Review of My Heart Is a Chainsaw

What if your life suddenly turned into a slasher movie? For most of us, that idea is fodder for our most terrifying nightmares, but Jade Daniels is thrilled by the prospect in Stephen Graham Jones’s My Heart Is a Chainsaw. From the moment I read The Only Good Indians just over a year ago, I knew that Stephen Graham Jones was one of the horror writers to be watching right now. Reading his latest novel has only confirmed that assessment. My Heart Is a Chainsaw came out in August of 2021 and is a brilliant self-aware homage to the horror genre.

The rural Idaho town of Proofrock is ripe for a slasher story—with its myriad local legends, abandoned summer camp where a violent tragedy occurred, and brand new construction digging up who knows what in the previously untouched forest of the national park. For high school senior Jade Daniels—known to her peers and teachers as the weird “horror girl” and social outcast—this is the town’s only selling point. The only thing missing is a hero for the slasher story: the Final Girl. That is, until Letha Mondragon arrives. This new girl at school exudes Final Girl energy—she’s beautiful and morally pure, compassionate and friendly even to Jade. And with the new girl here, the slashing can finally start. As an expert in this genre, Jade takes it upon herself to try to give Letha a slasher crash-course, so that she can be as knowledgeable and genre-savvy as possible before the bloodletting begins. But is there really a vengeful killer on the loose, or are Jade’s “slasher goggles” just a coping mechanism for escaping from far more mundane horrors?

Interspersed throughout My Heart Is a Chainsaw are Jade’s academic essays on the slasher genre. Originally written as extra credit for the History class she is continually failing, these essays are then compiled into a “Slasher 101” packet as part of Jade’s attempt to educate Letha. In these essays, Jade essentially does for slashers what I attempt to do for the Gothic here on this blog: She illustrates common tropes and themes of the genre, providing examples of masked killers, iconic murder weapons, vengeful motivations, and Final Girls. She traces the evolution of the genre, noting the slasher’s origins in earlier Italian giallo films. She contemplates definitions of the genre, and which films do or do not fit into it. She even allows the definition to be fluid in order to explore how films like Jaws, which lack an antagonist that could be called a slasher in the conventional sense, utilize slasher genre tropes. What I’m saying is, if you like the kind of essays I write here, you’ll enjoy Jade’s interludes of genre meta-awareness. And whether or not you yourself are a big slasher fan, Jade’s essays are fun, educational, and thought-provoking. 

Having a genre-aware protagonist certainly changes the dynamics of the story—especially one who not just knows but loves the genre. Jade’s reactions are unusual for a character in a horror story: she’s thrilled, giddy even, at the first signs of violence and death. Instead of expressing fear and horror, Jade’s first impulse is to analyze the events around her and try to fit them into a slasher template, using her knowledge of the genre to predict who the killer might be and when they will strike next. Of course, it’s hard to maintain this detached objectivism as the bloodshed gets closer and Jade finds herself in real danger. And while Jade may be on the right track with some of her predictions, in other ways her slasher obsession clouds her judgment. Ultimately, no good slasher is going to be an exact copy of the ones that have come before—as with any genre, the best stories are going to be the ones that break the “rules,” defy expectations, and create something new. This is complicated further by the fact that Jade is an unreliable narrator. You can trust in her for slasher trivia, but don’t take Jade at her word when it comes to her own feelings, her past, or her motivations. 

If you love slashers, Final Girls, or meta genre commentary, don’t miss out on My Heart Is a Chainsaw. You can find a copy on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments! Also, feel free to share your favorite slasher film—I really need to catch up on that genre.