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Heart-Shaped Box

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 29,064 ratings · 3,038 reviews

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so...more

Hardcover, First Edition, 368 pages

Published 2007 by Gollancz

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Apr 24, 2013 Jon added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, horror, read-in-my-40s, award-winners, meh

3 stars

Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book now resides, safe and secure, at my blog. You can read it by following this link: http://bit.ly/ZrQBDp

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Sep 11, 2008 La Petite Américaine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Book Burners :)

Shelves: sucked, rants

The cover of this book promises that you will be "haunted" and "startled," and that the book will even "visit you in your dreams."

Funny, as I read this "scary" novel, I couldn't help but think back to the time I read The Shining ... 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. "Heart Shaped Box" also made me think back to other King...more The cover of this book promises that you will be "haunted" and "startled," and that the book will even "visit you in your dreams."

Funny, as I read this "scary" novel, I couldn't help but think back to the time I read The Shining ... 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. "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. I even thought back to Red Dragon by Harris, the book that I couldn't read unless my boyfriend was there. When you're traumatized from what you've read, you know you've found a good horror author.

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.

Then I read that the author is King's son? Wow, if I were King I'd be disappointed in my kid.

Man, this thing reads like something an 8th grader wrote for his creative writing class. First of all, the fact that an ageing rock star buys a ghost on the net isn't even a new idea: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6651230/

Given that the story itself isn't even original, what else have we got here? Heh...

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 ... could it be molestation?? NO! I'M SHOCKED! WHAT A GENIUS PLOT TWIST!), and everything ends all happy, with smiles and rainbows and love and hugs ... and a few Care Bears, I'm sure.

Oh BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! I give it one star ... only for mentioning cool people like Nirvana, Ozzy, and Jackson Browne.

This book sucks. (less)

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Jun 12, 2007 Sammy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: b-the-good

I don't think I quite knew what I was getting into when I picked up this book. I don't know what I thought I was going to read, but it wasn't this. So a warning to you: this book, or at least the beginning of it, is pretty freaky. I'm not a wimp. I grew up on Goosebumps and Scary Stories by Alvan Schwartz, graduating on to Christopher Pike and various R.L. Stine young adult novels. I also love scary movies of all sort, so I'm not one easily freaked out. But this novel was pretty creepy, or at le...more I don't think I quite knew what I was getting into when I picked up this book. I don't know what I thought I was going to read, but it wasn't this. So a warning to you: this book, or at least the beginning of it, is pretty freaky. I'm not a wimp. I grew up on Goosebumps and Scary Stories by Alvan Schwartz, graduating on to Christopher Pike and various R.L. Stine young adult novels. I also love scary movies of all sort, so I'm not one easily freaked out. But this novel was pretty creepy, or at least the beginning.

Perhaps it's the concept and the description of the ghost that is unnerving. Maybe it's also because I was sort of caught off guard by what I was reading. But whatever it was I was freaked out and loving the book. The whole concept of the novel was unique.

At times I found myself wanting to give Joe Hill a thesaurus and a phrase book, because he kept using the same descriptions over and over again. I think it would have also helped him in making things a little clearer. It seemed he was having a little difficulty fleshing out plot points at moments. I can't really think of any specific examples, but you'll come across them as you read it.

The end seemed really just swept up. Not really making too much sense in relation to the story. It seemed like Hill just wanted to quickly wrap it up, no matter how many questions it either raised or left unanswered.

But besides those minor flaws, I gobbled this book up really fast. I wanted to know everything that was going on. Something kept me riveted throughout the whole story. That's why I'm keeping my rating at a B, despite some of the problems I pointed out. I'm also interested in reading some of Hill's other works. It was his way of telling this ghost story and the type of ghost story it was that made me interested. Overall? Pretty good read. Entertaining. Best part? The dogs, because they weren't just animals in the background, they were actual characters, very entertaining and loving ones.

Want a quick, good, scary story? Here's your next read.(less)

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Jun 17, 2010 Hannah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-reads, horror, too-awful-for-words

The scariest thing about Joe Hill's debut book, Heart Shaped Box, isn't the actual story, but what lies between the front cover and the inside title page of the Harper paperback version. In it, over 18 reputable newspapers and acclaimed writers attempt to prop up little ~~Stevie King, Jr's~~ Joe Hill's novel with some seriously excellent reviews. Scary because all these awesome reviews lead you, the reader, to expect that Heart Shaped Box is the next BIG thing in horror.

Only it's not.

