Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

7 reviews

fionamclary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Whew, I kind of have to catch my breath after finishing this one. Wow. I have zero familiarity with the slasher genre, and still don't think I'd like to see one, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The third-act "bodydump" was a crazy, over-the-top, high-speed ride, the body horror was horrific, but more than anything I am full of glee for having gotten to be in Jade Daniels's head for 400-ish pages. She's absolutely unhinged, at once instantly easy to fall in love with and be repulsed by. I appreciated her constant slasher infodumps given my lack of background – she's not exactly autistic-coded, but her narration feels like listening to your autistic friend monologue about their special interest, and that's always fun. She's the epitome of morally gray and is utterly fascinating for it. Although at a certain point I was practically screaming, you are so clearly the real final girl! Despite the narration taking place firmly within her POV (except for the first chapter which is really just a prologue), we are not exactly privy to all her thoughts. This makes sense as the book goes on – there are things she isn't thinking about on purpose, things that are buried, and so even her own mind is not the open book it might be otherwise, to us or to herself. The Big Reveal is twofold, a double unveiling happening in the same scene: the unmasking of the killer, and the revelation of what Jade's been keeping buried in her memories all these years. The latter is quiet, heartbreaking, and brutal, its full impact only achieved by the guardedness of Jade's POV.

My Heart is a Chainsaw is not just a sophisticated slasher, however – it's also a quietly yet steadily raging manifesto about Indigenous generational trauma in white small towns, about what parents are supposed to do for their children and how they hurt and fail them instead, about the defiance of survival in a world that doesn't want you to exist. I hope to see this continue in the rest of the series.

There are some unanswered questions that I hope also get addressed in future books. What happened to Letha's mom? Why didn't Jade live with Kimmy after her parents split? Did

Rexall

make it? Was it

Stacey who killed the construction guys? A weapon doesn't seem to be her style given that we only see her killing with her hands

.

My only real criticism of the book is that Jade is so clearly queer, but it doesn't seem that SGJ was aware of this while writing her. Maybe this becomes apparent in later books, but like, no way is this girl with the dyed hair and the combat boots and the obvious barely-supressed crush on Letha straight.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Abandonment

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

The content involving child sexual assault does not occur on-page and is only described semi-graphically once, but CSA is mentioned/alluded to multiple times throughout the book. A survivor of CSA (

Jade

) experiences a flashback during the most graphic description (narration of the circumstances, no description of the assault itself). I would not recommend this book for someone dealing with active PTSD from sexual violence. A suicide attempt occurs on-page early on, but it is not entirely clear if the character's intention in the moment is to die.

ghostinyourcellar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

squisheebee_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely loved the narration of this book. Jade stole my heart & maybe it biased my rating.🤷🏽‍♀️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

falloutofmyactions's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, and Rape

blackcats_and_coffeecups's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment

akmay17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

unphilosophize's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Going into it, I knew this book probably wasn’t for me bc I’m not a big horror fan. 
I loved the prologue, but I didn’t really enjoy the main plot of the book. I think the parts where they talk about slashers is the strongest part of the book. 
If you don’t like slasher you’ll probably find this book fairly alienating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion