This was a pretty perfect blend of slasher homage and emotional coming of age and I loved it! Jade is a wonderful protagonist - deeply flawed but ultimately incredibly powerful and the small town setting worked so well. I also really enjoyed all of the 80s slasher references and overall, found this to be a hugely satisfying read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

"My Heart Is a Chainsaw" by Stephen Graham Jones is a horror novel that delves into classic slasher cinema with a sharp and witty take on gentrification horror. The story follows Jade, a high-school student struggling with her past, her relationship with her father, and her outsider status in her rural lake town. As she faces the possibility of failing local history, she decides to write an epic essay series about the unifying theory of slasher films to save her high-school diploma.

I loved Stephen Graham Jones's 'The Only Good Indians' so I was excited to read 'My Heart is a Chainsaw'. I was a little worried that I wouldn't vibe with it because I'm not a fan of slasher horror films and haven't seen most of the classics in that subgenre, and I knew that this book was meant to play on their tropes/references. However, Jones does a brilliant job of contextualising everything that's happening because the main character is obsessed with slasher films and in between chapters we are shown the school essays that she is writing about them. I found the story to be tense, exciting and full of mystery and, of course, horror! Highly recommended.

Oh wowzers, this book man….

‘My Heart Is A Chainsaw’ is the latest, most heart wrenching (pun intended) novel from Stephen Graham Jones. It is out now from Titan Books in e-book and paperback formats, the wonderful team at Titan gifted me a review copy but, let’s be honest, for this horror fan, his books are an insta-buy.

In the opening chapter of what will be the Lake Witch trilogy, the town of Proofrock (great name, sounds as solid as its foundations and so reliable…)is built from the ground up, presenting the reader with a very clearly defined geographical and cultural location that the author then peoples with unforgettable characters.

The central protagonist , Jade Daniels (real name Jennifer) is a half Indian `17 year old living with her dad in an actual nightmare. One of the outcasts, the spurned, belonging to no set, or class or social group, she guides us through what will become one of the most momentous weekends in Proofrock’s history.

Her method of escapism is the slasher film-there is nothing she does not know in how to identify the slasher, the tricks they use, their USPs and also, their opposite number.

For if, as we quickly learn, the majority of slashers are the top of the food chain, interchangeable, privileged white men, we then lean into the notion of their nemesis, the David to their Goliath being a teenage girl. And this one stacks up the marginalised aspects of this trope by firstly not recognising the pivotal role she plays in the forthcoming massacre, but also being half Indian, raised by the wrong parent , and being super weird.

She intersperses her history of the town-and there is a hell of a lot which has occurred here, not least of which is what appears to be a cursed lake , an abandoned summer camp and a brand new gentrified section of the lakeside called Terra Nova.

Its unbelievably clever the way colonisation, appropriation and gentrification is presented with a wry and dark sense of humour that paradoxically intensifies the tragedy, the outrage and the heartbreak which comes thick and fast.

Jade, about to finish her senior year, is sidetracked by events beyond her control all precipitated by the arrival of who she believes to be a living, breathing final girl, the spectacularly named Letha Mondragon.

As she intersperses her narrative with essays to her history teacher, Mr Holmes, on the origins and cultural significance of the slasher movie, we readers are educated or have our basic understanding of the horror genre built upon to come to the same conclusion as Jade. But with an increasingly divided town between the haves and have nots, how can a trusty janitor with all the colours of a Crayola box in her hair convince a girl from the other side of Indian Lake that she is the only hope we have?

Will she be as receptive to Jade’s tutorials as we readers?

What will Jade’s legacy be?

Who will live to see the morning of July 5th?

What shape will the monster take in Proofrock?

I loved absolutely everything about this novel, mostly that it is the first of 3 planned novels where Jade Daniels features heavily as she is one of the most rounded out female narrators written by a man that I have come across in many years.

Stephen Graham Jones is clearly a man who listens, he doesn’t write the dialogue-both interior and exterior-that he thinks a 17 year old girl would use, he writes the truth (mother of 5 girls and woman myself, he absolutely nails the feelings of lack of worth, being the oddball, finding the strength to stand up for yourself and the momentary glimpses of feeling you are good enough that can carry you through on a sliver of hope).