Not by a long...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Stefan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Wow, what a great debut!

Now that I have that out of the way, let me start out my review by saying that Heart-Shaped Box is the creepiest, scariest new book that I have read in quite some time. Mr. Hill tells an excellent story; well thought out with wonderful character development. The thing that I really loved about his introducing us to the characters is that he just threw us into the ride with them without too much background and then built them up into very complex and likable personalities...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Sesana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, fantasy, ghosts, abuse, potentially-triggering, horror

It's pretty much common knowledge now that Joe Hill is Joseph King, son of Stephen King. I haven't read King in probably more than a decade, but from my memory, Hill has a similar style, all sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and gross stuff. Ok, maybe not so much with the drugs, though there are some really trippy sections.

Jude (a sort of all-purpose metal god of yore) buys the suit of a dead man from an online auction because the seller claims it will come with a ghost. He gets far more than he bargai...more

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May 08, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Regular readers know that one of the subjects I'm often talking about here at CCLaP is that of so-called "genre fiction" versus "mainstream literature," and especially of the natural danger of the former; that many genre novels are as popular as they are simply because they deliver that genre's fetish...more (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Regular readers know that one of the subjects I'm often talking about here at CCLaP is that of so-called "genre fiction" versus "mainstream literature," and especially of the natural danger of the former; that many genre novels are as popular as they are simply because they deliver that genre's fetishistic details in spades, not necessarily because they're good at the building blocks behind all good literature (or in other words, character and plot and style, the same criteria off which CCLaP's reviews are based). So why bother reading genre pieces when you're not a natural fan of that genre? Well, because every so often, a genre novel will come out that is good at the literary ABCs, that does appeal to audience members besides those who naturally love that genre to begin with, and as a result become much more exciting and worthwhile projects than simple mainstream literature; to cite a good recent example, think of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-winning The Road, how on the surface it seems like any other post-apocalyptic science-fiction thriller but in reality actually tells a much deeper and more profound message than most other books of that genre.

That's what led me, frankly, to reading 2007's Heart-Shaped Box this week, the surprisingly popular debut novel by Joe Hill; because it's a genre novel itself, to tell you the truth, a genre I don't usually care for that much (horror, to be specific), but one that's been getting a lot of attention in the last year from places other than the horror community, a small-press novel that has nonetheless landed in the top 10 of the New York Times bestseller list and with a big-budget Hollywood adaptation by Neil Jordan coming out later this year. Ah, but then I actually read it, and am now even more confused than I was before; because to be perfectly frank, Heart-Shaped Box is an okay novel but certainly nothing better than most other horror books, or at least from the viewpoint of this non-fan who tends to lump all their storylines together. Because really, if you want to think of genre novels in a standardized, almost scientific way, you can really think of them like this -- that all genre novels basically start with a semi-hacky plotline full of easily-guessed cliches (which is why they're known as genre novels in the first place), and how good or bad that novel turns out to be hinges on where that author goes with that semi-hacky plotline, either upwards into unexpected territory or downwards to wallow in its hacky, cliched mess.

And that's the biggest problem with Heart-Shaped Box; unlike the best genre work out there, the stuff that legitimately breaks through to a general mainstream audience, here Hill chooses to wallow in the most predictable cliches available whenever given the choice, whenever given the chance to otherwise elevate his material into something truly unique. Because I mean, seriously, just how many more horror projects do we need that feature as its main villain a creepy horse-faced old man in an antique black suit and fedora hat who talks with a threatening southern drawl? Or dogs that can somehow preternaturally sense the looming evil around them long before the humans do? Or sassy grandmas who accidentally provide the key to the story's entire resolution, through their folksy sayin's spouted around their homey kitchen during a down moment in the plot? These are all bad cliches of the horror genre, the things that make me as a non-fan flee from most hackneyed books within that genre; the entire reason I picked up Heart-Shaped Box was because I thought it was going to be better than that, given the fanatical grassroots popularity the book has inspired since first coming out.

Unfortunately the book is not that; it's a decent horror story, don't get me wrong, but ultimately nothing better or even different than a typical Stephen King novel circa 1982 or so, all haunted cars and cheesy inner dialogue and badly dated rock lyrics and the whole bit. (And speaking of which, by the way, can I just get this off my chest, please? What self-respecting death-metal veteran would ever possibly consider Counting Crows and Coldplay among his favorite bands? Cheese And Rice, Joe Hill, pick a music style and stick with it already, or don't bother making your main character a grizzled death-metal veteran to begin with.) If you're already a fan of horror novels, by all means go ahead and pick it up if you haven't already; if you're like me, though, and tend to only tackle a handful of such projects per year, Heart-Shaped Box unfortunately should not be one of them.

Out of 10: 6.8, or 7.8 for horror fans (less)

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Justine To be fair to Joe Hill, he did actually 'earn' his buzz as much as someone as his position could be expected to do so, actively concealing his identit...more To be fair to Joe Hill, he did actually 'earn' his buzz as much as someone as his position could be expected to do so, actively concealing his identity as King's son for years, submitting stories to anthology editors like Stephen Jones with no hint whatsoever of his family name. (Jones was blown away by the story and published it with no idea that Hill was anything other than just some college kid.) -- Which is why his first short story collection came out from a small press after all the majors rejected it, since how can you make money off a short story collection by some writer who's a total unknown? The stories, however, are excellent (the collection is called Twentieth Century Ghosts) and netted Joe some World Fantasy Awards for best this and best that. And as far as influence goes -- I'm a dark fantasy novelist myself (although I prefer to think of myself just as a 'novelist' who at this point in my life happens to be writing stories that marketing people happen to be able to put forth in a certain way) -- and it's difficult to grow up reading & loving the genre & *not* be influenced by King. Which is not such a bad thing, because at his best King is very very good indeed -- if only the aspiring types who try to imitate him would read as wide & deeply as he does, and take the craft as seriously, then maybe genre fiction itself wouldn't as a rule suck so much. (And when King is very very bad, it's good to learn from his mistakes, & good to learn the importance & power of excellent editing, revising).

I say this because I'm also not a fan of Heart-Shaped Box. It has the feel, to me, of a practice novel by a young writer of not a little talent & skill who just isn't...quite...there yet. But Hill's short stories knocked me sideways, which is why I hate to see him judged just off the novel & his last name. I suspect it's one of those cases where a short-story writer feels pressure to produce a novel, and is still figuring out how to shift from one form to the other (which are of course extremely different from each other)...Ethan Canin comes to mind, a literary writer who came to attention with some staggeringly good short stories and then produced a first novel which the critics decreed as fairly terrible...Canin proved himself an excellent novelist with his next books, and my hope is that Joe Hill will do the same...the genre needs, more than anything, writers who can 'transcend' it, so that those of us who loved it as youngsters can come to it again as adults. (less)
Jun 02, 2008 10:47am

Matt I also have to chime in by pointing out that Coyne isn't supposed to be a former death metal artist, since the subgenre didn't come about until the ea...more
Nov 06, 2008 03:46pm

Aug 26, 2007 Trin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, music, american-lit

Aging rock star Judas Coyne (surprise twist! not his real name), a collector of strange and macabre items, learns about a ghost up for sale on an "eBay knockoff" and decides he has to have it. The ghost is transported to him via the dead man's suit, wrapped in a heart-shaped box, and almost immediately Jude begins to experience buyer's remorse.

The beginning of this book—the first hundred pages or so—was truly frightening to me. A secret: vampires, werewolves, mummies, sea monsters, demons, zombi...more Aging rock star Judas Coyne (surprise twist! not his real name), a collector of strange and macabre items, learns about a ghost up for sale on an "eBay knockoff" and decides he has to have it. The ghost is transported to him via the dead man's suit, wrapped in a heart-shaped box, and almost immediately Jude begins to experience buyer's remorse.

The beginning of this book—the first hundred pages or so—was truly frightening to me. A secret: vampires, werewolves, mummies, sea monsters, demons, zombies, killer clowns—these things don't scare me. Ghosts scare me. They don't even have to do anything: there's just something about them, intangible but there, watching, that scares the crap out of me. So this book freaked me out the most—in that wonderful, shivery, brrr kind of way—when the ghost wasn't doing anything, when it was just sitting in Jude's hallway, its hat in its hand, two mad, black scribbles where its eyes should be.

