Article contributed by Jena Brown
In his latest book, My Heart is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones gives us a breathtaking coming-of-age story that will appeal to both die-hard horror fans and readers new to the genre.
Jade Daniels has lived in rural Proofrock, Idaho her entire life. The lake and the adjacent island are filled with legends, superstitions, and a tangled, tragic history. Just like Jade.
When a group of wealthy new residents start developing a ritzy community on the island, her town slowly starts changing. But outside of the obvious signs of gentrification, Jade is the only one who notices a definite pattern emerging. And it paints a bloody picture.
As summer crawls forward, Jade is convinced a killer is lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. Armed with an extensive knowledge of slasher films, Jade is sure she knows what’s coming. But no one will listen.
My Heart is a Chainsaw is a slow-burn horror story with profound bite. Outside of the initial blood sacrifice, the first half of the book is light on the gore. This may be surprising for fans, especially those new to Jones through the spectacular, The Only Good Indians, where blood and viscera flew early in the pages and built into a brutally beautiful finale. The end of My Heart is a Chainsaw is just as brutal and beautiful, but the journey we go on is far, far different.
Jade Daniels is the resident outcast. Mostly abandoned by her mother, she’s left to live with her abusive father. And she finds solace in the only place that makes sense to her: slasher films. Her collection will make die-hard horror fans envious, and the love Jones feels for the genre is woven throughout every single one of these details. The chapters are titled after the movies, and Jade references everything from tiny specifics only avid fans will pick up on to major pop culture elements that will be largely recognisable to everyone.
The result is this book reads as an homage to the slasher genre. But rather than write in a way that excludes new readers, Jones uses a clever storytelling device through Jade. We essentially get a ‘Horror 101’ breakdown, in Jade’s own words through extra credit term papers. Each paper takes us through these movies in a broad, yet thorough manner. We learn about the history of the slasher genre, character motive, plot devices, and standard tropes like the blood sacrifice and the final girl.
This is a lovely balance between the horror aficionado and someone who may be new to the genre. Fans will love the constant slasher references, and because Jade is an enthusiastic fan herself, she is willing to talk about her favourite films, devices, characters, and more to anyone that even half-listens. In our case, that means we not only get incredible insight into Jade herself, but we get a personal guide into the slasher world.
It may seem that by giving us what to expect, that the story would feel trite or cliché. Instead, Jones takes all of those tropes, devices, and expectations and shatters them. The papers guide us through what we should expect, and Jade does this too, seeing the clues and wrangling them to fit what she assumes is happening, or at least, what should happen. Except, Jade isn’t exactly the most reliable narrator. She turned to horror at a time in her life when she was at her lowest. She’s learned to use it as a shield, defending her heart, her inner self with the vehemence of a resurrected killer.
One of the best tricks in a slasher film is misdirection. Get the viewer to look the other way, so when the jump-scare happens, we never see it coming. Jones does this in the most spectacular fashion, lulling us into believing that Jade knows what’s coming. When she’s shocked, so are we. Jones weaves this story with a deft hand, showing us where to look but in such a subtle way that we forget we’re supposed to be on our toes, that a killer could jump out from anywhere. But Jones subverts even that expectation, making the killer second to the revelations that truly cut through us violently and deeply.
This book may be horror on the surface, but as Jones has pointed out in past interviews, we like to be scared so we remember that we’re alive. But living can be so hard sometimes. Through the horror lens, we get a devastating but gorgeous story about a girl trying so hard to not just live, not just survive, but heal and become whole.
Jade has experienced immense trauma, and while we don’t learn the extent of that trauma until the end, we feel it from the very beginning. It’s in her every movement, wrapped in every sentence. She’s wrapped her heart in barbed wire ensuring that anyone who dares to get close enough, will get cut. But she’s also desperate for connection, wanting to be seen, wanting to be told it’s okay, that she’s okay. Anyone who has experienced deep trauma will immediately recognise this heartbreaking duality in Jade. She talks horror, and hopes she’ll find someone who will talk horror back. But when they see through this defense, try to see the girl behind the blood-splattered cover, she shuts down, doing anything to get away including throwing herself out of moving boats and cars. Jade has such genuine defense mechanisms, such visceral and real responses both internally and externally, that she becomes real. It’s easy to imagine her fidgeting next to us, filling our ear with slasher facts while taking complete control of our hearts.
Horror isn’t about death. It isn’t about the gore, or the blood, or the violence. They’re stories about revenge and justice. They’re about retribution. And inherent within those themes is the underlying glimmer of hope. Slasher films are Jade’s safety, but they’re also her salvation. If her life is a slasher film come to life, then maybe, just maybe, she can finally get the justice she’s been denied her entire life. And even here, her trauma feels real. She doesn’t care what happens, only that something is happening. She doesn’t need to be the star, in fact, she can’t even see herself in that role. Her desperate need for justice overrides even her desire to survive. If that doesn’t absolutely tear your heart into pieces, the way she fervently clings to hope that justice will finally be served will.
Of course, Jones gives us plenty of gore and blood and supernatural violence towards the end. This may be an intimate coming-of-age story, but it’s still a slasher to the core. We watch plenty of people die in explosive and imaginative ways. But the most horrifying elements end up being far more human, and far more real. By the time we get there, we are so invested in Jade’s survival, that the book has moved well past the typical slasher trope. We don’t just hope she survives; we need her to survive. She’s more than a final girl, she’s our girl, and we would do anything for her.
My Heart is a Chainsaw is a powerful story that will appeal to a wide range of readers. Jones proves that a story can have both heart and sharp teeth. This book crawls under the skin, it bites, it clings. Within just a few pages, this book takes hold and slowly eviscerates in the best possible way. This is a story, a character, that will leave indelible scars, reminding the reader of Jade and her journey long after they close the cover.
Throughout it all, Jones takes our heart in his hands and squeezes, giving us a breathtakingly stunning and heartbreaking story brimming with unbridled hope. This is a story that hurts, but that pain serves to remind us of all the things horror should. That we’re alive, that there’s light in darkness, that not only do we deserve to survive––we deserve to live.
My Heart is a Chainsaw is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones.
“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”
Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.
Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” 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.
