My Heart Is a Chainsaw

Hardcover, 405 pages

English language

Published Aug. 31, 2021 by Gallery / Saga Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-9821-3763-2

(1 review)

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 …

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.

1 edition

dare reviewed My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (The Indian Lake Trilogy, #1)

Review of 'My Heart Is a Chainsaw' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Indulgent, at times brilliant but mostly just messy and unsatisfying story with an interesting protagonist that it then ends up wasting on a convoluted mess of a plot. Where I thought Chainsaw was going turned out to be more interesting than where it actually was going.

(Also: I found the endless references annoying. Yes, we've seen all the 80s slashers, yes, we all love them, but just referencing them is not paying homage to them, it's just ... name-dropping.)

Subjects

Fiction
Horror
Native American
Horror movies
Witches
Murder
Coming of Age
Final Girls
Horror movies
Idaho
American Indian