My Heart is a Chainsaw

You won’t find a more hardcore eighties slasher fan than high school senior Jade Daniels. And you won’t find a place less supportive of girls who wear torn t-shirts and too much eyeliner than Proofrock, nestled eight thousand feet up the mountain in Idaho, situated in Pleasant Valley right alongside Indian Lake, home to both Camp Blood — site of a massacre fifty years ago — and Terra Nova, a modern-day American Camelot currently under construction, which is quickly overshadowing Proofrock.

You won’t find a more hardcore eighties slasher fan than high school senior Jade Daniels. And you won’t find a place less supportive of girls who wear torn t-shirts and too much eyeliner than Proofrock, nestled eight thousand feet up the mountain in Idaho, situated in Pleasant Valley right alongside Indian Lake, home to both Camp Blood — site of a massacre fifty years ago — and Terra Nova, a modern-day American Camelot currently under construction, which is quickly overshadowing Proofrock.

If Terra Nova ever gets finished, that is.

Problem is, the bodies are stacking up fast, and Jade might be getting just what she’s been wishing for since junior high: a slasher come to wreak havoc and dispense its violent brand of justice. Was this more fun to dream about than to try to live through, though? And, just who’s wearing that Lake Witch mask, and — more important — why ? Is this a live action, up-close and personal Scream, or is this ripped straight from the grindhouse?

As The Texas Chain Saw Massacre asks: Who will survive, and what will be left of them?

As The Last House on the Left suggests: It’s only a movie, it’s only a movie.

As A Nightmare on Elm Street whispers: Don’t fall asleep.

Or, as Jason Voorhees would say: Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor.

Come over to Jade’s own private Idaho if you dare. Go up the mountain to Proofrock. Step into that canoe, see if you’ve got what it takes, see if your heart, too, might be a chainsaw . . .

Excerpt at CrimeReads

Get it at Saga | Bookshop.org | Boulder Bookstore | Tattered Cover | Powell’s | B&N | Amazon

LISTS:

Time | BookRiot (and: audio) (horrorscoped) (fall bks) (new horror) (pairings) | GQ | BookBub | i09 | Publisher’s Weekly | Good Housekeeping | Read By Dusk | Tor.com (again) | Let’s Get Galactic | Talking Scared | Den of Geek | Books with Chloe | Books in the Freezer | Cultured Vultures | BookPage | Bloody Disgusting | Goodreads | Mocando | Shades of Orange (vid) | Whispers from the Library | Medium | Polygon | Publishers Weekly (again) | Mental Floss | Scifi & Scary | Goodreads (again) | Bex | WBEZ | Novel Suspects | Off the Shelf (again/more) | Forever Lost in Literature | Library Journal | Fantasy Literature | FanFiAddict | LibraryReads | Anxious Nachos | AFPL | Clay MacLeod Chapman | Andrew Liptak | Wakefield Library | Overdrive | BookRiot | Nightfire (again) | BookMarks | PopSugar (Aug bks) | Bustle | Off the Shelf | Unquiet Librarian | Oblong Books | Booklist | Rising Shadow | BookBub | Crimereads (more) (most anticipated) (one more) | LitHub (more) | Publishers Weekly | The Boswellians | Boulder Weekly | LA Times Bestsellers | King5 | Daily News | Providence Journal | anchor.fm | Chicago Tribune | Off the Shelf | Omnomchocolate | Toronto Star | Harper’s Bazaar | Goodreads | Business Insider | Erica Robyn | Craft Beer | Hachette | the Line-Up (more) | Chapters/Indigo | She Does the City | Electric Literature | Fredericksburg | Entertainment Weekly | Buzzfeed | Subjectify Media | Madison McSweeney | Globe & Mail | Grimdark Magazine | Arizona Daily Star | Electric Lit (different one) | Good Housekeeping | CBC | Tattered Cover | Zoomer | Berkeley Lib | Washington Post | Topsham Public Library | Audible 2021 | NPR (again) | Errant Dreams | Chicago Public Library | Kobo | American Horror Books | Daily Dead | Library Journal | The Line-Up | Boston Globe | Book and Film Globe | LitReactor staff picks | Somerset Library | Espresso Coco | NPR Best of 2021 | Sadie Hartmann | Crimereads best of 21 | Off the Shelf | All About Romance | The Millions (Theo Van Alst) (Kyle Winkler) | Best Books | Bloody Disgusting | iHorror | The Line-Up | lloydhanneman | Read By Dusk | Writer’s Bone | Mother Horror | Orrin Grey | Daily Dead | She Reads | Bookscrolling | Madison McSweeney | Audible | Scribd | BookTrip | Philadelphia Inquirer | Colorado Sun | Nightifre (different list) | NY Post | Booklist | Houston Press | WAMC | The Write Question | Battenkill Books | Inkheist | gxrlpd | Locus | Daily Dead | Rondo Awards | Crimereads | The Line-Up | BookWeb | Benjamin Langley | Nightfire | The Line-Up (Bram Stoker Awards) | Best Slasher Books | 10 Novels for Summer | Ghouls Magazine | The Line-Up | The Appalachian | Crimereads | Goodreads | Lithub | Cosmo | Gizmodo | The LineUp (trilogies) | The LineUp (coping) | Boy with Letters | The LineUp (King-alikes) | SciFiNow | The Line-Up | MalevolentDark | Goodreads’s 100 Horror Recs |

REVIEWS:

Goodreads | NetGalley | Kevin Williamson! (on IG) | Library Thing | Bloody Disgusting | Publishers Weekly | Nightmare Magazine | Library Journal | Rolling Stone | LARB | Nightfire | Los Angeles Times | Medium | Nerd Daily | Signal Horizon | Cemetery Dance (Sadie Hartmann) | Slate (more) | NPR | LA Times | Washington Post | Westword | Locus (Paula Guran) | CBC | Mystery & Suspense | BookReporter | Kirkus | Tor.com | Nightfire | HorrorBound | Hellnotes | Booklist | Capes and Tights | Horror Bookworm | San Antonio Examiner | Bloody Flicks | Ginger Nuts of Horror | NYT | Westwords | Women in Trouble | Escapist Book Company | Harper’s Waystation | School Library Journal | Confetti Bookshelf | damppebbles | Scary Librarian | FanFiAddict | Toronto Star | Spreaker | Suspense Book Reviews | Audiobook Addicts | Distopolis | The Library Ladies | Flinching with Delight | The Line-Up | Ink Blotters | Horror Oasis | David Agranoff | @JohnnieJae | Dead M15 | Actuallitte | Angry Angels | Flinching with Delight | Becky Spratford | Will Byrnes | BookClubbed | Cowboys & Indians | phantasiqa | Beauty and the Anxiety-Riddled Beast | Fantasy Literature | Considering Stories | Book Dragon | Forrest Lone Fight | Gate Crashers | Women Write About Comics | iHorror | Sprained Brain | Divination Hollow | Babelio | DarkScribe | Bibliophage | Horror Obsessive | Stranger Sights | Waypoint Books | Phantastiqa | GoBookMart | Ghouls Magazine | Outre Livres | Bryan W. Dull | Bantering Books | In the Never Never | The Gothic Library | Monkey Reviews | Lawrence Debbs | Living Read Girl | The Wicked Library | A Tribe Called Geek | The Dust Lounge | Bloggy Come Lately | Splatterpunk Reviews | Books Bones Buffy | River’s End | CNC | Towering TBR | Pregaming Halloween | Expendable Mudge | Bristol Library | CriminOlly | Run Along the Shelves | Rums the Reader | Dave Writes and Draws | Blue Book Balloon | LibGirlBooks | Chasing Destino | Borley Rectory | Running Reader | Kate of Mind | Cynsworkshop | Gatecrashers | Olivine Books | Every Read Thing | Char’s | Amanda’s Reviews | A Book-a-Week | Monster Librarian | Sarah C Zarnecki | Brunner’s Bookshelf | Reading for Sanity | Coy Caterpillar | ustreama | Dan Rymes | Books & Books | Jenn’s Bookshelves | Katelyn Writes | Jenn’s Bookshelves | Adeelreads | Raven Librarian | Many McHugh | Horror Obsessive | Free Press Online | Miles of Pages | Mindy’s Book Journey | Bookchatter | Neverending TBR List | Prose and Paperbacks | Ren Reads Horror | Diane Reviews | Madison McSweeney | Leanbhpearson | I Smell Sheep | Read by Dusk | Run Along the Shelves | Susan Monroe McGrath | A Short Book Lover | Lord Samper | Megan’s House of Books | Ruse Reviews | EspressoCoco | Brian B. Baker | Eggplante | Lemon Reviews | Disco Demolition Night | Imaginatlas | Kendra Preston Leonard | Worlds Between Words | Primmlife | Robert Stahl | What Jess Reads | Susan Monroe McGrath | Quirky Cat | Meltdown Messsiah | Fiction Majorette | Bibliosanctum | Zenda Libros | Horror Geek Life | Booklovers (pod) | Erik Smith (vid) | Criminolly (vid) | Loc’D Booktician (vid) | Brian Lee Durfee (vid) | Such a Nightmare (pod) | Mindy’s Book Journey (vid) | The Midnight Librarian (vid) | Sound and Fury (vid) | Raw Mike Richards (vid) | Books and Lala (vid) | Nightmare Maven (vid) | I’ve Read This (vid) | Scuppermong (vid) | Edward Lorn (vid) | Paul Weymouth | My Million Pages (vid) | Nic Nack’s Corner (vid) | Brad Procter (vid) | Another Booktube Channel (vid) | Writing Talks (vid) | The Caffeinated Book Wyrm (vid) | Violet Prynne (vid) | Nerdy Narrative (vid) | Here’s Johnny (pod) | RJ Julia Booksellers (vid) |

