My Heart Is a Chainsaw (1) (The Indian Lake Trilogy)
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR
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 novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author 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 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.
Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR
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 novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author 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 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.
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Readers say *My Heart Is a Chainsaw* features Stephen Graham Jones’s gripping storytelling and a compelling mystery that keeps many hooked until the e...
I went into this book with high expectations—"Best Horror Novel of the Year" expectations—and I feel like that set me up for disappointment.
The story is centered on the slasher-obsessed, suicidal, and self-labeled, "Jade" who I can only describe as purposely obnoxious and problematic to all around her. She forms her entire public persona as the "horror girl" and relishes in her outcast title. Normally, I would seriously dig a character like her but her inner slasher dialogues at every turn in this novel felt so overdone and drawn out that she became annoying among all her charms. This could be a "me" problem, due to my lack of intimate knowledge of the slasher genre - ultimately, it was overbearing and I skimmed most of it to reduce my time Googling every reference. Jade is broody, hilarious, complex, witty, troubled and smart. I believe I could have loved her in another life, if not for her obsessive fandom.
This book does not live up to its promises until the literal last 100 pages, where Jones showers us with all that we have been waiting for. I practically jumped out of my seat when it all started popping off. Honestly, I would have been so much more satisfied if that was all there was to read. The delicious gore, brutality, suspense, palpable fear and terror, witty humor, poetic comeuppance...I lived for that ending. However, the book leaves so much more to be desired in its entirety.
I would not have finished it if not for my OCD need to complete any task that I begin.
The story is centered on the slasher-obsessed, suicidal, and self-labeled, "Jade" who I can only describe as purposely obnoxious and problematic to all around her. She forms her entire public persona as the "horror girl" and relishes in her outcast title. Normally, I would seriously dig a character like her but her inner slasher dialogues at every turn in this novel felt so overdone and drawn out that she became annoying among all her charms. This could be a "me" problem, due to my lack of intimate knowledge of the slasher genre - ultimately, it was overbearing and I skimmed most of it to reduce my time Googling every reference. Jade is broody, hilarious, complex, witty, troubled and smart. I believe I could have loved her in another life, if not for her obsessive fandom.
This book does not live up to its promises until the literal last 100 pages, where Jones showers us with all that we have been waiting for. I practically jumped out of my seat when it all started popping off. Honestly, I would have been so much more satisfied if that was all there was to read. The delicious gore, brutality, suspense, palpable fear and terror, witty humor, poetic comeuppance...I lived for that ending. However, the book leaves so much more to be desired in its entirety.
I would not have finished it if not for my OCD need to complete any task that I begin.
Hard to get into - main character is tough to like, but it wraps up in such a way I couldn't help but root for Jade and ended up liking the book overall.
Stephen Graham Jones is really great at writing books you can’t put down. At his very best, he also crafts truly spooky stories rooted in real world terrors that take on a life of their own. This book was not his very best. While the mystery was fun to try to unravel, and the reveal a successful surprise, the book was too full of throw away characters and a rather one dimensional world to achieve much depth. It also wasn’t particularly scary. Finally, for me, the over-reliance on the narrator’s encyclopedic knowledge of slasher movies was distracting — there were too many references I was completely unfamiliar with that weren’t given enough context; it started to get boring. That said, I never wanted to put the book down and finished it in nearly one sitting. The story definitely pulled me in, was not completely devoid of the cultural criticism I like Jones best for, and had a satisfying ending.
My horror-loving heart breaks for Jade Daniels. Stephen Graham Jones created a fierce and resourceful heroine in Jade- a young woman abandoned, damaged, and deemed unreliable, yet undeniably resilient. Jade draws strength from her trauma-fueled psychopathology and coveys an often hilarious, survivalist brand of (not) Final Girl (-material) wisdom. Her chainsaw heart is the grinding core of this story.
Most “Chainsaw” detractors seem to fixate on the novel’s pacing. Admittedly, it does tend to meander a bit; though always enjoyable, Stephen Graham Jones lit a long, twisting, and, occasionally, sputtering narrative fuse. The eventual detonation, though - catastrophic horror satiation!
Ultimately, events proceed in a manner that provides Jade with narrative space to breathe and grow as our protagonist, and readers the ability to connect more fully with her. I’ll be moving the second book in the trilogy up on my “Want To Read” list, not sure how long I can wait to revisit Jade Daniels on Indian Lake.
Most “Chainsaw” detractors seem to fixate on the novel’s pacing. Admittedly, it does tend to meander a bit; though always enjoyable, Stephen Graham Jones lit a long, twisting, and, occasionally, sputtering narrative fuse. The eventual detonation, though - catastrophic horror satiation!
Ultimately, events proceed in a manner that provides Jade with narrative space to breathe and grow as our protagonist, and readers the ability to connect more fully with her. I’ll be moving the second book in the trilogy up on my “Want To Read” list, not sure how long I can wait to revisit Jade Daniels on Indian Lake.
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