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Book Review: My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

cover art for My Heart Is A Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Gallery/Saga Press, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982137632

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook (  Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com  )

 

 

Jade Daniels is part Blackfeet, but she’s 100% a fan of slasher movies. Living with her divorced, alcoholic father and barely scraping through high school while working as a janitor, where her drug-dealing boss is sexually harassing her, she spends most of her time watching slasher flicks, from the obscure to the popular. Without anyone to talk to about her love of these movies, she puts her energy and knowledge about them, and especially about final girls, in her extra-credit history papers. She is certain there’s a slasher ready to start on her own community, Proofrock, located in rural Idaho, if only she can identify the final girl and educate her. There are plenty of places that would make perfect locations and reasons for revenge, like Camp Blood, an abandoned summer camp on the lake that was closed after mysterious deaths, and Terra Nova, the new, exclusive development that’s being built on the opposite side of the lake on land that until recently was part of a national forest.  There are even spooky urban legends.

 

 

Then Jade meets Letha Mondragon, daughter of the developer of Terra Nova. She thinks she’s met her final girl, and that finally the bloodshed is about to start.  Jade just has to figure out where and why, and educate Letha on the ins and outs of surviving to be the final girl. Jade is about to discover, though, that life doesn’t always fit a pre-defined narrative.

 

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a love letter to the slasher genre and a validation for those who grew up loving it. If you aren’t a fan of slasher films, the references to even obscure slasher films will go over your head. The structure of the book means the narrative is frequently interrupted by Jade’s extra-credit papers on slasher films, which will help fill in the blanks for those who aren’t familiar with the genre, but while these build background knowledge, they do slow the narrative down. The characters aren’t especially likable and it’s sometimes even confusing to tell them apart. Jones doesn’t even name some of them, although when he does choose to develop a character he does it thoroughly.

 

As the reader gets further into the book the pace picks up and the body count rises. There are absolutely gruesome moments as well as plenty of gore. I do not have a strong stomach for these, so it’s a testament to Jones’ writing that I read this from beginning to end almost nonstop. Readers who love slasher films and have a high tolerance for violence and gore will find a lot to like in this bloody valentine.

 

Contains: violence, blood, gore, mass murder, sexual harassment, implied child sexual abuse, attempted suicide

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

Posted on November 25, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Ghost Girl by Ally Malineko

cover art for Ghost Girl by Ally Malineko

Ghost Girl  by Ally Malineko

Katherine Tegen Books, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063044609

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com )

 

Knobb’s Ferry is a sleepy little town, just south of Sleepy Hollow, home to the tale “Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman”, is the kind of place tourist stop to fill up with a tank of gas or have a slice of pie on the way, and it’s also home to sixth grader Zee Puckett, who has just discovered she is gifted with the ability to see ghosts.

Zee is an outsider with a prickly personality, but she is also a born storyteller, and she especially loves making up and telling ghost stories, much to the delight of her peers. She lives with her older sister, Abby. Their father has been out of town for six months, looking for work, and they haven’t heard from him, so the girls are scraping by. While Abby works, Zee goes to school and hangs out at the cemetery with her friend Elijah. Elijah’s mother is ill, and his father was an athlete and is now a mechanic. Elijah is bright, but uninterested in sports or cars, a disappointment to his dad. During a field trip to the library, Zee sees her first ghost. She’s spotted by her frenemy, popular Nellie Blake, who announces on the bus home that Zee thinks she was talking to a ghost, earning Zee the nickname “Ghost Girl”.

In the meantime, the principal has disappeared, leading to the appointment of a new one, Principal Scratch. Principal Scratch encourages the students to put themselves first, and focus on their own desires, and Zee watches as the people around her start to see their hopes miraculously come true. After a visit from Principal Scratch, the girls’ father starts regularly calling Abby, Eli’s mother is suddenly healthy again, and Nellie finds her missing dog.  Everyone in town loves Principal Scratch, yet the townspeople are drained of energy. Only Zee can see that something is wrong, and she helps Eli and Nellie break Principal Scratch’s hold over them. Can the three of them stop Principal Scratch and break his hold over the town?

Early in the book Principal Scratch muses that sixth grade is a testing time, “a strange, in-between time… when we walk that delicate line between good and bad. Between bully and friend.”  Malineko portrays the growth of Zee and her friends in that liminal time, as they realize people, including each other, have more going on than they show to the world, and that that line is not as solid as it appears.

With vivid descriptions, terrifying hellhounds, gruesome moments, plenty of suspense, and a librarian in their corner, Malineko has created a dark story, told with compassion, about family, friendship, becoming comfortable with yourself, and standing together, that ends with real hope. Kids who enjoyed A Tale Dark and Grimm or the Shadow School books will find a lot to like here, and parts of the book reminded me of Tuck Everlasting. Knobb’s Ferry may not have a headless horseman, but it does have a ghost girl. Recommended for grades 4-7.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 15, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

cover art for The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

Harper, 2020

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062940957

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook  ( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

 

When a dark witch who is the master of a pelesit dies, the pelesit must go in search of a new master.

 

A pelesit is a Malaysian ghost in the shape of a grasshopper that has been bound to a master, created through dark magic and used to give the master power and protection. The master uses it for monetary gain, directing the pelesit to create trouble, so its victims will pay for solutions. It must feed regularly on the blood of its master and is bound to its master and the following generations. Without a binding, it causes chaos that can’t be controlled. This pelesit knows he needs to be controlled to keep darkness from completely taking him over.

 

When the pelesit finds the witch’s closest relatives, he discovers the witch’s daughter has shut herself off completely from the supernatural world. Her young daughter, Suraya, is another story. Unlike her grandmother, she makes the world a brighter place, and he binds her to him with three drops of blood in her sleep. Once the pelesit is bound to her, she changes: trouble seems to follow her, but nothing bad ever happens to her, and people start to avoid her. She names the pelesit Pink, and he becomes her only friend. But he is a dark spirit of chaos and it is a struggle for him to hold it back, especially when he perceives a threat to Suraya, and later when she does make her own friends, out of jealousy.

 

As time passes, struggle between Suraya’s brightness, widening world, and increasing independence and Pink’s darkness, and possessiveness can only lead to more and more terrible things, and also many, many Star Wars references. If insects and maggots bother you, be warned.

 

According to the author, this is a retelling of a Malaysian folktale, but she has very much made it her own. This story about family, friendship, grief, and the supernatural is compelling, unusual, occasionally funny, and sometimes disturbing, Seeing events from Pink’s point of view provides a more nuanced look than if we only witnessed events from the outside, and the author’s careful description of Malaysian ghosts, spirits, and exorcisms, contributes significantly to world-building. Highly recommended for grades 4-8.

 

Contains: child death, mutilation, insects and maggots, blood

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on November 12, 2021 by , Reply
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