Then the plot happened. See, there's a reason Jude came to find out about this particular auction; Jude's ex-girlfriend's family is blah blah blah...okay: all of this is actually pretty interesting. The action did lag in the middle, when there were just a lot of instances in a row of the ghost trying to convince Jude and Jude's new girlfriend, Georgia, to kill themselves, but it does pick up again, and the whole book is generally captivating. However, as soon as the plot engages, the book stops being scary. At least to me: once its motivations are explained, the ghost became a creepy dude out for revenge, and a lot of the otherworldliness, the inexplicableness, went away, and with it the scary. There were still things I enjoyed: Jude and Georgia are both interesting, flawed characters, and I liked how their relationship developed; I even liked the slightly unrealistic ending. (It made me happy, okay? I'm a sap; shut up.) But the book lost something for me when it stopped being frightening, and devolved from something creepy and unusual to something much more done, almost an ordinary, average horror/thriller. So it's a good novel, yeah, but not a great one; I really do wish Hill's spark of originality could have burned a little bit longer. Maybe in the next one.(less)

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Oct 21, 2012 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. Hill's prose is clean and easy to read, and he conveys just enough detail to paint a scene that you can all but step into. Sometimes the setting felt familiar, even though I did not grow up in the South, nor anywhere nearly as rural as Jude's and Marybeth's hometowns. I dig how much Hill steered his characters towards their families; often in genre fiction, characters act and react to harsh events in a social vacuum, attached to those friends and family who are conven...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good page turner. Well written debut he knows how to spin a twist in a Tale of loss and redemption. Skillful character development you can't help not care for the women invloved in the story. He's one author to look out for.
Book trailer and inetrview @ my webpage http://more2read.com/?review=heart-sh...

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Feb 16, 2010 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: award-nominee-bram-stoker, award-nominee-british-fantasy, horror, audiobook, award-nominee-locus, award-winner-locus, award-winner-bram-stoker, ghosts

3.5 stars. A very good debut novel that kept me interested from start to finish. Not particularly scary, but a really good read.

Winner: Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel (2008)
Winner: Locus Award for Best First Novel (2008)
Nominee: British Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2008)

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Sep 10, 2011 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Donna

Shelves: own, 4_stars, author_american, fiction, horror, read_in_2010, reviewed, setting_us

Rocker Judas Coyne thought it was a joke when he bought a ghost off the internet. Still, he's a collector of the arcane, so what could it hurt? An old man is haunting his daughter and granddaughter, so Judas might be helping them, but even if it's a joke, Judas can easily afford it. But the price is higher than he thought.

What a creepy, twisted ghost story! It was perfect for Halloween!

Judas and Georgia, the latest in his string of much-younger lovers, really don't know what hit them when this g...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Meagan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was like the first "horror" book I've read in like a really long time.

The basic premises is that this semi-ex rock stars likes to collect morbid and weird things. So when he's alerted to a ghost for sale on an ebay ripoff site, Jude snatches up the deal for $1000 no questions asked. What he doesn't expect is, the ghost is real. The ghost doesn't want to disappoint and starts haunting Jude and his gal Georgia, with the intent to not only have them dead but have them kill each other.

The firs...more This was like the first "horror" book I've read in like a really long time.

The basic premises is that this semi-ex rock stars likes to collect morbid and weird things. So when he's alerted to a ghost for sale on an ebay ripoff site, Jude snatches up the deal for $1000 no questions asked. What he doesn't expect is, the ghost is real. The ghost doesn't want to disappoint and starts haunting Jude and his gal Georgia, with the intent to not only have them dead but have them kill each other.

The first 125 pages were a bit rough. The narrative was acceptable, except once we got past the build up I felt like there was a lot of nothing going on. There was some creepy stuff, but beyond that I was just starting to get really annoyed with Jude. What wasn't he doing ANYTHING??? He explained away most things, but come on! A little more reaction, please.

Roughly around page 130 the book gets suddenly really good. I attribute this to Jude's sudden willingness to fight back. There are a ton of twists and turns and the story behind the ghost and Jude is an emotional one. It's creepy and scary, and boy does this ghost have Nerve, but mostly I was driven on by the story and the way the characters change.

Jude and Georgia are anything but flat characters. It approaches the whole idea of remembering who you are or were in the past and coming to accept that in order to move on and become someone new.

There's a few great moments in the book that have little to do with the main plot or the scare tactic that I will just simply remember. For instance why a loafer is hanging from the review mirror of the old mustang.

Joe Hill (author) gets an A+ for sensory detail, both the pleasant and harshly disturbing.

If you're into disturbing/horror material it's worth the read. There's still a loose sense of I don't really get it all that accompanies ANY thing of this genre, but the book does a really good job tying up loose end and wrapping it up. In fact I particularly liked how the end of the book was handled, in a series of really short chapters.