She won’t graduate without these extra credits and her history teacher, he is someone you hope would shine a little light into the lives of your kids who are rapidly becoming aware of their social and cultural responsibilities and are looking for steadfast role models to emulate. With my 15 year old it is her history teacher who does not shy away from turning the rock over from the darkest parts of humanity to show the wriggling, anaemic bugs underneath. He strips things down to bare bones and is a massive reason why she is hopeful of becoming an archivist,

Jade is a rare trope (the teen no one listens to)that transcends and reimagines who she is meant to represent . When I read the title My Heart Is A Chainsaw I confess to not really understanding what it referred to. I think by the end, after I had been so horrified I actually covered my eyes to stop seeing the words, had my own heart torn by Jade’s journey and the immensity of the plot, my meagre offering is this.

If your heart, the organ which keeps your body going so that you can continue being you,the one that makes you so vulnerable to harm, is the target of the slasher, then the love that you engender in it, and the hope, is the starter motor that turns that vulnerability into a strength. What can be torn can also tear.

I cried.

I gasped.

I did not predict anything that would happen.

I was horrified.

And so , so much more.

It is difficult to express how to feel about a book which moves you so gracefully, that tells a story with such an underlying strength from a character who believes she has none.

It will take many more readings, I think, to absorb the full impact of the story, at the moment, after a first read, I have to confess to being destroyed and also being given a new faith.

Jade Daniels is my final girl….

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


My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a magnificently chaotic ode to the slasher genre, one that demonstrates an unparalleled knowledge of the genre, its logic & tropes. I saw quite a lot of reviews describing this as a slow burner, and sì, in some ways Stephen Graham Jones withholds a lot of the chaos & gore for the finale however, Jade’s antics and internal monologue are very much adrenaline-fueled, so much so that I struggled to keep with up with her. Jade's awareness of and excitement at being in a slasher gives the narrative a meta angle, one that results in a surprisingly playful tone, one that belies the gruesome nature of these killings.

Jade Daniels, a teenage girl of Blackfoot descent who lives in Proofrock, Idaho, is in her senior year of high school but has no real plans or aspirations besides obsessing over slashers. She’s the town’s resident loner goth, who lives with her dad, an abusive alcoholic. Jade is angry: at her ne'er-do-well dad, at his friend(s), for being creeps, at authority figures, who don’t really listen to her, at her mum, for bailing on her, and almost everyone & everything Proofrock-related. The only things keeping her going are slashers, and she dedicates her every waking moment to them, to the point that her recollections of their plots, characters, and tropes, become an inextricable part of who she is. Jade has no friends to speak of and is regarded by most of the townspeople as being a bit of a joke and a total ‘weirdo’. The only people who keep an eye out for her are her history teacher, Mr Holmes, and Sheriff Hardy. Jade spends most of her time lurking in the shadows, dying her hair emo colours, creeping around Indian Lake and Camp Blood, the town's local haunts.

When some magnates from out of town begin developing a piece of land across the lake, Jade senses a change and is proven correct when a body count begins…what’s more, the daughter of one of these uber-wealthy developers, would make the perfect final girl. Jade knows that a slasher cycle is about to begin. Rather than being alarmed by the realization that her reality is now that of a slasher, Jade is freaking excited. She has no plans to stop the slasher but wants to see the story unfold, so she does a lot more lurking about, hoping to figure out the identity of the slasher and witness the slasher cycle from up close. Her obsession with Letha does lead her to reach out to her, but her ‘you are a final girl’ prep talk doesn’t go down well. As I said, Jade’s exhilarated inner monologue is hard to keep up with, however, I was also so taken by her that I was more than happy to follow in her chaotic steps. Jade makes full use of her encyclopaedic knowledge of the slasher (sub)genre, and provides a myriad of references and asides that link what is happening in her town to existing slasher flicks, comparing the slasher’s modus operandi, speculating about their identity and their next victims. Meanwhile Mr Holmes, Sheriff Hardy, and Letha are quite concerned about her and despite the brutal deaths that are happening don’t believe Jade’s slasher theory. Things of course escalate, and Jade finds herself in the middle of a blood bath…

The plot is very much heavy on Jade’s internal, and often inchoate, musings and ramblings about slashers. Having spent most of her life venerating slashers, and hating everything and everyone around her, she’s positively thrilled by the prospect of a slasher going on a killing spree in Proofrock. Sure, her eagerness at other people’s violent and bloody deaths certainly raises a few questions, and people like Letha & co believe that her obsession with slashers and her conviction that a slasher is responsible for the deaths and freaky occurrences that are happening in Proofrock is just a deflection…while they are not wrong Jade isn’t ready to go there, throwing herself into her analysis of ‘her’ slasher.

There were so many elements that I loved in this novel. Despite my almost perpetual confusion at Jade’s references (I went through a horror movie phase aeons ago but have grown out of it since and never really delved into the slasher subgenre) and the breakneck speed of her internal monologue, I was utterly engrossed by her voice. Sure, she’s not what I would call a good or likeable person, however, her penchant for morbidity and her unrelenting slasher enthusiasm made for an endearingly offbeat character. She very much makes the novel. This is how you execute the Not Like Other Girls trope. Readers are made aware of Jade’s striving to be different: her botched hair-dyeing, her trying-hard-to-be-edgy-but-is-actually-just-grubby look, her commitment to playing the town’s goth girl, her sometimes willful and sometimes unintentional disregard of social niceties and norms…Jade really seems to make an effort to be perceived this way, to be seen as the slasher-obsessed girl and a 'weirdo'. The end result is that Jade is different, not better than others, just different. Now, for all her self-dramatizing we can also clearly see that Jade's edgy girl persona has become an inextricable aspect of who she is. Whether she became this way due to trauma, or whether her commitment to the role was such that she eventually became that person, it’s up to the readers’ interpretation. I for one read Jade as being a mix of those things. She grew up in a very unstable environment, with no support system to speak of, one of her parental figures is an abusive drunkard, the other was not only complicit in said abuse but eventually left Jade to fend for herself. Understandably, given her lack of control in her life, the violent logic that operates in slashers would appeal to her. However, similarly to Shirley Jackson’s alienated and alienating (anti)-heroines I wonder whether different circumstances would really have made a difference for Jade…
Anyway, her very presence in the story is fantastic for a number of reasons. She knows that her presence in these events is an ‘aberration’: not only does she know too much about slashers but people like her do not usually feature in these movies. She flits between wanting to see sh*t hit the fan and wanting the slasher to well…slash her. One way or another, she’s hyped for it and not quite the screaming and scared side character that usually gets killed off in these films. Also, Jade’s intensity and morbidity reminded me of Merricat and Wednesday Addams, and similarly to them, she finds that other people are put out by what they perceive to be her strange behaviour and demeanour. When Jade begins talking or thinking about slashers and revisiting local horror lore, she seems wholly unaware of other people and the world around her. Yet, the other characters react in a very realistic wtf is her deal way that results in many surprisingly funny scenes. Jade’s zealousness over slashers also brought to mind, I kid you not, Patrick Bateman, specifically that scene with the card (where his overreaction is so extreme that he begins to sweat) and his music monologues. The conversational tone of the narrative adds a level of immediacy to the story and really work in capturing Jade's voice.

As things get bloodier and bloodier we do see a shift in Jade, but I appreciated that her character development ultimately remains very subtle and she remains her slasher-obsessed self. Learning more about her past and her trauma does ‘contextualize’ some of her behaviours, however, but we can’t quite reason away her slasher-mania as being the inevitable result of that trauma. Her ambiguousness made her all the more interesting to read about. While we learn all about what she thinks of slashers—its precursors & incarnations, its hits and flops, its tropes—much about her remains inaccessible to us. I didn’t understand her most of the time, and incongruently enough that made me like her even more.

The writing and atmosphere in My Heart Is a Chainsaw super solid. The writing has this snappy, energetic quality to it that not only really amplifies Jade’s slasher-obsession but it really adds to the action & otherwise murder-y sequences. The prose was also very effective when it came to pacing, as Jones' rapid sentences really add fuel to the storyline. The atmosphere too is great. The narrative’s self-referential nature actually ends up adding to the story’s slasher ambience, as Jones' is able to not only pay homage to slashers through his storyline (through's jade's non-stop references and asides about slashers to the actual implementation of the genre's conventions) but he also makes this slasher his own, repeatedly subverting our expectations.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw was a riot. We have a gritty storyline, plenty of humour (from those ah-ah-that's-funny moments to humor that is more on the lines of that's-kind-of-f*cked-up-so-why-am-i-laughing), and a protagonist whose flabbergasting antics I was equal parts obsessed and appalled by. Jones' really captures Jade's loneliness and anger, the long-lasting consequences of abuse, the complex ways trauma manifests into one's behavior & personality...and of course, given the slasher nature of this book, Jade's story is deals heavily with revenge and violence...
I'm really looking forward to the next instalments...(am i the only one who read jade as queer-coded?)

ps the first time i tried reading this i wasn't feeling it and dnfed it early on so i can see why the book's overall ratings aren't sky high...still, if you are in the mood to read extensively about slashers or don't mind a morbid and chaotic af protagonist, i think you should definitely give this one a chance.

