Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

163 reviews

throwback682's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad

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

5.0

An excellent meta-slasher; a heartbreaking homage to the genre that keeps you guessing right along with the main character even though you both have the benefit of her encyclopedic knowledge of these films to guide you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Car accident, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

megsk22's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Rape, and Alcohol

jaithur's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

tifftastic87's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

 Content Warnings: suicide attempt, violence, gore, death, murder, off page SA of a minor, alcoholism, animal death

In Proofrock, Idaho, Jade is the resident horror girl. Escaping her life by spending hours watching, thinking and writing about slasher films. The summer of her senior year, as the land across the lake grows McMansions at a supernatural rate, Jade feels the start of a slasher beginning around her. 

I was worried in the beginning this was going to be a “not like other girls” story, and it kind of was but in the most tragic way. Jade doesn’t fit in, because she’s half Indian, because she likes horror, because her home life is rough and she doesn’t know how to make friends. She’s always watching from the outside until she meets Letha. The way she latched on to her was so easy to understand and tugged so hard at my heart. 

I don’t think this has as much to say about race or socio-economic class as some of his other works, but feels more about being an outsider and a survivor. About how important it is to feel like you have control over your own story, to control the narrative. Jade is written with such emotion that I cried for her, even when she couldn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest, Racism, and Sexual assault

tornado_ally's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

I have strong mixed feelings about this book. I love the author. I don't know why this book was so hard to get through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

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.

gretaslittlelibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

“Horror’s not a symptom, it’s a love affair” 

“‘But the eighties…they’re when the slasher was at its purest. Which is to say its dirtiest, its cheapest. Low production values, throwaway dialogue, nobody actors, recycled premises…but that’s what makes it the golden age, when Jason was born, Freddy was born…”

This book right here is a love letter to the slasher genre and an amazing slasher in itself. I see a lot of reviews saying that the slasher fact ramblings was too much and took away from the plot and that you have to be a horror nerd to understand any of it… and to that I say yes, that’s the point. It’s quite literally in the blurb multiple times that Jade is a “hardcore eighties horror fan… [and] has encyclopediac recall if every horror movie on the shelf but…Will it help her survive?”  So if that’s not what you’re wanting, don’t read this book! This book was written for the “weird” hardcore slasher fans, of which SGJ is. It has everything a good slasher franchise has; gore, tragic back stories, supernatural abilities in the slasher, throwaway dialogue (that isn’t really throwaway and ends up being part of the plot), and a wide open ending to make room for an unnecessary, but wanted, sequel. 

Though I loved the rambling slasher facts interwoven into the plot lines and dialogue, it was a bit confusing at times to understand whether or not what was happening was actually happening or was in Jade’s mind. Though it feels like that may have been intentional, as that’s how Jade’s mind was working in real time as she tries to piece this slasher together. The story being a tad confusing at times seems to be the overarching complaint I have in all SGJ books I’ve read so far. I’ve come to expect, and accept, a little confusion in his books since he rambles sometimes. 

Overall I really enjoyed this and found myself in Jade. I will be eating up the rest of the trilogy to see where this goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual assault

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

just_a_little_guy's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

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