My Heart Is a Chainsaw Audiobook By Stephen Graham Jones cover art

My Heart Is a Chainsaw

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw

By: Stephen Graham Jones
Narrated by: Cara Gee
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.49

Buy for $22.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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.
Horror Native American Supernatural United States Scary Paranormal Fiction Native American Folklore Indigenous America
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Featured Article: Stay Inside and Lock the Doors—These Slasher Audiobooks Bring the Thrills to You


From final girls to knife-wielding bogeymen, the tried-and-true tropes of a slasher always set the mood for a fun spooky night in. So if you're up for a bit of that spine-chilling, lock-your-doors and look-over-you-shoulder paranoia, don't miss this list of our favorite slasher horror audiobooks, which capture the genre’s signature thrills—and that fierce fight to survive to the sequel. Here are a few of our favorites.

What listeners say about My Heart Is a Chainsaw

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    739
  • 4 Stars
    374
  • 3 Stars
    182
  • 2 Stars
    82
  • 1 Stars
    66
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    852
  • 4 Stars
    254
  • 3 Stars
    94
  • 2 Stars
    36
  • 1 Stars
    23
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    645
  • 4 Stars
    286
  • 3 Stars
    170
  • 2 Stars
    90
  • 1 Stars
    68

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Promising But not great

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating to listen

this is my second audio by this author. I really find his stories intriguing. you have to have an interesting mind to produce the types of stories he writes. I am not a slasher movie person so while I watch horror movies they are not the Freddy Kruger genre. so I am amazed by the intricacies that make up this story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Horror fan must-read

I love Stephen Graham Jones’ work. I’ve read several of his books in the past year and if you enjoy scary stories he is a must-read. This book in particular is a love letter to the genre which was a lot of fun. The protagonist is engaging and unique and the performance was great fantastic. Highly recommend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story. Incredible Performance

Another great tale from SGJ, but Cara Gee's narration elevated it to one of my top 5 audible listens. She brought Jade to life in a way that I hadn't ever experienced with an audible book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pitch perfect

Easily the best audiobook version of a physical I’ve ever read, hope Reaper keeps it going in this direction.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not a bad listen.

I saw this story on IGN's list of top 10 horror novels, and then I saw it had gotten the Bram Stoker award. Seeing this may have given the story hype and given me high expectations. Expectations that the story didn't Eben come close to meeting. I felt like there was a lot of story left up in the air and I felt like cheated by the ending.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A love letter to horror movies and the comfort that they bring

I loved every second of this book. Cara Gee’s performance was spectacular. Jade is one of my favorite characters in recent memory. She’s given such gravity, such tenderness, and good humor. She carries her trauma like so many young women do, with the idiosyncratic mix of rage and aplomb that is so heartbreaking and endearing that you just wish you could jump into the story and tell her that she deserves love in her life. The story itself is clever and twisty and doesn’t quite stick the landing perfectly, but the wonderful character writing more than makes up for the faults. If you grew up with your own pain and sublimated it in the fantastic and horrifying, this book is for you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story telling

Not gonna lie, the narrator takes a little getting used to, but stick with it; it soon becomes the voice of the main character who is complex and beautiful and flawed. This story is fun and deep in ways you don’t expect in this genre-totally engaging. Highly recommended (and make sure you listen to the author’s acknowledgment at the end for insight into the inspiration for his characters and setting).

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great performance

Great writing, too. There’s a lot of gore, described viscerally, but you probably could anticipate that.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!