When it comes to horror, I am a slasher fan. Give me ghostface (my favourite slasher) over a haunted house any day. So, obviously, when I saw My Heart Is A Chainsaw, I knew it was something I needed to read. Slashers in a book? Horror? Yes please!

My Heart Is A Chainsaw is a complete homage to slasher movies in the best possible way. I love the main character of Jade; her personality, her knowledge on slashers. She seems like a person I would've loved to have known. I was rooting for her the entire length of the book and she was joyus to read. She is a bad-ass, tough, resilient and broken.

I must admit it did take me a while to get through this novel. I was expecting a new favourite book of all time in this book, and though it didn't quite meet my expectations (the writing was a bit too floral for me), it was close. This story requires a tough stomach and some patience. It is a little drawn out, but that doesn't take away massively from the book.

I have never read a book quite like this one, and I am so glad I now have. It is a love letter to slashers, and as a person who loves horror/slashers herself - T really appreciated it.

Thank you so much to the author, the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange of an honest review.

An absolute must-read for any horror fan, this is both a thrilling scary story in its own right and a love letter to the slasher sub-genre. I’m obsessed with our protagonist, Jade Daniels - she’s immediately endearing in her awkwardness and her passion. And Stephen Graham Jones is an author I know will scare me every time. If you like a sprinkle of meta in your horror, or you love slasher movies… this one is for you.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me.
I did enjoy elements of this Novel mainly the love that shines through for the Horror genre and the main character. It just fell flat fro me as it read like a stream of consciousness which made it a little confusing at times and slow. I did like the main character Jade she was fun to follow and being her head was an experience, the narrative was made up perfectly to fit this story and I get why the choice of telling the story this was made. It just didn't work for me.
I haven't read much Stephen Graham Jones, based off of this book I would potentially pick up more to give the author another chance. I was let down by this one it seemed to be a story I would love because I love the Horror genre in general and I really enjoyed the nods to classics and it does read like a love letter to the genre. Even through this was one of the things I really enjoyed in this novel this could easily be hard for a read, if you aren't a fan of Horror movies, or the genre then this would probably be quite confusing not knowing the references.
This was a well written novel, an interesting idea that on execution just didn't work for me.
I recommend this to Horror movie fan, people who like confusing and unreliable narratives and someone who would like to keep guessing until the very end.

A gritty and thrilling tale with enough horror to stop me from sleeping at night! Every page had a heartstopping moment.

REVIEW: My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian, with less than great parents and no friends. She is obsessed with slasher films. When people start getting killed in her town, she pulls on her knowledge and tries to predict exactly how the plot of this slasher will unfold.

This book took me a little while to get into, and I’m glad I had the audiobook as well as reading along physically. This book is slow, which I wasn’t expecting from a horror book, it had a slow build which did feel like it was dragging a bit, but then it had good pay off near the end. The book was really atmospheric, and you felt like you were in a small creepy town.

Jade was a great main character, and it was really interesting to see her thoughts, and thinking behind her actions, as well as her expansive knowledge about horror films. She doesn’t always make the best decisions and was sometimes not a good person but sometimes I love that about a character, and this was no exception.

I think I would have got more out of this if I was more into slasher films, I have not watched many and it is not a genre I feel strongly about. If you are a big fan of horror films, especially slashers, then I think you will love this novel.

My Heart is a Chainsaw is the latest release from Stephen Graham Jones and it brought me straight out of a reading funk. It’s a story that projected me back to the golden age of horror and opened up a new area in my brain – the area where all evil lurks, the knowledge about different slashers and killers coming to the fray. Jones should be protected, his novels are full of heartache, angst, and gore, I don’t think he can write a bad novel and I’m quite happy to die on that mountain.

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

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a love letter to the height of 80’s slashers flicks. With numerous references to Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th, we even have talk of the saw franchise. These movies are the life passion of the protagonist, Jade. She is a troubled character and takes comfort in the fictional bad guys rather than face the real-life bad guy she needs to run from. I connected with Jade and with Jones’s excellent prose he connected a bridge between us. Jade is strong but fragile and we are given clues to an event that happened on the lake that has forever changed her.

Jade is convinced that a slasher cycle is about to begin in her small Idaho town. The seventeen-year-old half-Indian girl tries to convince her history teacher, the town cop, an incomer, Letha Mondragon, who Jade is convinced will be the final girl…we all know the story behind final girls, right? Are the events all in Jade’s delusional mind or is there a killer that wants to spill blood? She must train Letha in the art of being a final girl…will she listen or treat Jade like everyone else…a social outcast? What Letha discovers instead will break your heart.

“My heart is a chainsaw, yes, but you’re the one who starts it.”

The prologue is the kick-started engine to a story that is happy to fuck you up, question your logic and sharpen that machete. Something chilling happens to a Scandinavian couple and you just know that starting pistol is going to come back to haunt everyone. The story is a slow burn, we get to witness Jade’s character flaws and strengths, how she views the world around her and how it views her, and finally her paper on Slasher 101. She fills in the gaps anyone might have on the Slasher genre and does so with passion and vigour.

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a mesmerising gorefest. Jones balancing on the precipice between tantalising storytelling and emotional trauma and has the balance perfect.

Unfortunately this book really was not for me.
I couldn't get passed the irritation I felt for the main character and narrator.
The childish and delusional outlook she had trying to turn anything and everything she saw into a horror movie.
I knew that there would obviously be horror/slasher movie references in this book given the synopsis but it was way too saturated with not just reference but whole essays on old horror movies. Poorly disguised in snippets of essays written by the main character. It just felt like a never ending ramble and talking purely to hear their own voice and opinions.
Also even from the very beginning the manner in which suicide and self harm was written really didn't sit right with me. Even Jade's character to me just seemed to be trying too hard to be "different" "unlike the other girls" just for the sake of it. So the portrayal of mental health here was also a turn of for me, unfortunately.

Which is a shame, considering that I enjoyed "The Only Good Indians" and "Final Girl Support Group" by the same author, and I think some important topics that could have been delved deeper into, were just completely overshadowed by repetitive movie facts.

Unfortunately I really struggled with this book and didn't enjoy it at all. I found it very confusing and not keen on how the author "writes" women if that makes sense.

Jade may be stuck in the small town of Proofrock but in her head she is constantly a character in one of her beloved slasher movies. While others see a regular high school or peaceful lake she sees murder victims and pools of blood. When a body is dredged up one day Jade may just get what she wished for.

I am a big film fan and this is a definite homage to the cinema. From Jaws to Scream there is a plethora of cinematic references. Jade is a huge movie buff and whilst also looking around ever corner for a killer or a dead body she is playing cult scenes in her head. She is also trying to get extra credit from her history teacher by writing a detailed essay on the history of..horror and final girls. As with these kind of films this book starts with a fright that lures you in for more. Because of this I had high hopes for what was to come however any potential scariness got bogged down with Jade's often rambling narration. It was almost like a stream of consciousness in that any tension got lost along the way as real life and the movies got muddled together. The climax also got lost in translation and I didn't really know what was real and what wasn't. Don't get me wrong I loved the constant mentions of films I knew and could recall instantly but I do feel this was to the detriment of the actual story. It had all the elements of a good horror but too much else got in the way.

Master of horror and suspense, Stephen Graham Jones, does what he does best with his latest homage to the slasher movie. But My Heart is a Chainsaw is much more than *just* a horror novel.

Jade Daniels is Proofrock’s resident outcast. Half–Blackfoot, obsessive slasher movie fan and temporary janitor at her high school, she sticks out like a sore thumb in the small rural Idaho town. At seventeen she’s already lived a rough life. Jade’s father is verbally abusive, an alcoholic and cares little for Jade. Kimmy, Jade’s mother settled in the town’s trailer park with her lover years earlier and still works at the local supermarket as a cashier.

Jade’s mental health hangs by a thread and it’s not hard to see why. Her obsessive love for horror movies and subsequent encyclopaedic knowledge of the genre become her escape from reality and her coping mechanism. Jade’s enthusiasm and extensive knowledge of horror movie villains, final girls, murder weapons and creepy masks are impressive and contagious. For Jade to finish high school, she needs to complete one last assignment for Mr Holmes, her history teacher – the documentation of the history of the slasher movie.

When the bodies of two tourists from the Netherlands are found at Indian Lake and Letha Mondragon, arrives in Proofrock, Jade is convinced that her town is about to turn into the setting for a slasher film and Letha is the final girl at its centre.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/10/25/my-heart-is-a-chainsaw-stephen-graham-jones/

My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a horror movie lovers dream, chock full of references from all of our favourite movies and some that I had to look up and are now on my watch list. At the beginning I was falling head over heels for the intricacy in which Stephen Graham Jones was weaving these references into the story, it was so seamlessly done that I thought it was going to be a slam dunk 5 star read. However, I quickly realized that all the reasons I had not enjoyed this author’s other books were still as prevalent with this one and I very quickly found the reading experience a slog.
SGJ has a very unusual way of writing, almost like you are not privy to the beginning of a story and you are dumped into it halfway through, like when a friend explains a situation and they’re laughing their head off, but you don’t see what’s funny and they say, ‘you had to be there.’ Well, that’s how I felt reading MHIAC, like I was on the periphery and I wasn’t getting to the emotional heart of the story. For all my love of the slasher references after a while this became the only thing holding the characters and story together, the plot itself is flimsy and the ending was an utter damp squib. I don’t believe that any book should take over two thirds to get going, I don’t mind a slow burn, but this was something else, this was an elongated smoky fizzle.
As with The Only Good Indians I thought the themes used to describe gentrification and the taking over of Indian land to be interesting, but I didn’t think they were as well realized as I would have liked. Jade as the main protagonist began to become unbearable by the end and what I loved about her encyclopaedia of slasher knowledge at the beginning quickly became a pain in the arse, but also made me wonder ‘Is this what I sound like to people when I’m spouting off horror movie trivia?’
I had to switch to listening to the audiobook half way through just to get through it, reading it was laborious in places and sucked the fun out of what could have been an amazing read. One thing I really did love were the 101 essays that Jade wrote to her history teacher at the end of each chapter, these were so engaging but not enough to hold up the whole story.

Fans of slasher films will recognise many of the rules that make up the genre. The Final Girl will win the day at the last moment when she realises her own strength. This character will be a bastion of good and innocence, but those around her will not. The rocker, goth, cheerleader, geek – all will be victims. What would you do if you recognise the signs that you may be in a slasher film becoming real? Use your knowledge to survive and save others, or be like Jade in Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw and just watch things as they unfold?

Jade lives in a remote mountain town and she does not look like getting out any time soon. Her hobby is classic slasher movies and when she starts to see signs of her own town being stalked by a killer her reaction is different than most. Rather than try and solve the issue, she decides to take a step back and observe. She is happy to help the new Final Girl that has arrived in town with some helpful tips on how to stop a killer, but as no one else will listen to the odd horror girl, why bother even trying?

Chainsaw is such an interesting take on the horror genre as the main character believes that she is in a slasher movie, but no one else believes her. Jade is such a complex character that the reader is not sure that you can trust her either. The book is at the same time a horror, but also a thriller and a phycological character study. Is Jade making it all up? Worse still, is she perpetuating the horror and forcing it to happen? You don’t know which direction the book is taking until the end.

The first two acts of the book are a slower boil and centre on Jade’s life unravelling as she sticks to her belief that the town is in danger. Like any good Cassandra she is disbelieved. The book takes a twist in the final act. Classic horror at its finest, taking elements of both slasher movies, but also your traditional horror of the likes of Herbert. The section out on the lake is both horrific and exhilarating.

To think of Chainsaw as a thrill fest would be untrue as it far more of a character study and exploration of a dead-end town. Jade is not the Final Girl, and she is more complex for that reason. She has had a damaged upbringing, and this is stunting her impending adult life. The book is more about learning about Jade than it is horror, that is until it turns.

Chainsaw is a book that refers to various classic horror and slasher films as it is Jade’s obsession. As a fan of the genre, I knew most of them and could follow the shorthand that Jade uses to explain situations. Those who have not seen Halloween through to Scream will lose some of the explanation needed to follow Jade’s thinking. Those who do understand will mine a richer seam in the book as Jones plays with the genre. Such as, why does a killer always get faster after they have injured their leg?

Jade is one of the most complex and interesting characters I have read in horror in recent years, so fans of character development will enjoy this book for that aspect. However, it is those with a strong knowledge of slasher and horror films from the late 70s to the late 90s who are best served. They get a novel that plays homage to that era, but also plays with the format. Come cold to this book and you may get a little lost, but the set pieces at the end will still pack a punch.

An awesome homage to slasher movies that manages to subvert the genre and bring something different! How do you survive when monsters come in many forms? Who deserves to be a Final Girl? Narrated by a troubled girl with a big heart, Jade is one of the best protagonists I’ve ever read. I think every person who has used horror movies to escape from life will relate to her. She believes the world must follow slasher rules because that’s the only way it makes sense. She seeks a Final Girl to mentor because she thinks she doesn’t fit the criteria. She’s torn between wanting to watch her town suffer and wanting to fight the monster. Yet beneath her snarky interactions with a sympathetic Sheriff and a supportive teacher, lies a layer of pain and loneliness that she hides from everyone.

The book is filled with slasher movies references in Jade’s inner monologues, interspersed with her Slasher 101 essays. I enjoyed it, especially surprises like an Agatha Christie mention and the argument for Jaws as a slasher movie. However, I can see why this would be confusing for readers who aren’t fans of slashers. I also thought the pacing lags in the middle though the last third makes up for it! It’s a chaotic, violent finale with poignant scenes of Jade reconciling her life with her fantasies. I felt sad that I had to leave her behind when the story ends. But just like her favourite movies, I hope there’s a sequel!

CW: sexual abuse, self-harm, suicide attempt, animal deaths, graphic violence

My Heart is a Chainsaw is so strange. Also, so sad. Stephen Graham Jones uses the language of the horror movie to animate and illustrate Jade's story. Jade, the lonely goth geek, who lives and breathes the horror movie. The deliberate loner with an unhappy family background. The misfit, half Indian and daughter of the town drunk.

But My Heart is more than that. It's also a portrait of Proofrock, a small town in the US midwest, a warm community facing up to wealthy outsiders who want things their own way.

Of the two, it is I think in the end Jade's story that is deeper and more interesting and indeed heartbreaking. Yet we can't understand her without understanding how she sees the world, and that means engaging with her horror film obsession and understanding its depths and roots.

Jade is, simply, obsessed with horror movies and the slasher genre in particular. Each section of this book is opened by an essays she's written for her English teacher, Mr Holmes, analysing and explaining the influences, history, themes and meaning of those films. Jade's knowledge is vast, with reference points far beyong the usual suspects, and she's bright enough to go far beyond the surface - yet this takes her into a kind of twilight world where these gory slash-fests seem to be given a degree of reality and internal coherence beyond that of mere fictional creations. When Jade speculates on the mechanics and workings of the films, she writes as though she is discussing a natural phenomena, something like natural history or anthropology, rather that the story and commerce-driven productions of filmmakers.

Conversely, as events in Proofrock begin to echo the genre, Jade feels free to speculate on what may come as though that internal logic also applies to the real world. She fixates in particular on one young woman as the putative "Final Girl". Letha Mondragon is an incomer to the town, daughter of one of the group of ultra-rich "Founders" who are building their own gated community across the lake. She's therefore an outsider, just as Jade is peripheral.

One of the things I found affecting about this story was the way in which, while Jade seems isolated (certainly by herself) she does have people on her side - Mr Holmes. The town Sheriff, even Letha. The tragedy of it is that when they try to help her they always seem to misstep and make things worse than before. Jade comes over as angry, vulnerable and opinionated. She's spiky, independent-minded and awkward. A fascinating personality with all sorts of deeps and quirks - and with some secrets of her own, which she curls round protectively. Her whole mythology of Horror, the slasher and the Final Girl may - consciously or not - be constructed to hide those secrets, or to protect her from them.

As you move through this book, you will have plenty of opportunity to wonder how far Jade is imposing her own logic on the town, and how far the typically horror-y elements deployed here have some objective reality to them. Stephen Graham Jones takes his time setting things up, allowing Jade to give us the tools, as it were, we will need to understand what's going on - but also marking out the deeper secrets and currents that are swirling about.

I won't spoil the story by hinting at how it all turns out, but I will say that I found the conclusion moving, shocking and, in the best possible way, genre transcending. I've seldom read a book where the conventions of a genre, the actual grammar and beats of an apparently familiar story, were used so well both to mislead and then to deliver a wrenching, stunning climax.

You have to read this book!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for a review.

Yeah. This one just didn’t hit right for me.
I think, after trying his previous book as well that it might be the author’s writing style that I don’t get along with. I wanted to love it because I love a good slasher movie/book but alas. Not for me.