![]() It's not scary, it's TOTALLY BORING, it's predictable (oh, let me guess, the depressed ex-stripper/groupie/20-something goth girl who's sleeping with a 50 year-old ex-rock star has a secret about her stepdad. Given that the story itself isn't even original, what else have we got here? Heh. First of all, the fact that an ageing rock star buys a ghost on the net isn't even a new idea: Man, this thing reads like something an 8th grader wrote for his creative writing class. Then I read that the author is King's son? Wow, if I were King I'd be disappointed in my kid. Right up to the last page of Heart Shaped Box, I kept waiting for something scary, and when that didn't happen, I kept thinking that horror should be left to the masters, that the reviews about this book were false advertizing, and that the only true horror writer is Stephen King. When you're traumatized from what you've read, you know you've found a good horror author. I even thought back to Red Dragon by Harris, the book that I couldn't read unless my boyfriend was there. "Heart Shaped Box" also made me think back to other King novels that had me ready to piss myself with terror: Cujo, Salem's Lot, The Tommyknockers, etc. ![]() it was storming outside, it was 3AM and I was too afraid to put the book down, and I didn't care if I would end up wetting the bed because there was no way in hell I was going to get up and go to the bathroom. The cover of this book promises that you will be "haunted" and "startled," and that the book will even "visit you in your dreams."įunny, as I read this "scary" novel, I couldn't help but think back to the time I read The Shining. Blending the wild world of rock 'n' roll with the baleful realm of the supernatural, Heart-Shaped Box marks the beginning of the literary reign of Joe Hill. The different sections of Heart-Shaped Box, for example, all reference popular heavy metal songs (Zeppelin's "Black Dog," Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," etc.), and Coyne's dogs are named after original AC/DC band members. Additionally, both are masters of imagery, ambiance, and allusion. ![]() Both share a narrative voice that is witty, engaging, and darkly stylish - at once morbid, poetic, and profoundly moving. Regardless of Hill's literary bloodlines, the comparisons between Heart-Shaped Box and his father's works will be inevitable. Now, determined to kill Coyne and anyone who aids him, the merciless ghost of Craddock McDermott begins his assault on the rocker's sanity The ghost, it turns out, is the stepfather of a young groupie who committed suicide after the 54-year-old Coyne callously used her up and threw her away. The black, heart-shaped box that Coyne receives in the mail not only contains the suit of a dead man but also his vengeance-obsessed spirit. ![]() so when his assistant tells him about a ghost for sale on an online auction site, he immediately puts in a bid and purchases it. The apple, it seems, doesn't fall far from the treeĪging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre - his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used hangman's noose, Aleister Crowley's childhood chessboard, etc. This revelation really wouldn't mean anything if Hill's debut novel weren't a singularly unforgettable horror masterwork that will delight and disturb anyone who reads it. The buzz leading up to the publication of this book included one of publishing's worst-kept secrets: Joe Hill, the author of Heart-Shaped Box, is also Stephen King's son.
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