Book Review
Title: My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (The Lake Witch Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Rating: DNF
The opening to My Heart is a Chainsaw was interesting as we see a couple killed by something in Indian lake in Proofrock but being introduced to our protagonist, Jade Daniels. Jade is currently living with her drunk father and longing to get away from the town for good but Jade’s one comfort is horror movies especially slashers. Like myself she has watched and consumed nearly everything and she is very knowledgeable on the subject but no one takes her seriously about it much to her displeasure and at times it even makes people uncomfortable. Despite doing poorly at school she decides to turn it around with a big essay on horror movies and horror culture but Indian lake and the murders that happened in Camp Blood are going to feature in it at some point. Honestly, it was a gripping opening and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Jade’s obsession with slashers is something that makes other people uncomfortable but it seems to be the only part of herself and her identity that she is happy with. Jade is also obsessed with her own horror story happening in Proofrock but she also knows she doesn’t fit the image of a final girl nor does anyone she knows until Letha turns up at school, the daughter of one of the wealthy men developing Terra Nova. She also gets her hands on the phone belonging to Sven’s girlfriend from the opening and realises they are both dead. Here we are introduced to the legend of the Lake Witch and in the segments of Jade’s essay she spoke to someone who was around at the time the Lake Witch was supposedly seen. The story goes that an Indian girl was pulled out of the lake but many eyewitnesses claim she was moving but not alive and everyone has been terrified of the lake since and treats it with respect. This did have a creepy atmosphere but nothing was really happening yet and I wasn’t sure whether we were going to enter slasher territory or something more atmospheric but I was feeling a little bored and wanted the action from the opening to reappear.
At around 150 pages or 35% I am having to DNF this book because I was extremely bored. The premise of following a protagonist obsessed with slasher movies in a horror story of her own sounded fascination but Jade’s obsession with Letha got old really quickly especially since they didn’t really interact and when the creepy stuff started happening like the Dutch couple’s bodies washing up we didn’t even get to see them. Granted Jade did witness the recovery of one body from afar but when another body or potential murder happens we see from her outside perspective after the fact which made me so angry. While things might happen and get more interesting later on I honestly couldn’t invest myself into an almost 500 page novel where close to halfway nothing was happening. Putting it down was the best decision for me as I would normally DNF a book after 10% if I wasn’t enjoying it but I really wanted to like this book and it had so much potential. I will try Only the Good Indians and Mongrels which are also on my TBR but this might just be an author that I don’t vibe with.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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