My Heart Is a Chainsaw

This is not what I thought it would be. When I read the description I thought it would be a great slasher novel. Its not quite that. It was more of a rambling narrator for most of the book before a body count finally starts to build.

At first this book opened well with great atmosphere and felt like it was building up to the start of a good slashing novel. I like the main character at first but then it just went on. You get to hear her internal monolog about her encyclopedic knowledge of slasher flics. This was interesting at first but it never stopped. Not much happened in the story during this. As you trudge on you start to get annoyed with her. Just get on with the slashing.

There is mention of trauma and the story focuses mainly on the main characters terrible home life and its affect on her mental well being. This when on for so long that I thought the book was just going to stay that this was all in her head and she’s actually really messed up and needs help. Which the book sort of did.

Finally we get to the horror/slashing stage at about the last third of the book. As the body count builds up there is more questions of who is doing this and how are they doing it. Its not worth finding out. It was actually a little disappointing but I won’t ruin this for every one else. The major trauma event in the main characters life is finally laid out and she gets a sort of revenge.

This book didn’t really seem to address anything. It just wasn’t enough for me. I kept wanting more from the each part of the book. But this is not to say it’s an absolutely terrible book. The writing style is good and easily sucks you in. There are parts of the book with actual horror elements and the author nails these sections. It felt like it could have been a better book and that the author had the ability to do it.

I did place a hold on the next book of this series. I am not ready to give up on this. I might hate myself later but I hope it will work out.