Books from the Backlog #234

Posted October 6, 2022 by Carole in Books from the Backlog / 16 Comments

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.

If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link, link back to this post, and then spend some time visiting some of the other posts.

This week’s neglected book

Books from the Backlog #234My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Series: The Lake Witch Trilogy #1
Published by Gallery / Saga Press on August 31, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Supernatural
Pages: 416
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon | Audible | B&N | Kobo | Libro.fm

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel

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 chilling novel that “will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course” (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, 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 New York Times bestselling 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.

Why did I add My Heart Is a Chainsaw to my bookshelf?

I have been drawn to this book since I first laid eyes on it. I decided that October would be the perfect time to feature it since it is the spooky season. I believe that this book is more horror than anything else and I am ready for it. It looks like people either love it or don’t care for it at all based on the Goodreads reviews so I am hoping to fall into that first category. Hopefully, I can work this one into my reading schedule before the second book comes out in early 2023.

What are your thoughts? Have you read this book?  Would you recommend it?

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16 responses to “Books from the Backlog #234

  1. I wouldn’t be able to resist this one based off the Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th reference! Sounds like a creepy read.