Book Review | My Heart Is A Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Jade Daniels is a half-Indigenous teenage outcast with a difficult home life who seeks refuge in slasher movies. When rich families come to her town of Proofrock and people start to die, she believes she’s living in a real-life horror movie. But is there a killer on the loose or is it just her imagination?

It’s almost October though, and horror is my religion.

My Heart Is A Chainsaw is an awesome homage to slasher movies that manages to subvert the genre and bring something different! How do you survive when monsters come in many forms? Who deserves to be the Final Girl?

Narrated by a troubled girl with a big heart, Jade is one of the best protagonists I’ve ever read. I think every person who has used horror movies to escape from life will be able to relate to her. She is torn between wanting to watch the town suffer and wanting to fight the monster. She believes the world must follow slasher rules because that’s the only way it makes sense. Viewing horror movies through her identity as a half-Indigenous girl adds to her feelings of otherness from the townspeople. As she asks in the book, “Has there ever even been an Indian in a slasher?”

In following the rules, Jade seeks a Final Girl to mentor because she doesn’t think she fits the criteria. When she meets a likely candidate in the form of a new rich girl in town, Letha Mondragon, she feels a strange pull towards her while also detesting the intrusion brought by Letha’s family and other affluent residents. There’s an ongoing theme of gentrification through the portrayal of the wealthy development of Terra Nova against the impoverished Proofrock. But Proofrock brims with history and urban legends, which Jade attempts to connect to her current situation.

What I found most interesting is that beneath Jade’s slasher dreams and snarky interactions with others, lies a layer of pain and loneliness. The sympathetic Sheriff Hardy and supportive History teacher, Mr Holmes, try to help her but her cultivated defensiveness keep them from fully understanding why she is the way she is. References from these movies fill Jade’s inner monologues, interspersed with her Slasher 101 essays. I enjoyed them, particularly surprises like an Agatha Christie mention and the argument for Jaws as a slasher movie.

There’s a dreamy, nonlinear quality to the narration that requires patience, especially in the middle. However, the last third of the book makes up for it! It’s a chaotic, violent finale with an impressive body count and a neat turn with the villain. There are also poignant scenes of Jade reconciling her life with her fantasies, and coming to terms with her trauma. It’s not the kind of ending I wish for her, but it feels right. I was sad to leave Jade behind when the book ends. But just like her favourite movies, I hope there’s a sequel.

My Heart Is A Chainsaw is a love letter to slasher movies, and to every horror lover who has ever felt like an outsider. A must-read!

CW: sexual abuse, self-harm, suicide attempt, animal deaths, graphic violence

I received a review copy from the publisher and Netgalley.

About the author: Stephen Graham Jones

Photo by Ali Kazal