‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ is the latest from Stephen Graham Jones, the Blackfeet Native American author of experimental fiction, horror fiction, crime fiction, and science fiction.
Last year I read his ‘The Only Good Indians’ and just loved it. So I was very excited for this novel, especially on learning that its premise was focused on slasher films.
Jade Daniels is a half-Native American teenager living with her dad in Proofrock, a rapidly gentrifying rural lake town in Idaho. She is just one class away from graduating high school and in order to complete her local history course she is composing an epic essay on a unifying theory of slasher films. In it, she is incorporating local folklore and history including ‘Camp Blood’, an abandoned summer camp where a murderous rampage took place fifty years ago.
When Letha Mondragon arrives at school, Jade identifies her as the Final Girl, a key component in slasher films, and is convinced than an irreversible sequence of events has been set into motion.
As tourists go missing and tensions rise between her local community and the wealthy newcomers building mansions on the other side of Indian Lake, Jade is prepared for the killer to rise. She is convinced that it will all come to a head on the 4th July, when the town gathers on the water to celebrate. Of course, there are people in Jade’s life that question whether she is delusional or compensating for more mundane horrors.
This is the second novel that I have read recently that focuses upon the concept of the ‘Final Girl’, a term that I hadn’t encountered before, even if it makes a great deal of sense as a major trope of the slasher genre.
Following a shocking opening chapter this was more a slow burn character-led novel, which then switched gears for its breathtaking, extremely gory conclusion.
Like Jade’s brain the novel was packed with references to slasher films. I caught quite a few, though by no means all.
This was a great deal of fun, as only well written comic horror can be; though its more than ghost masks and big knives and also integrates themes such as alienation, racism, mental health, abuse, and other social issues including the town’s increasing economic divide.
I enjoyed the time I spent with Jade, in many ways a kindred spirit to my teenage self. I was amused by the description of her fascination with Letha Mondragon’s ‘incredible’ hair at their first meeting. Throughout I admired her wry, snarky views on life and her undeniable courage.
In his acknowledgments Stephen Graham Jones writes about the genesis of the novel and his own appreciation of the slasher genre.
Overall, I found ‘My Heart is a Chainsaw’ very much my kind of horror novel. It is well written, literary, and multilayered: addressing serious issues while continuing to honour the traditions of its genre. It is genuinely frightening yet with dark humour and self-awareness running through it.
Stephen Graham Jones has quickly become one of my ‘must read’ authors and I look forward to exploring his back catalogue as well as news of upcoming projects.
Certainly highly recommended for fans of intelligent horror.
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Top reviews from other countries
V. O'Regan
Very effective horror novel filled with references to slasher films
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 7 September 2021Verified Purchase
Kay
Waste of money
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 27 October 2021Verified Purchase
Joe Bathelt
For the slasher devotee
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 March 2022Verified Purchase
Kathryn J Fleet
Absolutely brilliant take on the Final Girl
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 February 2022Verified Purchase
PrideOfNottingham
Ripping yarn
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 24 January 2023Verified Purchase
