My Heart Is a Chainsaw

By: Stephen Graham Jones

Narrated by: Cara Gee

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel

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 chilling novel that “will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course” (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, 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 New York Times bestselling 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.

©2021 Stephen Graham Jones. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Good, but..

This was a fairly fun book with all the nods to slasher movies I was familiar with and making me want to seek out others mentioned that i wasn't. However I get the feeling that S.G.J. may not know many real females and instead writes the girl he wishes existed when he was 15. Though this is true to varying degrees when most male authors write female roles. Also no one born after 1958 would find Bay of Blood to be an interesting film.

Great writing!

I love horror and to have a main character who knows more than I do about the genre is great. I learned a lot but, with all of the trivia I sometimes got lost on what’s happening in the story. The characters are well fleshed out and interesting, the narration is great and there are a few good twists. All in all well worth the 12+ hours.

For every 80's Horror fans nostalgic itch

Great story...keeps you wanting more. The horror references come from a place of love as does the story itself. Definitely worth the read.

Great leading character!

I loved this book…. until the ending. The story was gripping, the characters interesting, I was hooked.
The ending ruined it.
It’s as if the author couldn’t figure out how to tie up the story. It’s a shame as I was truly invested.
The narrator was amazing- she was incredible at bringing Jade to life.
I felt like everyone who was supposed to be there for Jade let her down and left her- the author most of all.

Wanted to like this more than I did.

I wanted to like this book but it was too frantic. It felt overly stretched and the ending was a bit of a letdown.

Fantastic!

Great story as always from Steven Graham Jones, and awesome narration by Cara Gee. Highly recommend for folks who love horror books, OR horror movies.

Interesting approach to horror

Interesting story, good main character and good performance. There's A LOT going on and can be hard to keep up. I'm a big horror fan and feel like you HAVE to be one to follow along. There are lots of characters but not enough story about any of them and it makes them feel insignificant, just there to get yhe main character from one place to the next. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to read more from this author.

Gripping story

I love horror movies and books. The book directly speaks to people like me. It references movies I’ve seen and makes you think about how silly they are and how there is definitely a template they follow.

Promising But not great

Very slow to start, one killing scene then a long time before anything else really happens. Ending was disappointing

Top tier contemporary horror

I was very close to giving this one 5 stars but it didn't quite hang together at the end for me. Overall I think that Stephen Graham Jones is one of the finest horror writers working today. He has a strong voice and unique vision that sets him apart from his peers.

Chainsaw takes the slasher genre and basically turns it inside out to provide a fresh perspective on an older genre. The plotting is tight and the characters are unique and engaging. I was with Jade step for step even at her worst moments and felt a real emotional investment in her journey, as odd and twisted as it was. She's a deeply damaged and beautiful soul and I felt for her from the beginning.

As I mentioned, the one place this book fell short for me is the very end. This is a dark and harrowing journey and I felt hungry for a catharsis at the end that I don't feel ever arrived. It's not bad like it's horrible, it just isn't satisfying and I don't think it lives up to all of the incredible pages that preceeded it.

Despite this flaw, the rest of the book is strong enough to make it one of the best modern horror novels I have read in a long time.