knowing that it's a fad for teenagers to talk about Halloween and Friday the 13th as if it's some underground counter-culture. 
And there was something familiar about the anger this book was stirring up in me, that I couldn't quite place until just a few moments ago. It's the same fucking shit as the blog posts in a headful of ghosts. Every few chapters in that book was a fake blog post (by who it turns out is the main character) who, once again, talks about the most obvious horror tropes like it's some obscure knowledge gifted to you by this super-awesome cool horror fan girl. And those blog posts are written in an ultra cringy "lol so random" style similar to the infamous "penquin of d00m" post. 
This book has a very similar style, where at the end of every chapter is a section of, or maybe separate, essay this stupid bitch wrote about horror tropes that have already been observed and talked about 30 years ago. But whereas Headful of Ghosts at least only had these blog posts every few chapters or so, it seems that Chainsaw punctuates every chapter with it. And the annoying "meta" horror shit isn't confined to just these essays, it permeates the entire book; any chance the character is given to have a dialogue, or a thought, it's about final girls or some shit. It isn't fucking unique to know the term "final girl", nor is it to remember the names of final girls from the like same seven horror movies any normie could reference. If you're actually trying to write a piece of horror fiction for horror fans, you could try to show them some fucking respect and not spoonfeed them summaries of films we've all seen hundreds of fucking times. 
I was fucking groomed to be a horror fan by my brother since I was fucking cognizant, and I don't go around proving how into horror I am by autistically making every conversation "DID YOU KNOW THAT FRIDAY THE 13TH WAS MADE TO IMITATE HALLOWEEN?!" or some such shit. If I ever encounter someone that actually talks like that, I'd punch them in the fucking stomach. Jesus christ what an insufferable way to compensate for your lack of personality. 
Anyway, I still have 88% of this book to go :). But in summary, for now: Fuck Scream 5, Fuck Paul Tremblay, Fuck Stephen Graham Jones, and most of all fuck the reddit nu-males that actually fall for this shit.

Alexa M

deciding between a 4 or a 4.5 

i  really  fucking liked this. i went in very wearily due to the polarizing reviews i've seen but i have to say, i definitely fall on the positive review side. Jade is such a fucking cool main character, i LOVED her narration of everything going on, and seeing everything through her eyes. i'm not gonna say i'm not confused, but i still had a really good time with this and cannot wait for the sequel! this is truly a love letter to the art of the slasher.

the writing style just wasn’t for me, though i still think the book had a cool premise.

fira

Adrian Victor

I actually gave this book 3.5 stars, but I rounded up for this rating system. 

This was my first read by Stephen Graham Jones, but not my last. His style is fantastic, a sort of stream-of-consciousness inner monologue that accomplishes much of what a first-person narration does, without dropping its third-person sense of distance (except in Jade’s “Slasher 101” segments, a bloody bootcamp in the form of papers turned in to her long-suffering history teacher). Jade’s perspective is intensely interesting, even as I self-consciously gritted my teeth at the painful nostalgia of an angry kid who loves dangerous, frightening things loudly, as if to prove that dangerous, frightening things can be loved. Jones expertly captures feeling, making Jade difficult to grapple with in the best way. 

This book is a slasher. Whether or not you enjoy it may depend on if you enjoy slasher stories in book form, or if you prefer the time-honored movie format. The ending perfectly imitates the slasher formula with a bloodbath and the feeling that a sequel is looming on the horizon (here, that horizon is 2023). But what I would have loved watching in movie form didn’t quite work for me in a book. It’s a bit brilliant, but also (for me) a little unsatisfying. Still, I’ll be picking book two up. Like Stu Macher said, “these days, baby, you gotta have a sequel.”

Ryan LaFerney

Stephen Graham Jones' My Heart is a Chainsaw is a beautiful love letter to horror movies, in a way that is perhaps more meta than the Scream franchise, with heart to boot.

Teenager Jade Daniels is in understandable rebellion. Her father is an abusive alcoholic (and we later learn, -trigger alert- that he molested her sexually at the age of eleven) who allows his inappropriate friends around her. Her mother is long gone. At school, she’s a credit short from graduating. Her physical presence at graduation is only a formality, and she is forced to write an extra-credit assignment for her history teacher to gain the credits she needs to pass.

Half-Indian and half-white, living in slowly gentrifying Proofrock, Idaho, is a sort of purgatory for her as she stands in limbo — too poor to be part of the crowd, too odd to be anything but herself. She self-harms to cope with her trauma. Her salvation is horror; she knows these movies backwards and forwards, and they provide a kind of holy bible for her that makes her life brighter and is what her history class essay is about. This essay is sprinkled throughout the novel.

The novel asks this question: What if your life suddenly turned into a slasher movie? For most of us, that idea is fodder for our most terrifying nightmares, but Jade Daniels is thrilled by the prospect in Stephen Graham Jones’s My Heart Is a Chainsaw. 

The thrill comes in the form of two Dutch tourists who have been murdered at Indian Lake near the site of a development that marks the steady encroachment of the rich people from across the lake into Jade's community. Because of this she realizes something nasty is afoot thanks to her genre experience. More people die — only rich ones. She’s on the scene graduation night at the lake, where popular rich girl Letha Moondragon stumbles on the desiccated corpse of another victim. Jade knows her tropes — she’s found her final girl. She knows she must offer a hand to Letha — and she must prepare herself for the final battle. Jade might not believe she’s final girl material, but she’s definitely up to the task of trying to prepare Letha for the final battle.

The novel tackles gentrification, addiction, and colonialism. Like the other novels from Stephen Graham Jones, it is well written and insightful. What makes My Heart Is a Chainsaw (The Lake Witch Trilogy, #1) fascinating is the fact that Jade is so attracted to horror, whereas most final girls, are not - and are literally fighting for their lives. Does Jade have an unhealthy obsession? Perhaps. As NPR notes: "My Heart is a Chainsaw is a deconstruction of slasher films that celebrates everything about them. However, its heart — the real cake under the shiny bloody frosting — is Jade, a girl whose trauma makes her a final girl dreaming of being behind a killer's mask."

Sally Salinas

When a scary narrative points toward supernatural antagonists that end up being merely natural (or even purely psychological) it's called female gothic, and if they end up actually being supernatural, it's called male gothic. This book is kind of an inversion of the gendered gothic and it's pretty well done. Here are some marginalia on why I think this counts as a gothic book (and I spell out the inversion at the end).

1. Setting in a Castle - Not exactly a castle, but vast a new McMansion development on old, hallowed (or tainted?) land

2. Atmosphere of Mystery and Suspense - This is a slasher novel, duh

3. Ancient Lore - town/settlement history of Christians vs lake witch + mass slayings at kids' summer camp

4. Omens, Portents, Visions - Jade sees signs of the Slasher Cycle in everything

5. Supernatural or Otherwise Inexplicable Events - piles of mysteriously-dead elk, dozens of murders

6. High, Overwrought Emotion - Jade is a high school girl with lots of trauma

8. Women Threatened by Powerful, Impulsive, Tyrannical Male -  There are many shades of this theme including Jade vs her dad, at-risk youth vs the system, minorities vs the system, Native Americans vs colonizers

9. Metonymy of Gloom and Horror - It's a horror novel about a girl obsessed with the horror genre who finds herself in the center of a series of gruesome murders, so.. yeah there is some of this going on once in a while

10. Vocabulary of the Gothic -this is probably the weakest gothic element in the book, but that's just because SGJ is great at writing realistic vernacular 

Here's the inversion - The entire book has you thinking all these murders and scary events are done by a real living person motivated by many things including the local supernatural lore stuff (like the murderer is paying homage to the concept of the lake witch or something), but it turns out to be a supernatural antagonist after all. So it's like an inverted male gothic! Rad!

Ashlyn

When a scary narrative points toward supernatural antagonists that end up being merely natural (or even purely psychological) it's called female gothic, and if they end up actually being supernatural, it's called male gothic. This book is kind of an inversion of the gendered gothic and it's pretty well done. Here are some marginalia on why I think this counts as a gothic book (and I spell out the inversion at the end).

Elements of the Gothic in MHiaC:

1. Setting in a Castle - Not exactly a castle, but vast a new McMansion development on old, hallowed (or tainted?) land

2. Atmosphere of Mystery and Suspense - This is a slasher novel, duh

3. Ancient Lore - town/settlement history of Christians vs lake witch + mass slayings at kids' summer camp

4. Omens, Portents, Visions - Jade sees signs of the Slasher Cycle in everything

5. Supernatural or Otherwise Inexplicable Events - piles of mysteriously-dead elk, dozens of murders

6. High, Overwrought Emotion - Jade is a high school girl with lots of trauma

7.  Women in Distress - see above

8. Women Threatened by Powerful, Impulsive, Tyrannical Male -  There are many shades of this theme including Jade vs her dad, at-risk youth vs the system, minorities vs the system, Native Americans vs colonizers

9. Metonymy of Gloom and Horror - It's a horror novel about a girl obsessed with the horror genre who finds herself in the center of a series of gruesome murders, so.. yeah there is some of this going on once in a while

10. Vocabulary of the Gothic -this is probably the weakest gothic element in the book, but that's just because SGJ is great at writing realistic vernacular 

Here's the inversion - The entire book has you thinking all these murders and scary events are done by a real living person motivated by many things including the local supernatural lore stuff (like the murderer is paying homage to the concept of the lake witch or something), but it turns out to be a supernatural antagonist after all. So it's like an inverted male gothic! Rad!

My Heart is a Chainsaw

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