#BookReview ‘My Heart Is A Chainsaw’ by Stephen Graham Jones

About the book…

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.

Oh wowzers, this book man….

‘My Heart Is A Chainsaw’ is the latest, most heart wrenching (pun intended) novel from Stephen Graham Jones. It is out now from Titan Books in e-book and paperback formats, the wonderful team at Titan gifted me a review copy but, let’s be honest, for this horror fan, his books are an insta buy.

In the opening chapter of what will be the Lake Witch trilogy, the town of Proofrock (great name, sounds as solid as its foundations and so reliable…)is built from the ground up, presenting the reader with a very clearly defined geographical and cultural location that the author then peoples with unforgettable characters.

The central protagonist , Jade Daniels (real name Jennifer) is a half Indian `17 year old living with her dad in an actual nightmare. One of the outcasts, the spurned, belonging to no set, or class or social group, she guides us through what will become one of the most momentous weekends in Proofrock’s history.

Her method of escapism is the slasher film-there is nothing she does not know in how to identify the slasher, the tricks they use, their USPs and also, their opposite number.

For if, as we quickly learn, the majority of slashers are the top of the food chain, interchangeable, privileged white men, we then lean into the notion of their nemesis, the David to their Goliath being a teenage girl. And this one stacks up the marginalised aspects of this trope by firstly not recognising the pivotal role she plays in the forthcoming massacre, but also being half Indian, raised by the wrong parent , and being super weird.

She intersperses her history of the town-and there is a hell of a lot which has occurred here, not least of which is what appears to be a cursed lake , an abandoned summer camp and a brand new gentrified section of the lakeside called Terra Nova.

Its unbelievably clever the way colonisation, appropriation and gentrification is presented with a wry and dark sense of humour that paradoxically intensifies the tragedy, the outrage and the heartbreak which comes thick and fast.

Jade, about to finish her senior year, is sidetracked by events beyond her control all precipitated by the arrival of who she believes to be a living, breathing final girl, the spectacularly named Letha Mondragon.

As she intersperses her narrative with essays to her history teacher, Mr Holmes, on the origins and cultural significance of the slasher movie, we readers are educated or have our basic understanding of the horror genre built upon to come to the same conclusion as Jade. But with an increasingly divided town between the haves and have nots, how can a trusty janitor with all the colours of  a Crayola box in her hair convince a girl from the other side of Indian Lake that she is the only hope we have?

Will she be as receptive to Jade’s tutorials as we readers?

What will Jade’s legacy be?

Who will live to see the morning of July 5th?

What shape will the monster take in Proofrock?

I loved absolutely everything about this novel, mostly that it is the first of 3 planned novels where Jade Daniels features heavily as she is one of the most rounded out female narrators written by a man that I have come across in many years.

Stephen Graham Jones is clearly a man who listens, he doesn’t write the dialogue-both interior and exterior-that he thinks a 17 year old girl would use, he writes the truth (mother of 5 girls and woman myself, he absolutely nails the feelings of lack of worth, being the oddball, finding the strength to stand up for yourself and the momentary glimpses of feeling you are good enough that can carry you through on a sliver of hope).

She won’t graduate without these extra credits  and her history teacher, he is someone you hope would shine a little light into the lives of your kids who are rapidly becoming aware of their social and cultural responsibilities and are looking for steadfast role models to emulate. With my 15 year old it is her history teacher who does not shy away from turning the rock over from the darkest parts of humanity to show the wriggling, anaemic bugs underneath. He strips things down to bare bones and is a massive reason why she is hopeful of becoming an archivist,

Jade is a rare trope (the teen no one listens to)that transcends and reimagines who she is meant to represent . When I read the title My Heart Is A Chainsaw I confess to not really understanding what it referred to. I think by the end, after I had been so horrified I actually covered my eyes to stop seeing the words, had my own heart torn by Jade’s journey and the immensity of the plot, my meagre offering is this.

If your heart, the organ which keeps your body going so that you can continue being you,the one that makes you so vulnerable to harm, is the target of the slasher, then the love that you engender in it, and the hope, is the starter motor that turns that vulnerability into a strength. What can be torn can also tear.

I cried.

I gasped.

I did not predict anything that would happen.

I was horrified.

And so , so much more.

It is difficult to express how to feel about a book which moves you so gracefully, that tells a story with such an underlying strength from a character who believes she has none.

It will take many more readings, I think, to absorb the full impact of the story, at the moment, after a first read, I have to confess to being destroyed and also being given a new faith.

Jade Daniels is my final girl….

• And, if you made it this far, a special plea, please go over and listen to Talk Scared Podcast where you can hear Stephen discuss all the wide and varying influences on his writing in ‘Chainsaw. It’s a beautiful thing.

About the author…

Stephen Graham Jones is the author of fifteen novels and six collections. He really likes werewolves and slashers.

Favorite novels change daily, but ‘Valis’ and ‘Love Medicine’ and ‘Lonesome Dove’ and ‘It’ and ‘The Things They Carried’ are all usually up there somewhere.

Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It’s a big change from the West Texas he grew up in. He’s married with a couple kids, and probably one too many trucks.

Links-http://www.stephengrahamjones.com/

Twitter @SGJ72 @TitanBooks @TalkScaredPod