Last year, I had the pleasure of reading The Only Good Indians as my first Stephen Graham Jones book. It was one of my only five-star reads of 2020, and also went on to win the author his second Bram Stoker award (the first being from Mapping the Interior in 2017). Since then, I’ve been slowly catching up on Jones’ bibliography, checking out Mongrels (2016), Sharks with Metal Teeth (2013), and an early release of his upcoming slasher novel, My Heart is a Chainsaw.
My Heart is a Chainsaw follows Jade Daniels; a half-Indian teenager known throughout the small Idaho town of Proofrock as the obnoxiously horror-obsessed troublemaker. Jade thinks about one thing, and one thing only, slasher films. She’s an expert in all things slasher, from the early giallo films of the ’70s to the made-for-TV lifetime flicks of the 2010’s. As a group of rich people purchase and start laying claim to land across the lake from Proofrock, mutilated bodies start to turn up, and Jade begins to notice the beginning signs that a slasher has come to take some kind of revenge upon the area. Jade sees everything from a slasher-expert’s point of view — who’s next, who will survive, and how to win. Will anyone believe Jade, and take advantage of her knowledge before the real bloodbath begins?
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Feed My Coffee AddictionStephen Graham Jones has such an incredible talent for describing natural environments, and the people within. I felt like I’ve lived in this town. I felt like I knew every single person that lived there. I felt like I could walk down to the lake bank on the Proofrock side and watch the lights flicker in the oversized eyesore houses on the other side. I felt the crisp water and the stiff cold breeze of the Idaho mountain air. I felt the frustration of the townsfolk watching their natural beauty be destroyed in front of them. After reading four books by Jones, I can safely say he successfully puts his readers in his books.
In many slasher films/stories, substance is missing. There isn’t always much emotion behind the tale. It’s always, slasher vs. final girl for whatever arbitrary reason, and we root for it. In My Heart is a Chainsaw, the character of Jade Daniels is deep. Her obsession with horror is a coping mechanism for her traumas and mental illness, and this book felt like a message to people like me (and a lot of other horror fans) that have coped in these ways, aren’t alone. It felt so personal and immediately got me invested in her character. General character building was excellent all around, making me truly care about the good people, and detest the bad ones. I think some of the exploration went a little too deep for some of the characters, especially to have them killed off sooner than later, but this worked well for the more established characters. The unfortunate reality of slashers is that most characters die, even the ones you like. When developed as well as Jones writes, some of the deaths can be particularly heartbreaking.
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There were so many layers to the story as well. There were underlying messages, warning us against the dangers of American colonization and gentrification. The risks of destruction and deforestation. The age-old tale that if you keep going where you don’t belong, you’re going to find something you don’t like. There were also emotional layers. The power of believing in yourself, that being hurt or broken doesn’t mean you’re dead, that your coping mechanisms don’t make you weak. Referring to this book as simply as slasher feels like an injustice. It was so much more than that.
I also really loved the informative value My Heart is a Chainsaw gave. Jade’s character was a walking encyclopedia of horror films, and every time she brought them up in conversation, I found myself picking up my phone and adding them to my watchlist. I found myself conversing along with her, adding to her lists, and coming up with answers when she questioned her own knowledge. The amount of horror research that went into this book blows me away. Jones did a fantastic job at really knowing his source material.
If you’re picking My Heart is a Chainsaw up, you better be ready for the gore. Specifically, the final act was blood-soaked chaos, a culmination of close-calls and investigations, topped off with a slaughter for the ages. The ending was a little more ambiguous than I would have liked, but you don’t always get clean-cut finality…plus, you have to leave room for the sequel, right?
My Heart is a Chainsaw will be available at all major book retailers on August 31st, 2021.
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