My Heart is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones

★★★★

When a small lakeside town experiences an influx of building developments and newcomers, local teen resident Jade sees this as the beginning of her own slasher film - something she’s been training for her whole life. Though troubled, Jade firmly believes that her town will soon be at the mercy of a murderer indiscriminately killing townspeople and vows to inform those around her of how to survive. Unfortunately most don’t believe her. 

This book ties itself to themes of the slasher genre; and where most slashers lack emotion behind the killing, this story starts with the character. Jade is deep and she uses horror movies and slasher films as a coping mechanism for her past trauma. 

That being said, is the book easy to read? At times no. Without an encyclopedic knowledge of slasher films, many of Jade’s references, asides, and (best of all) her English class essays would pass right over your head. Which is so unfortunate, because her commentary is horror GOLD. Some of her internal monologue ramblings are distracting when we need the story to move along. And it takes quite a while before the horror of the story takes off. 

Overall, enjoyed the read as this book artfully deals with heavy themes of trouble youth, gentrification, injustice, and abuse through the lens of a genre that is often never taken seriously.