126. My Heart is a Chainsaw – Stephen Graham Jones

Proofrock seems like the kind of place you’d obviously want to leave, but if you’re Jade, your opportunities are really limited. And if you’re Jade, you’re already basically stuck in your own head and are getting into trouble and being noticed more in relation to taste your taste in films being almost overbearing upon the world than anything else. I am fond of slasher movies as well, however, Jade is overboard. Literally at a couple points of the novel, but I digress. The story almost ends too early because Jade is reenacting the end of Friday the 13th.

Despite the fact that I, too, have seen A Bay of Blood and many of the chapter title slasher movies, it was still hard to find solid ground in Jade’s delivery for me. Her stream of consciousness is hard to parse and in between being in her head you’re getting her treatises on slashers that she wrote for extra credit for her favorite teacher and gave to Letha, who she’s decided has to be a final girl in real life and so she’s going to need Jade’s knowledge.

Jade’s is a very interesting head to be in when there’s a lot of action happening as well. It was a lot easier for me to get my reader’s footing if you will forgive how little sense that makes once a lot was happening and the actual slasher parts of the slasher Jade was expecting to happen were going on. There were tons of very cinematic situations in the giant pile of death Jade and Letha ended up in and the town’s 4th of July celebration made for an exciting setting to reveal an awful lot about what had been confusing me and really also Jade too. And I know there’s a sequel and a third, but it seems like there aren’t going to be a lot of people with the institutional knowledge to run the town left so I’m keen to see how that goes, as confusing as Jade’s head can be some times.

Ozma was the final girl standing in her herd that included Finny, although he was more protective of her than anybody in Jade’s life. Both of these pigs have seen a lot of slasher movies too, though, and they had those slashing teeth.