Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
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Book Reviews of Heart-Shaped Box
Book Review: gripping, mean, frightening and occasionally funny
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm going to start this note by saying that when I bought this book, I had no idea that Hill was King's son. I probably would not have bought it if I had done. Good thing, then, because I would have been sorry if I had missed this book.
Lately I've read a whole raft of authors who friends assured me would revive my faith in horror. None of 'em have done so. Actually, I'd very nearly concluded that I'd stopped reading horror for a very good reason. Heart Shaped Box is a recommendation from one of those lists. And it is the first one that even came close to living up to its promise.
I found the book gripping, mean, frightening and occasionally funny. Some stuff with the plotting was a little bit cliched and akward, but those are really quite minor quibbles. Hill has a mean eye for character detail, and (most importantly for horror) successfully develops his own rules for the supernatural in a way that kept me discovering.
I really liked it, and would certainly recommend it.
Book Review: Good First Novel About Rock N' Roll And A Psychotic Ghost.
Summary: 4 Stars
The beginning of this has its creepy and weird moments, but the second half of this one is what really pays off. When you reach page 250, prepare for some really good writing.
When you think about what Joe Hill picked as a premise for his first book-a rock star buys a haunted suit and is then chased by the ghost of it-you realize that he actually picked something hard to make good.
In the world of ghost stories, you can't even count how many there are. I don't care how original the concept is, most of the time, a writer doesn't even want to go near the word ghost. But Joe Hill did, stuck it out, and did a good job for his first time out.
The beginning is a bit slow, setting everything up, but strap yourself in for the last half of the book, which I think is the best.
There are a lot of worse first novels out there. Pick this one up and at least you'll be turning the pages way past your bedtime.
Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
I was really disappointed in this book. I had 5 or 6 friends rave, rave, rave about this book. How spooky it was and how they couldn't put it down. I read it and kept waiting for the spooky to hit. Parts were somewhat spooky, but all kept thinking was, "This author is really trying hard to be like Stephen King it seems." Then I come to find out he's Stephen King's son! Which explains how he got his publishing deal. There were a lot of debut novel "mistakes" that would've been the kiss of death for other authors looking for a publishing deal. And I mean the amount of set up just to get to the beginning. He should've jumped right in to him getting the suit in the heart-shaped box. And then parts were overwritten and dragged out...just didn't do it for me.
But I'm clearly in the minority. Most people seemed to love this book. Wishing desperately I'd seen whatever they had in it. Maybe his next books will grip me more.
Book Review: A trip on the nightroad that's not for the faint of heart
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this book on a whim, since I'd read several glowing reviews of it, including one by Neil Gaiman that got me really curious, and I'm glad I listened to that whim.
The Dickensianly-named Judas Coyne, an aging death metal rock star, gets more than he bargained for when he buys a suit that once belonged to a recently deceased hypnotist and spiritualist, to add to his collection of macabre curios. The unwelcome and unwholesome attachment to it sends him and his Goth girlfriend Georgia on a road trip through the Deep South, on which he is forced to confront many ghosts from his path before they can shake off the intruder. Joe Hill delicately balances the gruesome moments with psychological depth and flashes of black humor. It's the kind of book you'll want to bring along to read during a long summer trip, but make sure it's a plenty-long one: You'll find it hard to set it aside before you reach your destination...
Book Review: A novel bit of horror
Summary: 4 Stars
Joe Hill has created a novel contribution to the horror genre with HEART-SHAPED BOX. Putting an interesting spin on the vengeful ghost story, Hill places his jaded rock star protagonist into some interesting jeopardy, haunted by the ghost he bought on the internet. But things turn out to be much more complicated than that as Hill has created characters that you learn to care about despite their flaws, and he moves the story in different directions than the typical horror fare. Dogs and music become important components and the truth while not entirely surprising, still has a visceral effect when the reader is confronted with it. The actual motivation for the haunting becomes a bit weaker than it should be when you consider what the outcome ends up being, but this definitely is a novel that will give you the creeps while actually caring what happens to the characters. I look forward to more work from Hill.