Stephen Graham Jones is one of the absolute best horror writers living today. He’s probably one of the best fiction writers period, but I don’t read enough not-horror to really make that claim. His casual-literary style is just unmatched for me. If you enjoyed The Only Good Indians or Mongrels just buy this. If you couldn’t get on board with his style and run on sentences there, you probably won’t like it here either.

While I truly loved those books (and Night of the Mannequins, and Mapping The Interior…), with this one SGJ has created one of my favorite fictional characters in Jade, a horror mega fan who finds herself in the middle of a real life slasher (or so she thinks). Some may not like the constant references to slasher movies here, but I was totally on board and even watched some of them to better get in the mood.

The book is a total love letter to the genre, Jade so self-aware of every possible trope that every possibility is brought up and examined, keeping you guessing and playing with expectations. Jade is more than her love of slasher movies though and I was very engaged spending 400 pages with her.

When it’s time for the gore, My Heart is a Chainsaw lives up to its name with a healthy amount of gruesome kills.