Jade can't stop referencing Jaws, Halloween, A Bay of Blood, Friday the 13th, Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine and more - so it's easy to think her story is merely a celebration of horror. In My Heart is a Chainsaw, Jones does it again, and he's as brilliant as ever. Jones' novels are literary cakes that lure readers with their frosting of blood and chaos and then surprise them with the smart, soulful goodness lying underneath.

No one wants to listen to an outcast who loves horror, and that just accentuates Jade's loneliness and ramps up her obsession. But convincing Letha isn't easy, and the authorities aren't any better - despite the bodies that show up in the lake and the mangled rich guy they have to pick up in little sandwich bags. Jade's knowledge of masked murderers makes her perfectly equipped to understand what's happening and to help Letha fulfill her role. After a few weeks at a treatment center, she comes back to school, but something is different: Jade is convinced Proofrock has its own slasher, and when she meets Letha Mondragon, the gorgeous, smart and kindhearted daughter of a mogul who moved into the new fancy development still being built across the lake, she thinks she has found the requisite final girl. Jade has attempted suicide before, and she tries again on the verge of finishing high school.

A lonely part-Indian outcast obsessed with slasher movies, Jade lives with her abusive, alcoholic father in the small town of Proofrock, Idaho. Jade Daniels - whose real name is Jennifer - embodies teenage angst. However, the many classic slashers that splatter its pages are merely the top layer, and what hides beneath is just as dark, but far more real. Stephen Graham Jones' My Heart is a Chainsaw is a beautiful love letter to horror movies.

My heart is chainsaw