 Hello everybody, E here welcome back to 31 days of Halloween today We are reviewing my heart is a chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones I'm gonna put this up and we're gonna jump right into the review First off I like this book before I get started I'm gonna preface it with that I like this book but I am I Am tired of the dissection of the slasher genre Just off the top of my head. We have scream. We have behind the mask the rise of Leslie Vernon We have even Riley Seger's final girls Adam Cesar's the con season all of these books that acknowledged that the chat slasher genre exists and Trying to explain it trying to elevate it Trying to make something more than it actually is when I feel like it is fine. Just the way it is I wanted to put that up front before I start talking about the book Because I want you guys know that I was interested in this book. I did enjoy this book I'm only giving it three stars and I'll explain why But this is of course, this is only my opinion. I love Stephen Graham Jones I have five starred. I think everything that I have read from him mapping the interior is fantastic The only good Indians was fantastic The list goes on and on it mongrels absolutely fantastic this one is good it's not as fantastic as I don't know that as it could be But I think I am just tired of people trying to Figure out what makes slasher so appealing to everyone or making excuses for them Not that he does that in this book, but I'm just I don't know I've I've reached peak Slasher dissection and I'm kind of over it. So with all that up front just letting you know That's why I feel the way I feel about the book now the book is about Jade She's a young Native American woman who is in high school and she is absolutely obsessed with Slasher films in fact every single chapter ends with a not term paper with a with an essay Trying to talk her teacher mr. Holmes into why the slasher genre is important I For the most part for I would say probably the first 300 pages I was bored unlike I had ever been bored by anything that Stephen Grand Jones had written The book felt way too long The setups were way too not detailed But they just went on and on and on now the last hundred pages or so the last bit of the book Especially the last I think it's the last three chapters are very long When compared to the chapters in in the book The chapters range around 30 20 to 30 pages, but then it goes on to like 40 and 60 pages there at the end I became so bored that I looked up the audiobook which is on scribe If you want to check it out, there's a link down there in the doobly-doo I get a free month well my kids get a free month and you get a free month It's whatever if you haven't signed up for it before but if you already have the service It's on scribe so you can check it out there. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the performance In fact, I went back after I was done with the audiobook and re well not reread but read the the last Hundred pages just to make sure that it was as good as it was in the audiobook I know that's funny, but I'd been bored for so so long And I was like is it really as good that ending really as good as it is and I would agree that it is So up until that point I would have given the book about two stars It's not that nothing happened. It's just that nothing that interested me happened And I can only I'm only ever gonna be honest with you guys I'm a I'm a Stephen Graham Jones fanboy, but this one just didn't work for me for the most part now once all the action kicked in and we finally got to the Festival and all that stuff and once people started dying. I was I was very happy with that But oddly enough just I I never reviewed Adam says I was clown in the cornfield because it felt like even though There there is a big difference between His book and a lot of other slasher's I just felt like it's the same setup And that's one of the things that Jones goes over over a lot in this one is The setup like it has to be a certain thing Before we go any farther I'm I was struck by something while I read this It seems to me that the only difference between a thriller and a slasher is that the killer must be masked or Deformed or ugly in some way that are our normalized sense of beauty whether it be burned or A deformation or you know any of those things I'm thinking of course Jason. I'm thinking of course of Let's see a Freddy Krueger that kind of thing but whenever the thriller genre tries to do something like a Slasher it will anytime someone does a handsome or pretty character or anything like that and It's not considered a slasher Now we do have Of course the 90s where every slasher was hot you had scream I still know what you did last summer all that stuff But they were masked killers or their faces were hidden It seems to me that the only difference between a thriller and a slasher You know with multiple deaths and you know the spree spree killing or serial killing or any of that stuff Is that the slasher it to be a slasher they have to be ugly or masked and It struck me at how Obvious that was but I'd never thought of it before Which which really says something about a society's normalized beauty standards It's like if you are not up to those standards You are you're scary or you know you you put people off or whatever It was even talked about when Octavia Spencer did ma is like the only reason they picked her is because she wasn't naturally beautiful I think she's a beautiful woman But it just and it was funny because I was talking to people on Twitter about it today and my friend Nettie mentioned ma and mentioned Wolf Creek and I would not kid at this Wolf Creek the the killer in that one I would not consider him handsome, but she she brought that up and ma I love her for bringing up ma because I think Octavia Spencer is a beautiful woman um Now the I guess the one thing that was brought up a lot was But let's see here American American psycho. I don't consider that one a slasher film because it doesn't have The well spoilers for American psycho here. It doesn't have a body count If you haven't seen the film you're probably wondering what I'm talking about if you didn't click away from the spoiler But it's just one of those it's one of those things that made me think is it truly is that truly the only difference? And I'd like you guys discuss this down there in the doobly-doo is the only difference between a thriller and a slasher is that the killer is Not handsome or beautiful by society's Standards mostly unrealistic standards, but you get what I'm saying Because beauty is in the high of the beholder and all that stuff. It's subjective rada rada But anyways back back to the book that struck me when I was reading this because of all the stuff that Jones goes over in the book All the things that make a slasher and all the deviations and films that do different things He never mentioned that one and that struck me is interesting Because as I was reading it struck me that the only difference between these two things Someone mentioned psycho also Anthony Perkins That played of course Norman Bates, but let me give back to the book there. There's a lot of discussion about you know Elevated horror and now in fact, I even mentioned this in my last in my review of Queen Queen of Teeth by Haley Piper I don't like the idea that That horror has to be elevated to be good or to be popular or any of these things I think it you just have to do something different and something new and I think that's where this book failed I've seen this so much this dissection of the slasher genre that I just kept going over and over the same things Things that I had seen in other films. In fact, he references, you know Leslie Vernon he references scream he references all of these things and sadly I'm to the point with this where I want to call this book the ready-player one of horror Because much of this book relies on you knowing what he's talking about Um, it relies on your sense of nostalgia. It relies on you pointing at that and go, oh, I know that Oh, I know that the writing is leaps and bounds above Ernest Cline I will say that Jones's writing is off the charts as always But let's go to my my three things that I look for in every horror novel. That's the character pacing and dread Characters I only really like Jade only really cared to know about her story I didn't care about any of the side characters any of the red herrings. I didn't care about any of that The second would be pacing like I said, I was bored for the majority of the book And the dread it wasn't dread as much as it was anticipation of something Finally happening and coming right on the heels of the only good Indians which had something happening It seemed like every single page Every single page that book was interesting to fall back on this one where I was bored for such a extended period of time The ending didn't even even though it was so great It didn't really make up for what came before it So I'm gonna sit at three stars because the writing was fantastic as always with Jones I'm gonna read everything that that he writes and no matter how much I loved or hated this one. I didn't hate it I'm right in the middle. I'm kind of meh It was a good experience. I never wanted to stop reading But yeah, that's where I'm at on this one I certainly want you guys to answer the question that I posed here in this video and that I posed over on Twitter is the only line in the sand between a thriller and a Slasher is that it depends on the slasher Slasher's beauty either being hidden or them being, you know, ugly that that kind of thing Do you feel that I'm correct on that? I don't know. I really want to debate this down there in the doobly-doo But it had have you read my heart is a chainsaw if you have let me know your thoughts Whether or not you loved it hated it or like me you felt meh about it But if you felt any of those things Tell me why you felt those things so that we can have a discussion down there in the doobly-doo But until next time I have any you've been you this has been another Episode of 30 days of Halloween. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye