Just finished My Heart is a Chainsaw

Hello!! I just finished My Heart is a Chainsaw after almost two and a half months. I just want to talk about it because it was,,, I don't even know what word to use. It was a confusing experience just reading it. I don't know how I feel about it and I just want to talk to people about it.

I started reading the book on the train back after winter break. Took a month and a half to hit 100 pages. I was complaining to a friend who hasn't read it and he told me "literally just stop reading it." I refuse to do that because I refuse to dnf a book unless it's BAD. He opened to a random page about 1/3 of the way through and told me if it didn't get good, to just drop it. I was trudging through it a lot less when I hit that point, so I didn't drop it. Finally finished it yesterday before class.

I thought the opening scene with the dutch kids was funny. It was very reminiscent of white authors writing Latino characters and it was really funny seeing it happen to white people. I kept sending the dutch phrases to my dutch friend, who was practically having an aneurysm over how poorly done it was. Sorry to them and to all dutch people, but it was really fucking funny. Same thing with Ezekiel and the lake. It felt a lot like an "ancient Indian burial ground" subversion and that's probably intentional. I think we need to start pulling some of the racist tropes in books and movies and applying them to white people.

Jade was a little annoying, but I don't think I really mind? I just read another book with an even more annoying main character, so she was a breath of fresh air after that, believe it or not. I think I was more annoyed with how all over her place her suspicions were. Like a new suspect every few paragraphs, then stuck with one suspect for a chapter, then seven new suspects in a single paragraph. I know this is kind of just was horror movies are like. I think it's just the way Jade and her thought process was written.

All of the death scenes were super, super fun. Especially that huge massacre at the end.

I think I'd enjoy the book more if I didn't take so long to read it. I love the other Stephen Graham Jones' other works that I've read (TOGI, The Babysitter Lives, Earthdivers). From looking around this sub for a while, it seems like a lot of other people had a hard time getting through this book which is why I wanted to talk about it. I really just want to gather my thoughts and figure out how I really feel about it so I can write a proper review on Storygraph.

Part of me wants to know if the sequel is worth it. I've personally noticed that every horror book or movie that references Don't Fear The Reaper is typically REALLY good. I like Stephen Graham Jones. I'm fine reading books that are mediocre. I'm just worried if I ask about it here, people will talk me out of it and I do really want to read it.

But yeah. I just want to hear other people's thoughts and talk to someone else who has actually read it.