Scan barcode
A review by amandamlyons
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
5.0
Jade is a girl who loves her slasher movies, not just any old horror, not werewolves and vampires, not ghost stories without structure and rules, just slashers. Slashers act with purpose, they're silent, deadly, and relentless. They can be relied on to arrive just when they're needed and provide more than enough chaos, and Jade knows that her little town, a little run-down lake town called Proofrock, is just dying to have one. See, Jade pays attention, she studies the rules, she knows her Slasher movies, and there are plenty of reasons her town has already got the makings of a slasher story all ready to go if she can just arrange the workings of her life to allow her to pay attention enough. Be ready enough to witness it. All she needs is a final girl and the ability to figure out which of the old stories of her town will pay off-ok, and also finishing out this whole high school thing, and getting her dad to leave her alone. If she can just do that, if she can just make it through long enough to have everything in her life somewhat in order no matter how much everyone else doesn't get it, Jade will have it made- Or so she thinks.
My Heart is a Chainsaw is easily one of my favorite books of the last five years. There's everything here, the joy of a lead character who's genuinely engaging and complex, equally complex and interesting secondary characters with their own narratives, a town with lots of detail and intrigue which we feel like we can slip right into, all the bloody gore slasher fans have been in love with since the seventies, and plot twists and turns that have the reader gleefully following Jade's narrative one minute and emotionally engaged and moved the next. I love nothing better than a book that pulls me in with its narrative and gives me an idea that I know where we're going, then surprises me by taking on a whole new direction or doing a 180 and going somewhere completely counter to my expectations. This book absolutely does everything it set out to do. I really hope people enjoy it as much as I did, especially my fellow horror nerd girls!
My Heart is a Chainsaw is easily one of my favorite books of the last five years. There's everything here, the joy of a lead character who's genuinely engaging and complex, equally complex and interesting secondary characters with their own narratives, a town with lots of detail and intrigue which we feel like we can slip right into, all the bloody gore slasher fans have been in love with since the seventies, and plot twists and turns that have the reader gleefully following Jade's narrative one minute and emotionally engaged and moved the next. I love nothing better than a book that pulls me in with its narrative and gives me an idea that I know where we're going, then surprises me by taking on a whole new direction or doing a 180 and going somewhere completely counter to my expectations. This book absolutely does everything it set out to do. I really hope people enjoy it as much as I did, especially my fellow horror nerd girls!