INTERVIEWS ETC

Locus | OC | Fango | Tattered Cover launch | Chicago Review of Books | CU Boulder Today | Talking Scared | The Big Thrill | The Kingcast | Book Plus Film Globe | Midtown Scholar | Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy | Mystery & Suspense | Writer’s Digest | Books in the Freezer | Cuyahoga | Westword | Nightfire | Books are Magic | WYSO Book Nook | Nerd Daily | Goodreads | KGNU Boulder | The Veil | Cemetery Dance | NPR’s 1A | Colors of the Dark | CBC Live | with Cara Gee | WNYC | The Maris Review | Toronto library | Kobo | Kelp | Tor.com | LitHub (Maris Kreizman) | National News | Fates on Fire Awards |

Audible’s Best of 2021!

https://www.audible.com/blog/best-of-the-year-editorial-2021 
full list / ceremony
https://youtu.be/OG7hAGu3AzE?t=3418

Chainsaw swag:

walkthrough here

Closer look at that VHS slipcover:

The book trailer:

Another book trailer:

via @jenabrownwrites (vid here, in case the twitter-embed fails)

An excellent, very active display:

https://twitter.com/rjcrowtherjr/status/1437898211436290050?s=21
https://www.audible.com/pd/My-Heart-Is-a-Chainsaw-Audiobook/1797123327

Cool German/Cemetery Dance cover:

More kind words from cool people:

A homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre. You don’t have to be a slasher fan to read My Heart is a Chainsaw, but I guarantee that you will be after you read it.

—Alma Katsu

An easy contender for Best of the Year. A love letter to (and an examination of) both the horror genre and the American West, it left me stunned and applauding.

—Brian Keene

Stephen’s writing is a chainsaw and every sentence in this book drips with blood, every paragraph is clotted with skin, and every period is a bullethole. He makes me feel like an amateur.

—Grady Hendrix

And look who’s at the mic for the audio Chainsaw!

Cara Gee, who’s amazing (audiobk link)

And, thanks to Andrew Schwarz:

https://boxd.it/dfAyw

Some few & various lists of the titles dropped and/or glanced off of in Chainsaw:

way too many for me to get them all into a single screencap

Thanks to Dr. Christine Self—a playlist of movie trailers for Chainsaw:

László Dávid Nagy’s excellent tattoo:

(and, if you’re just here for slasher goodness, then click there)

And, Jamie Lee Curtis including Chainsaw in her Mother Nature!

Haven’t captured all the Jade-art. But, this one, anyway:

Author: SGJ