My Heart Is a Chainsaw
Stephen Graham Jones
Gallery / Saga Press
SYNOPSIS:
“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”
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.
REVIEW:
I have mixed feelings about My Heart is a Chainsaw (a recent Bram Stoker Award-Winning Novel) by Stephen Graham Jones. The character Jade (and by extension, the book’s author) demonstrates an impressively comprehensive knowledge of the slasher movie genre, sometimes to a fault. In attempting to be so inclusive of every slasher sub-genre offering, I felt at times the narrative lagged. At first, Jade’s internal monologue feels like a post-modern examination of the field, which is certainly entertaining, but as a reader, I would have preferred a little less inclusivity for the sake of pacing. That the story is so inclusive of seemingly every iteration of the slasher through decades of cinema undermines the ending in a way that some may find surprising and refreshing while others may feel a bit cheated. Overall, the novel attempts to straddle the lines between horror and thriller without fully committing to either, challenging reader expectations.
Note: I received a free eGallery of My Heart is a Chainsaw in consideration of an unbiased review, but later purchased a copy of the book during a Kindle sale.
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