My Heart is a Chainsaw, By Stephen Graham Jones ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Attempted Suicide, Dysfunctional Families, Gentrification, Horror, Incest, Mystery, Native American Culture, Self-harm, Substance Abuse, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: August 31st, 2021

416 Pages

Synopsis: 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 novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author 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 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. (Goodreads)

Jones’ The Only Good Indians was one of my favorite horror novels of 2020 so I’ve been eagerly looking forward to diving into My Heart is a Chainsaw, especially when I saw the cover and read the premise. After spending the better part of the week making my way through it, I have to be honest and say this is one of the toughest books I’ve had to rate and review since I began this blog seven years ago.

The first chapter was fantastic and immediately hooked me, but then for about 60% of the novel, the story stuttered along at an excruciatingly slow pace. In fact, it was so bad that at certain points I have to be honest and say I skimmed a few sections, which I hate doing because I feel like I’m cheating. The chapters are overly long third person expository-style and are only broken up by Jade’s first person “Slasher 101” papers she’s writing for extra credit for her history class. Thank goodness for these breaks from the otherwise tediousness of the story, because I think they’re the only thing that kept me going. You see,  seventeen-year-old, half-Indian, Jade, is a Slasher expert, and her papers are full of fun facts and Easter eggs about film franchises such as Scream, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and more. She’s also convinced that there’s some sort real life Slasher that’s materialized in her small Idaho town, and that it’s tied somehow to the new gentrified development across the lake. Jade is a tough character to get a hold of and I spent a good portion of the story flipping back and forth on how I felt about her. She’s the poster child of unreliable characters, yet there’s something uniquely vulnerable about her that makes you loathe to turn away without discovering  what lies underneath her puzzling and unlikable exterior. When the truth is finally revealed, it’s as horrifying as the overarching plot itself, and I found myself firmly in her corner rooting for her.

As slow as the the first half of the book is, shortly past the midway point the story takes off like a bat out of Hell and all the teasing little plot points and what seems like an endless amount of minutiae, come together in a bloody and gory crescendo of mayhem and carnage that left me breathlessly wondering who was the killer and who was going to be the Final Girl. If you asked me when I was halfway through the book what I thought, I would have replied that I was disappointed and was probably only going to give it 2.5 stars. But that all changed because of those last 160 or so pages. I still can’t say I loved My Heart is a Chainsaw, but I can say that Stephen Graham Jones being called “the Jordan Peele of horror literature” is pretty on point. I finished it three days ago and it’s still interfering with my sleep. If you decide to give this a try, my advice would be to expect the slow burn of all slow burns. But if you have the time and patience the payoff is worth it…mostly.

The Roanoke Girls ~ By Amy Engel – 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Family Relationships, Incest, Mystery, Sexual Abuse

Thanks to NetGalley and Crown for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 7th, 2017

276 Pages

Synopsis: After her mother’s suicide, fifteen-year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother’s mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran fast and far away. 

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her that Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.

Roanoke Girls is a dark and disturbing read which has left me feeling very conflicted. I usually try not to include spoilers in my reviews, but I’m going to reveal one here because if you decide to pick this up, I think you should be forewarned. The Roanoke family has been hiding a shameful secret for decades: the sexual abuse of several female members and this  is the background that the main mystery is set against. It’s obvious who the perpetrator is early on in the book but the author writes about it in a subtle way, focusing more on why no one ever asked for outside help, and how this all relates to Allegra’s disappearance. For the most part I disliked all of the characters, yet at the same time I couldn’t seem to tear myself away from the story. It enraged me that several characters, including Lane, had the chance to sound the alarm about what was happening, yet chose not to. I appreciated Lane’s determination to find Allegra, but questioned why her caring about her cousin only came eleven years after she fled the family homestead. Lane also comes across as being completely self-involved and uncaring about anyone except for herself. She frequently and deliberately lashes out at people who actually do care for her, which also makes it difficult to sympathize with her. The history of the abuse is revealed layer, by layer, and this in a horrible sort of way, is the best part of the book. The chapters alternate between the present day, with Lane’s desperate investigation of her cousin’s disappearance, and what happened eleven years ago during the one summer Lane spent with Allegra and her grandparents. Further fleshing out the story are occasional brief passages from other Roanoke girls, which makes everything even more personal and heartbreaking. Despite my issues with the characters, I was mesmerized from the very first page. Amy Engel is an incredible storyteller who knows exactly how to create a story that will resonate with readers. The Roanoke Girls is a disquieting look at what on the surface looks like a wealthy, successful all American family, yet underneath that veneer is a seething mass of abuse and deception. I don’t think this book will be for everyone, but if you do decide to try it, its not one that you’ll soon forget.

The Cresswell Plot ~ By Eliza Wass – 4.0 Stars

Tags

Abuse, Coming-of-age stories, Contemporary Fiction, Cults, Incest, Poverty, Religious Fanaticism, YA Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: June 7th, 2016

Synopsis: Castella Cresswell and her five siblings–Hannan, Caspar, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem–know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict word of God, whose messages come directly from their father.

Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice.

Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.

The Cresswell Plot is a book that has no supernatural monsters  that go bump in the night, yet it’s extremely unsettling nonetheless. First of all, the writing is gorgeous and almost lyrical in its complexity. Eliza Wass does a wonderful job adding layer after layer to this story. While I wouldn’t call this a thriller, the tension kept builds in such a way that I was actually anxious toward the end. This is partly because I wound up getting so emotionally attached to Castley. Growing up in a dysfunctional family myself (although not a cult), I completely related to her coming to terms with what her father is, and her yearning to be free and live a normal life. Add to that her loyalty and love for her brothers and sisters, and she makes for an extremely empathetic teen. In spite of her upbringing she has a strength of character that I really admired. Her siblings have a much more difficult time breaking free from their father’s teachings, but their struggles are explored in a realistic way, you can’t help but feel sympathy for them. I do wish that the reasons for the parents’ religious fanaticism had been explored a little more fully. There’s a part in the book where Castley discovers that once upon a time her parents were regular teens, but this is just touched upon and quickly dropped. I also thought the end was a little abrupt and wrapped things up a too neatly. Overall though, The Cresswell Plot is a twisted and compelling story that takes an insightful and compassionate look into a family dealing with poverty, mental illness, and abuse. Because of these themes as well as the topic of incest being briefly brought up, I would recommend this for older teens. I also think it would be a great selection for book discussion groups. This is the debut novel by Eliza Wass, but I’ve already added her to my list of authors to watch.

 

Shivaree ~ By J.D. Horn – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Incest, Korean War, Mississippi, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Southern Gothic, Vampires

I received this e-book from NetGalley and 47North in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: As the Korean War ends, practical and well-mannered nurse Corinne Ford returns stateside to live in the Mississippi town of Conroy with her new fiance, Private First Class, Elijah Dunne. She wonders if their love is strong enough to overshadow their differences, but upon her arrival to Elijah’s backwoods stomping grounds, she understands that culture shock is the least of her worries.

After four good ol’ boys are attacked in the night whole seeking to terrorize a local black family, decades of buried secrets begin to rise. From Conroy’s most powerful citizen–known as the “Judge”–to the man Corinne intends to marry, no one is innocent. Yet the deepest secret of all involves the beautiful, cruel, and dead Miss Ruby. The former belle of Conroy and Elijah’ s lost love, is neither forgotten nor truly gone. But her death is only the beginning of a slow vengeance that won’t stop until it’s hunger is satisfied.

Southern Gothic:  “A style of writing practiced by many writers of the American South whose stories set in that region are characterized by grotesque, macabre, or fantastic incidents.”

~ Encyclopedia Britannica ~

I really enjoyed J.D. Horn’s Witching Savannah series so I was intrigued when Shivaree popped up on NetGalley. While this novel is much darker than his previous stories it’s Southern Gothic at its very best.

“Kudzu vine, rapacious and never sleeping, had nearly swallowed the old Cooper house whole.”

One thing I love about about J.D. Horn is the exquisite detail he puts into the description of his settings without taking anything away from the plot. You can feel the sultry air caressing your skin and smell the heady mix of smoke, and creosote emitted by the town’s paper mill, and hear that slow southern drawl when people speak. From the very first chapter you’re captivated by what seems to be your typical sleepy little southern town but it’s quickly revealed that underneath that deceptive exterior, Conroy is seething with racism, corruption, and other dark secrets that its townspeople would rather not see the light of day.

Poor Corinne unsuspectingly walks into this nest of vipers, expecting to settle down and start a family with the charming young man she met in Korea. Even without the supernatural evil doings going on, Corinne would never fit in with the residents of Conroy. She’s level-headed, outspoken and independent, and because of these attributes she’s met with suspicion and derision, particularly by Elijah’s mother. While Corinne attempts to get along with her future in-laws, she’s no pushover. She wants to love and support Elijah, and if it means butting heads with his family or even the sheriff, so be it.

Elijah comes across as an earnest, sweet country boy at first, but he’s hiding some pretty dark secrets from Corinne which makes him slightly less sympathetic. This doesn’t make him an unlikable character though. Just one that is a product of the time period and his environment. 

The main villain of the story is Ruby, who even before she’s turned into a vampire, is one nasty piece of work. Yet I found myself reluctantly feeling sorry for her at times. The daughter of the truly abhorrent Judge, she never really had a chance given her upbringing. 

As far as the rest of the characters, they’re all pretty despicable, and deserve what’s coming to them. The only exception is Lucille, the Judge’s maid, aka slave. Forced to send her two children away to protect them from not only the supernatural evil which has invaded the town, but also the local Klan, she’s forced to stay and wait hand and foot on the Judge, fearful of him sending his minions after her if she attempted to flee. She and Corinne make a dynamic duo in the end.

While the Korean War is the background for Corinne’s and Elijah’s romance, it does seem a little superfluous. It’s kind of thrown in there, but there’s no real apparent reason beyond setting the time period of the early 1950s and perhaps an explanation for Corinne’s feminism. I found myself wishing the author had used this to explore a little more the traumatic effects of war. Since the novel is under 300 pages maybe he just didn’t have the time to fit it in. Or, maybe I’m just being overly fussy. Sometime a story is just a story.

Shiveree touches on many issues including racism, physical and sexual abuse, incest, and bullying, yet it never gets bogged down by these weighty themes. The ending while satisfying, definitely leaves the door open for a possible sequel. If you like deeply conflicted characters and plots that slowly unveil their secrets like peeling back the layers of an onion, than I highly recommend this book.