Rawr Reader,
And so ends this delectably wonderful month of horror! I had to rush my previous review and this one in time for my Halloween photoshoot today, but I feel productive when I have too many things to juggle.
The synopsis for My Heart is a Chainsaw is provided by Goodreads:
In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for
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.
Reference:
Booksellers e-newsletters began promoting this several months ago and after loving The Only Good Indians I was ready to be first in line to get his new book.
Review:
Horror, you have overall been very good to me this year.
What happened?
Like I mentioned I was quick to get Jones' next novel as soon as it hit shelves. Even though I'm not a diehard slasher or horror fan (although he was making me one from TOGI), even though I could care less about the 80s (this isn't set in that decade but there's a plethora of references), I wanted to see how the author would spin a 80s inspired horror show. How did it end up this way then, that I feel like this was the wrong book for me? (AHS: 1984 is one of my favorite seasons so I was really hoping by the end of the book it would go down this route . . . but continue below.)
I'd like to address early on it kind of breaks my heart I couldn't get into this. Reading the Acknowledgments at the end Jones mentions how he had started this book long ago and had to put it in a For Later drawer because it just wasn't working at the time. I love hearing about books from authors that couldn't find life at first but then the author tried again and made a space for them on store shelves years later.
I think my clashes with MHIAC came down to Jade, our protagonist. Her dark, snarky, flippant humor was non-stop for 400 pages and it made 400 pages 800. There is an explanation for it, however does it balance out the belly of this novel by the end and put it to justice? In my eyes? No. I think I would've appreciated Jade as a side character. I've mentioned before in another review but as much as I adore Edna Mode, I can only appreciate her for a 5 minute scene. I would get annoyed after a while if there was a whole feature film devoted to her.
Then there's the root of this book, which is Jade's obsession: slasher films. Again, we get an explanation where the obsession starts and why—however then there is 400 pages of non-stop slasher films and characters being thrown at me (which to be fair went over my head since I haven't seen any of the OG slasher/horror films. Like even Jaws. I've never seen it so I sort of read Jade's secondhand account of the events as if I were reading the morning paper.) Jade's loner, outcast reputation keeps her ramblings and obsessions about slashers ongoing without much interactions, arguments, or conversations with the other characters.
It took me until the last 125 pages to get properly invested, which is the why to my low review. The first 275 pages should've been slashed by at least 75 pages. And it's a shame because Jones knows how to write these hauntingly vivid images that makes skin crawl and spines turn to jelly. Especially in the climax. It was one thing after another and I kept constantly yelling (no not literally) at the book: "This, Jones, this is why I love your books!" Showing the full rainbow; pulling together at the end all that came before it. He's such a fantastic plotter. I wasn't a fan of Jade but I still loved the action (when any of the action happened—there's a lot of walking around Proofrock that made living in a small town seem as boring as it sounds.)
I never heard of the Final Girl until AHS: 1984 and if you never heard of it either it's a trope in horror where there's, you guessed it, a final girl who survives the terrors of the killer by the end. Jade clings onto this trope with all she has, but not for herself, which is interesting, but for a new student in town: a Letha Mondragon, daughter to an uber rich media mongul, a founder for the new development across the town from Proofrock called Terra Nova. Jade is so certain Letha is this final girl, undertoned or maybe not so subtly permeated by her attraction towards her, and does her damnedest to prepare Letha for the Big Night which is not Halloween but July Fourth. (A nice twist. At least for me, I always picture horror taking place in fall.)
Jones does a fantastic job of bringing the less discussed atrocities of Native American communities and tying it into the horror even if there are supernatural elements present. While not as prevalent and at the forefront as TOGI, Jones in MHIAC writes the atrocities done to voiceless members of the community with an evocative—not flair but—aptitude. This is only my second novel by Jones but I can imagine he addresses indigenous life in modern times with the same respect the people in these communities deserve and spotlighting the attention they should receive throughout his other novels. And I honestly can't wait to check them out. While MHIAC in particular didn't work out for me, I don't doubt there are other books by him that will.
I give this book 2.5/5 stars.
Quote:
"Out in the open, good, good. . . You don't know if you can trust me yet. You've got to be careful, I might be the one doing all this. Shit, I should have thought of that."
". . . the slasher is a bloody coin flipping through the air, showing a smile for a flash, then a frown, and then another smile."
-Stephen Graham Jones, My Heart is a Chainsaw
My Goodreads:
Next to Read:
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
Spoilers:
Hand to the good book, I missed over half of the deaths that happened. Or the shaded deaths I prefer to say. Jones paints horror like a Caravaggio but the rest of the slower-paced narrative felt more Abstract Expressionism, at times ambiguous, at times unimpressive. Like the pacing I had a load of start-stop halts when reading this. And sometimes the deaths melted in between the lines and I missed them entirely. It didn't help there were a lot of names (in-world characters not just from films), of which we don't get a real sense of personality or characterization than simplified first encounter descriptions like on graduation day.
I liked how the elk corpses and the creepy lake girl Stacey Graves mystery tied together and got an explanation, however her appearance was so sudden at the end that it felt flat for me. Even her 20 page killer rampage felt wasted. (Spoiler for The Only Good Indians ahead ye be warned! : We have the Elk Head Woman in TOGI who is constantly there or frequently visited, so her finale is justified.) But Stacey Graves is a shadow at the best of times, so to have a theater-sized full picture of her thrown at me wasn't as effective as it could've been. And I couldn't tell, could she possess people? Jones hinted at, or at least phrased it regarding Theo, but I couldn't be sure to take that literally or metaphorically.
And regarding the biggest are they dead? are they alive?: Mr. Holmes for most of the novel and Letha at the end are the biggest holes. At the end of the day I know yes for the former, maybe not? for the latter, but their sudden disappearances from the novel left me confused and less satisfied.
Finally, how did Letha get free??
Until Next Time,
Nicole Ciel
P.S. I hope you enjoyed all the puns as much as I hated omitting "pun intended" every time I made one. ;)
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