Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Heart-Shaped Box

by Joe Hill

'Buy my stepfather's ghost' read the e-mail. So Jude did. He bought the dead man's suit, delivered in a heart-shaped box, because he wanted it: because his fans ate up that kind of story. It was perfect for his collection: the genuine skulls and the bones, the real honest-to-God snuff movie, the occult books and all the rest of the paraphanalia that goes along with his kind of hard/goth rock. But the rest of his collection doesn't make the house feel cold. The bones don't make the dogs bark; the movie doesn't make Jude feel as if he's being watched. And none of the artefacts bring a vengeful old ghost with black scribbles over his eyes out of the shadows to chase Jude out of his home, and make him run for his life ...

Reviewed by pamela on

4 of 5 stars

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Heart Shaped Box packed a punch. It was absolutely intense to read from beginning to end and didn't let up until the last few pages. It was exhausting, emotional and packed with equal parts humanity and inhumanity. To call it entertaining would be the wrong way to describe it as its subject matter makes it impossible to truly enjoy, however it was well written, engrossing and thought provoking.

There is very little character development in set up, and the reader learns about the characters and their pasts as the plot progresses. I would have liked to have seen a little more information on the characters'personal history to really feel like I knew them, but despite this Joe Hill respectfully trod the path between horror and voyeurism in a way that many writers who tackle similar subjects of abuse fail to achieve.

The subject matter is confronting and the ghost is truly frightening. The moments of haunting have been masterfully rendered by Hill and they played themselves out in my mind like a film. The characters' reactions seemed genuine and believable and there were some moments that left me breathless with suspense. For all this however I would have liked a little more to be made of the afterlife and the supernatural elements that weren't ghost related. Hill fails to build lore around his more supernatural elements, simply letting the reader take for granted that they are there.

I would recommend this highly to readers who aren't squeamish and who like their horror full of psychological elements rather than just straight up action. It was my first foray in to Joe Hill's work and I'd definitely like to read some more. Perhaps NOS 4R2 orHorns?

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  • Started reading
  • 18 December, 2014: Finished reading
  • 18 December, 2014: Reviewed