My Heart is a Chainsaw review

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones is a love letter to slashers and lost girls.
I can only review this book from my perspective which is through a white lens and as such I am sure that much of the nuance is lost on me. That said, I loved this book and highly recommend it.

In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for.
“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”
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.

This book and Jade Daniels hit me hard. As a horror fan that escaped into the genre to deal with abuse and issues growing up, I related to her in a way that I cannot full express in words. Lets just say, I’m planning a tattoo in her honor and in honor of horror. Its, like I said before, a love letter to the genre – well, the subgenre, Slashers.

My Heart is a Chainsaw doesn’t just express love for slasher movies and hit all the tropes, however. It subverts the tropes. It doesn’t do so to make the story more realistic either. It does it to empower Jade, Letha, and other characters. It takes the good shit in slasher movies and makes it better by saying those tropes that were punching down in the past? Fuck em. Give the broken girl with bad hair dye, too much eye liner, and all the issues a machete and let her take her rage out on the evil in the world culminating in the form of a killer. Love it

In many ways, Stephen Graham Jones becomes Mr. Holmes (the history teacher Jade writes Slasher 101 papers for to earn extra credit) for many of us. Those of us who are weirdo kids even as adults. Those of us who have created armor from horror movies or dissociated with the movies to escape whatever pains life has or is inflicting on us. He gives us a nod, lets us revel in our love of slashers, makes sure we know we are seen even if only a little bit because there’s people like us in these pages.

Jade’s Slasher 101

Throughout My Heart is a Chainsaw, Jade writes Slasher 101 to Mr. Holmes and shares her love for the films either through self narration or to help Letha become a badass. The book lists over 170 movies. I wanted to focus on 5 to get you started if you’re new to the genre or need a refresher course.

Jade’s journey into slashers began with the Giallo film, Bay of Blood – a great place for anyone to start. Friday the 13th, Scream, and A Nightmare on Elm Street are the basics that most have heard of and I highly recommend (with a reminder to check trigger warnings). Lastly is Kristy, the movie Jade recommends to her chosen Final Girl for this book as a training film.

You can find a full list of slashers and other movies on Letterboxd, currated by SpaghettiNoir.

Recommendations

My Heart is a Chainsaw is part of a trilogy – so definitely check out the sequels Don’t Fear the Reaper and Angel of Indian Lake, as well as other works by Stephen Graham Jones like The Only Good Indians and I Was a Teenage Slasher.

I HIGHLY recommend Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology that is full of amazing stories from Indigenous authors and has a opener by Stephen Graham Jones.

Lastly, check out Naomi @fromthemixedupdesk on tiktok, instagram, and Bindery. She is an Indigenous book content creator who is passionate about championing underrepresented voices in literature.