My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Thanks to NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Paranoid and claustrophobic, but in Jones’s compulsively readable style, making for a read both difficult and enjoyable, as horror should be.

Poor Jade just can’t catch a break. Even her moments of triumph set her up for further hardship and misunderstanding. She’s a great character, though. She fights hard for her agency in a town full of people that do nothing but squash it, some with ill intent, others with good intentions, but both insistent on ignoring not only her observations about a rapidly unraveling situation, but the most basic of requests to use her preferred name. I rooted for her even as I wanted to cover my face with my hands and look away, yell at her to let it go and look out for herself.

Excellent for fans (or folks who want to become fans) of the slasher genre. Made me realize that what I liked most about Jone’s other novel I recently read, The Only Good Indians, wasn’t the slasher nods but the ghost/spirit stalking. This book didn’t check as many of my boxes, but Jones absolutely nails the ending. Weeks later and I’m still thinking about those final lines.




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