Book Review: My Heart is a Chainsaw

 

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a novel written by Stephen Graham Jones and published in 2021. The book is set in a lake town in Idaho called Proofrock, with a story centered around a character named Jade Daniels. Jade basically sees life through the lens of every horror movie ever created and compares all of her life experiences to her favorite horror movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th. 

Most of the book deals with the development of the character Jade. The book starts out with a mysterious murder on the lake. Then, about 2/3 of the novel is just about Jade's life, dealing with finishing High School, dealing with her abusive father, and avoiding most people. Toward the end of the book, it basically becomes a slasher/horror story as the plot circles back to the murder at the beginning of the book and reveals many more.

The hardcover version of the book is what I consider a moderately long book at just over 400 pages. My only criticism is that the story gets very slow in the middle. I think that the character of Jade could have been built up and developed the same amount in fewer pages. Had the climax of the book come a little sooner, I do not think that anything from the story would have been lost, or the quality of the book compromised. That said, once you do hit the climax of the story it is very good and very entertaining. It is definitely worth the time to read it.