My Heart Is A chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Author: Stephen Graham Jones 

Title: My Heart Is A Chainsaw 

Publisher: Titan Books 

Published: 2021

Pages: 496

Genre: Horror / Mystery 

     Jade is one class away from graduating high school, but that's one class she keeps failing local history. Dragged down by her past, her father, and being an outsider, she's composing her epic essay series to save her high-school diploma. Jade's topic? The unifying theory of slasher films. In her rapidly gentrifying rural lake town, Jade sees the pattern in recent events that only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror cinema could have prepared her for. And with the arrival of the Final Girl, Letha Mondragon, she's convinced an irreversible sequence of events has been set into motion. As tourists start to go missing, and the tension grows between her community and the celebrity newcomers building their mansions on the other side of the Indian Lake, Jade prepares for the killer to rise. She dives deep into the town's history, the tragic deaths that occurred at camp years ago, the missing tourists no one is even sure to exist, and the murders starting to happen, searching for the answer.

     I was so happy to have found this author a little while ago, His book The Only Good Indians captivated me from start to finish. It's one of those books that rides the line between modern horror and the folk horror tales of old.  It was then on to a collection of his short stories called After the People Lights Go Off. Each one gave me insights and chills alike. And made it difficult to pick a favorite from within its pages.  This time I decided to delve back into another of his full-length works. And after reading the blurb for the ones I could find, My Hearts Is a Chainsaw was the one that grabbed me the most It seemed to encapsulate a great many of the things I had seen in the movies I watched growing up. And after all who doesn't want a little nostalgia in their latest read. A chance to revisit a little of something long gone now. After all Horror films are never quite as scary as when you are twelve years old wrapped up in a blanket on your family couch with the lights off.  

     I think for a lot of us we all have that one friend or are in fact that friend that has a deep love for the horror genre.  The one that will always pull some obscure seventies Italian film when people ask for suggestions. And if I'm being honest it's probably me in my friend group but in the world of My Heart Is A Chainsaw that comes in the form of Jade. She is that character that brings in echoes of the original scream film. She knows them inside and out and is more than happy to spread her passion far and wide. Even if not everyone is so happy to be hearing about it. She is also one of those scrappy fighters we love in such books even if she might not have gotten there just yet. Jade is someone who has already had to face so many trials by the time we get to matter her. And as with all those great heroes we come to love, she is someone who is still willing to put herself on the line for others. Not allowing her past to completely consume her and turn her into the very thing that will stalk her through the cause of this book. 

      With a supporting cast that to those familiar with the genre will bring a smile, it's sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Now I guess for some they may level the accusation that it's lazy writing to use similar stereotypes that have featured in many a slasher film. And I would like to fire back at that. Firstly it's part that's what brings us back to the genre time and time again. We like the familiarity of it. There's also a part that wants to see how this time they can be subverted. A curveball to send us spiraling into whole new directions. The second thing I have and why I find myself coming back to this author is that he always tweaks them to make them his own. I'm starting to realize I could pick up a Jones book not knowing the author and within a couple of pages just know it was one of his. This ensemble brought me so much joy and horror as I got to dig into their lives and see how the hand of fate was going to let their cards lay. 

     My Heart Is  A Chainsaw is one of those books where you can just feel how much the author not only has a deep and eternal love for the genre he has chosen. But also his knowledge of all the different sub-genres and quirks. I guess what I'm getting at is you could probably give him a half-baked plot summary and he could tell the title, director, and a whole slew of other information about it. Whilst the references are not in my opinion essential to being able to enjoy this book for me it only adds to my childlike enjoyment in this narrative. And in part that is what makes this book such a great addition to the horror genre. It truly stands up on its own. Writing its own, and very powerful legend of the final girl. It's what the best of them do, give us a tried and tested trope and make it feel new and refreshing time and again. It's like us trying to guess which of the tawdry list of wayward souls is going to turn out to be the killer and why have they decided everyone must die. It's this mystery that peeked the lover in me of crime fiction. I want to try and figure it out before our hero. 

     Once again jones has delivered to me a book that I simply could not put down. One that simultaneously filled me with fear, intrigue, and that same feeling I had as a little kid first watching horror films we rented from a tiny little whole-in-the-wall place that did ask how old you were. And as with the best of this genre, it also deals with some very challenging topics. The sort of things that might make you want to look away. But you can't, it shows us some of the real horrors in the world. Especially those faced by women and girls all around the world. And in that mixing is where we find ourselves in a book that has made it the best thing I have read this month.