Reviews tagging 'Classism'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

28 reviews

clrouse's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Cursing, Mental illness, Abortion, Abandonment, and Classism

shysheepys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

I love Jade Daniels and I want nothing but the best for her. 
I'm personally not a slasher fan, but I love horror and wrote a few college papers on slasher tropes and the theories behind slashers and why slashers are popular. I loved being able to read this without having to think to hard about the things Jade was talking about, because I already knew them too, and it all made sense. For someone that hadn't done research on slashers, though? I can't imagine them being able to read this easily. 

But anyway, I love Jade Daniels. I love this book. I can't wait to read the next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug use, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

apestforwrens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

SGJ is an incredible writer and the way he presents Jade really lets the reader ride along with her. I literally stayed up all night to finish this book because I could NOT put it down. It is a horror book, so there is a lot of genre-typical heavy content, but it did not feel gratuitous to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

bambooboy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

theoldestbennetsister's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

ptaradactyl's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I’m in the “what the heck happened, exactly?” camp of readers, which I never care for. Jade was a understandably unreliable narrator, but I couldn’t piece things together around her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism

val_so_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Classism

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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

4.0

This was an incredibly beautifully written book with a truly unique narrative device in that the main character's worldview revolves entirely around slasher films. I haven't decided upon my rating yet as I'm still letting my thoughts percolate a little bit, but I'm very much hovering around the 4.5-5/5 stars. The prose is choppy, confused and broken in the best and most atmospheric way, and my mind is a little bit blown about just how much there is to unpack here in terms of themes and subtext. I need processing time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Racism, Abandonment, and Classism

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.75

This is the 4th book I’ve read by Stephen Graham Jones (SGJ) and I think it’s my favourite so far.

While it was full of slasher references to movies I hadn’t seen, it didn’t make me feel lost for not having seen them, if anything it was a crash course in the genre. As someone who doesn’t watch horror movies, SGJ made me want to delve into the lore, and convinced me to watch Halloween!

Jade is my hero and I loved hearing her soliloquies on horror as she tried to piece together what was going on in Proofrock. There were so many red herrings that I couldn’t possibly guess what was going on, and was very surprised with how it ended on a cliffhanger. Luckily, the next book is coming out in a few months so I don’t have to wait that long.

Overall, this book was scary, slasher-y, colloquially academic, with an exploration of systemic racism and trauma that I keep ruminating on. Loved it and I can’t wait for more to come in this trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

CHECK CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
I sorta loved this. I will def be checking out more from this author.
I know some people didnt like Jade info-dumping about slashers (quite a few people said it was annoying or unnecessary), but as someone who is neurodivergent, I thought it was kind of nice to read, and I didn't think it detracted from the story or flow. 
There was a scene towards the end at the big town party that made me a little teary eyed and quite a few scenes throughout the book that really sucked me in where I didn't want to stop reading but I had to. 
Final girls are no joke and Letha plus

Jade and to an extent Shooting Glasses whom I'm actually not sure if he survived or not but I'm counting him anyways

were great finals girls who would not go down without some sort of fight.
I have mixed feelings on who the "slasher" was though, and that's why I don't think I could say this was a perfect book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism