If you act fast, you might still be able to get My Heart is a Chainsaw with the preorder incentive. Click the button below to navigate to my Titles with Preorder Incentives page to find out how to get the “Welcome to Proofrock Pack” while supplies last!
*P.S. I don’t get anything for that, I just think it’s a cool deal. If you want to buy using my affiliate link, I’ll be popping that in the normal spot at the bottom of the post – but note that will be just the book without the preorder incentive.*
Synopsis:
In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones.
“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”
Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.
Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.
Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold.
Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.
Edition:
E-ARC
Disclaimer:
I received an advance reader copy of My Heart is a Chainsaw from Net Galley and the publisher. This does not impact the contents of my review in any way. I am however extremely grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Trigger Warnings:
Hover for Trigger WarningsMy Thoughts:
Stephen Graham Jones has become one of those authors whose work is an auto-buy for me. Yes I read the ARC, and I knew about 30 pages in that I needed this book on my shelf. I was lucky enough (okay, I put in the legwork because I really want my Titles with Preorder Incentives page to be of value to readers) to find out about the “Welcome to Proofrock Pack.” I ordered it immediately. Even just a few pages in I knew this was gonna be a great book. And I wasn’t disappointed.
While The Only Good Indians nearly broke me with its relentless, heavy horror, My Heart is a Chainsaw invigorated me. But then it also nearly broke me. I don’t know folks – SGJ has such a remarkable talent for heavy horror. But in this story, he also balances all the heavy with the wonderful character he’s created in Jade. Honestly, I absolutely loved her. Jade is a remarkably sweet human being who has had a truly rough time of it. She’s an outcast. A social pariah. She’s the weird, snarky Slasher Girl. Yes, she is a a deeply troubled young woman. But she’s the type of person that I think any horror-junkie could see at least shades of themselves in. After all, under our sometimes “scary” exteriors, we’re pretty much all just regular, damaged people looking for a place where we fit in. Where we feel valued.
I can’t quote the book yet, as it hasn’t reached publication so technically nothing is final. But I will say that it brings to mind a quote from Stephen King’s The Shining (hello first and last time I’m likely to quote Stephen King):
“Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.”
This, I think, is why SGJ consistently succeeds in telling what could otherwise be just plain deeply traumatizing stories. He never loses sight of the extreme importance of the human element. His characters are at the heart of every story. Even the Big Bads have not been stripped of all ties to humanity. They are never just vengeful beasts – they are creatures born of trauma. They are in that way relatable – shaped by monstrous circumstances.
About the Author:
Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of twenty-five or thirty books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It’s a big change from the West Texas he grew up in. He’s married with a couple kids, and probably one too many trucks.
Rating:
I’ve never read anything quite like the work that Stephen Graham Jones consistently delivers. It’s quite frankly mind-blowing.
My Heart is a Chainsaw Book 1, The Indian Lake Trilogy By Stephen Graham Jones Gallery/Saga Press Expected Publication: August 31, 2021 ISBN: 9781982137632 Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, Audio 416 Pages Author's Website
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