Jade Daniels, the protagonist of horror writer Stephen Graham Jones鈥� latest novel My Heart is a Chainsaw, doesn鈥檛 fit in with her quiet (until it鈥檚 not) town of Proofrock, Idaho.
The high school student is a Blackfeet Indian in a mostly white community. Her home life is messy, and Jade is obsessed with slasher movies. She carries an encyclopedic knowledge of films like Friday the 13th and Halloween and writes school essays on the genre鈥檚 鈥渇inal girl鈥� trope.
Above: The cover of My Heart is a Chainsaw.听Below: Author and 抖阴旅行射 Boulder professor of distinction Stephen Graham Jones (Photo credit: Gary Isaacs)
鈥淐an鈥檛 I just like horror because it鈥檚 great? Does there have to be some big explanation?鈥� Jane yells at a concerned stranger at the start of the book.
It鈥檚 a sentiment that Jones, professor of distinction in the Department of English at 抖阴旅行射 Boulder, can relate to. His latest book, published by Simon & Schuster, was released on Aug. 31.
鈥淲hen people ask you, 鈥榃hy do like horror?鈥� or 鈥榃hy do you like slashers?鈥� they phrase that really carefully,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat they really mean is, 鈥榃hy are you such a weirdo?鈥欌��
If Jones is a weirdo, then he鈥檚 a proud one. He鈥檚 the author of the 2020 award-winning novel The Only Good Indians, plus more than 20 other books, a host of short stories and more. He also teaches creative writing, pop culture and post-colonial literature among other topics at 抖阴旅行射 Boulder.
My Heart is a Chainsaw picks up with Jade as a real-life slasher hits her听mountain community, revolving around the construction of a housing development for the wealthy. Like Jade herself, Jones believes that slasher flicks are about more than just gore. They also examine how society views ideas like justice and revenge. Jones, who is also a member of the Blackfeet Nation, relishes the chance to push back on what the literary establishment expects of writers like him. Indigenous authors, he said, should have the chance to write genre fiction that is fun, playful and, yes, even drenched in blood.
鈥淚f you think of literature as a tree, the trunk is realism,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淭he market and critical establishment tell people of color that you have to stay close to the trunk where it鈥檚 safe. You have to be sad and depressing. I think it鈥檚 a political statement to run out onto the branches and go to Mars or go to a haunted house.鈥�
Scales of justice
Jones, who was born in Midland, Texas, wrote his first short story, 鈥淭he Gift,鈥� when he was 19. It follows a woman in the hospital after a car crash as she is visited by the ghost of her dead boyfriend.
鈥淏ack then I was really into X Files and reading a lot of comics books,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淭hat just sparked my imagination so completely that it felt like my fingers were on fire.鈥�
And he has one piece of advice that he shares with his students who want to become writers themselves: 鈥淚 tell them: choose writing over everything but health and family.鈥�
It鈥檚 advice that he heeds himself. Jones finishes the first drafts of most of his novels in four to six weeks. But he worked on My Heart is a Chainsaw off and on for eight years, in part because he connected so much to Jade鈥攁nd her passion for horror. In the book, she points out that Jason Voorhees, the slasher at the heart of the Friday the 13th series, initially targets camp counselors because a group of them let him drown as a child.
Jones is similarly taken by the power of slasher stories to push the notion of fairness to its extremes.
鈥淲hat slashers do is they carve into the world and balance the scales of justice,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f there has been some prank or crime against a person who couldn鈥檛 fight back, and the police or the parents didn鈥檛 punish the guilty parties, that will often kickstart a slasher cycle.鈥�
Still, he said, those scales have historically tilted in favor of some people more than others. Slasher flicks are infamous, for example, for killing off people of color first. Jones said that he wanted to avoid that trap in My Heart is a Chainsaw. And, in troubled and unapologetic Jade, he also reimagined what the character of the 鈥渇inal girl鈥� can be. That鈥檚 the nickname that horror buffs give to the traditional heroines of slasher films, young women who almost always have impeccable morals.
鈥淭o me, final girls are about pushing back against bullies, insisting on your own life and your own safety,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚f we can empower people to be final girls, I think that鈥檚 doing good work.鈥�
