Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

8 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.

plantybooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

• 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

4.25

 Ahhhh 5 stars for really great writing. bumped down to 4.25 because the conclusion... was not entirely satisfying to me.
My Heart is a Chainsaw is indeed, as most have mentioned, a celebration of the Slasher/Horror film genre, as told by Jade, a 17 yr old who is singularly focused on them, after experiencing a traumatic life event.
The author toggles between Slasher 101 chapters and the current events of Jade's life in a small town of Proofrock, Idaho (and YES- I hope ProofRock is a nod to T. S Eliot's Prufrock....it sure seems to be) - In the Slasher 101's we are treated to all sorts of Slasher lore, key elements (like mask, weapons, back stories, revenge plots and final girls. In Jade's life chapters- we are reminded how hard it is to be the odd one in a small community, and we are see the actual... slasher is it? evolve and gradually devolve gloriously on the 4th of July with some confessions from Jade and just abject horror, we have dead animals, dead people, macabre misuse of construction tools, (and chainsaws as well)... It was so hard for me to decide if the murders were actually occurring or if Jade was just kind of having a psychotic episode, as both seemed equally possible by the end of the book. There was probably quite a bit of symbolism that just flew over my head, especially as I was using an audio book, and thus was not always 100% focused only on the narrative.
Because I don't like Slashers at all, I didn't really find this book funny- like many did. It seemed more to me a tragedy, but, for the right audience, I think it's both hilarious and tragic. And even though it's a slow build up, the writing is always on point.
Will I read book 2? yeah... I am entirely hooked. I'm rooting for Jade. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Blood, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Car accident

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

giannawarner's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Honestly kind of overhyped in my opinion. I wish we had more slasher and less whatever 90% of this book was. I don’t recommend for people who get bored easily and like quick reads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury

demon_catheter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Really fun read, a bit confusing at times but not in a bad way. Keeps you asking questions right along with Jade and really sucks you in. Also loved how fleshed out the setting was, I’ve never been to a town at a high elevation in Idaho but My Heart is a Chainsaw makes me feel like I have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

fatherprozac's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I loved the premise of this book going in but found the writing style difficult to enjoy--just not my cup of tea. It was also hard to feel any positive feelings while reading because everything just seems to go so unfairly wrong for Jade. This kept me from getting overly invested because it was just too painful to read about her continued misfortune at the hands of willful misunderstandings.

I also really did not appreciate Mr. Holmes being framed so endearingly--this is a man who withheld graduation from a student for missing homework due to her SUICIDE ATTEMPT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Cultural appropriation

albernikolauras's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

There are some very deciding aspects as to whether you would like this book or not - you can tolerate stupid characters, tolerate slow pace, and you know a tiny amount about slashers. If not, then you might want to stay away. Jade is a character that is dramatic, in your face, makes highly questionable decisions, and has no true grasp on reality. She drove me nuts, but once I started listening to the audiobook and just let myself be like "Jade is also just a 17 year old who is obsessed with something and has nothing else to hold onto," it became almost an enjoyable experience. It helps that the second half of this book is full-bore tense, bloody, and keeps you guessing. I didn't see through the red herrings and was honestly surprised how everything pulled together (and really liked the ending).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

sarah984's review

dark funny tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was so good, but also very hard to describe. It's probably 60% character study and 40% balls-to-the-wall gorefest slasher, but every element just builds on what came before in a way that wraps up so perfectly. The main character has a great voice, and her essays about slasher films sprinkled through the book were a highlight. I will be thinking about that ending for the rest of my life. Amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Incest, Rape, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Colonisation