If you're looking for a creepy novel or something to get you thinking about life and the thereafter then this is a good book. Just heed my warning of the slow beginning.
(less)

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May 03, 2008 Holly Ord rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had never heard of Joe Hill, the offspring of Stephen King who wrote this novel under a pen name because he did not want to gain attention to his work for the sole reason that he is Stephen King’s son, until my grandmother, a Stephen King fanatic, told me a little about the book when she was a quarter of the way through it. After she had finished she lent me the book and I wearily took it and began my journey into the life of Judas Coyne, an ex-rocker with a wicked taste for paranormal items...more I had never heard of Joe Hill, the offspring of Stephen King who wrote this novel under a pen name because he did not want to gain attention to his work for the sole reason that he is Stephen King’s son, until my grandmother, a Stephen King fanatic, told me a little about the book when she was a quarter of the way through it. After she had finished she lent me the book and I wearily took it and began my journey into the life of Judas Coyne, an ex-rocker with a wicked taste for paranormal items and much younger women.

Heart-Shaped Box opens with a run of the mill, usual day of a retired rock star, Judas Coyne, his clerk and annoying friend by business-association and his goth fan-girl girlfriend whom he refers to as Georgia, that being the state in which he picked her up in while on tour with his band. The only thing remotely intriguing about this washed up rocker living in a desolate section of the United States in a farm house is his collection of occult and otherwise eerie knick knacks that fans had sent him over the years.

Judas’ attraction to so-called haunted objects has over the years evolved into an entire room full of random junk that most likely isn’t worth keeping around, but who he had built himself into being over the years on the road with his band is a man in which the goth lifestyle flocked to–And it had obviously stuck with him years after the other members of his band died off and disappeared. When his clerk sees a haunted suit online, Judas doesn’t think twice before telling him to get it. Days later, the suit arrives in a heart-shaped box and the horror, ghost-chasing story unravels.

Heart-Shaped Box is not the great horror story in which people have been claiming; it is however, a horror story that is about the same caliber of a Stephen King novel–And not his early work, which was what had built King to be known as a great horror story teller. This novel, while interesting and captivating at first, begins to drag on by the time you reach the middle of the story. While Hill is describing light, smells, temperature and feelings, you start to think to yourself “Yeah, I get it, now on with it!” This feeling is nothing short of what is felt while reading a recently published King novel.

Hill’s attention to detail is either an attribute beloved by readers or an attribute that can be seen as nothing but a writer wanting to write a novel instead of a novella. While his detailed explanations and back story of the characters is thorough, I found myself more interested in the story of Coyne’s girlfriend, Georgia; or Marybeth as we later begin to refer to her as, while my interest in the main character simply went stale, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

While I can respect that Hill used a pen name in order to separate himself from his father and publish his novel by himself, this story runs dry way too early in order to be called a great horror story and it can easily be seen that the majority of Hill’s interest in horror stories and writing them came from his father. This novel reads as if Hill simply read Stephen King’s instructional writing book, On Writing, and decided to try on the novelist’s suit for a while.(less)

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Feb 01, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cuy-co-pub-lib, finished

Joe Hill, Heart-Shaped Box (Morrow, 2007)

There are times when you want a book that will challenge you, something immensely difficult but rewarding, something that will make you see the world in a slightly new way when you're finished with it. And then there are times when you just want something that's a damned good read. Heart-Shaped Box certainly qualifies as the latter. It's not deathless literature by any means, but once it gets its hooks into you, it won't let go until the very end.

Joe Hill...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Julian Lorr rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have seen some reviews of this novel in which people were less than impressed with the fear-factor created by it, or rather lack of fear-factor created by it. This is not an out-and-out horror novel, (even though it carries blood, gore, portentous foreshadowing, ghosts, blades and muscle cars!). To view it as such would be a mistake, because it clearly has a deeper message and Mr Hill's writing style is very different to his father's, despite them both inhabiting the same genre.

When I say "wri...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Henrik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those wanting a ghost story in a modern setting, with odd characters

Shelves: horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Certainly a very nice ghost story. I would probably have given it 5 stars if not for the mediocre ending.

This novel has been received very differently, by readers and reviewers alike. Some praise it very highly, some find it a bore. I guess that's inevitable. In my opinion it's basically a matter of taste and what you expect.

As a rule I don't much like ghost stories; in my opinion that's an outdated and way too well-beaten a track... Which, indeed, it is most of the time. So if a writer wants to...more

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May 12, 2008 Brooke rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who likes a good ghost story

Shelves: 2008, horror

Heart-Shaped Box a good, solid 3 stars. It's nothing I would reread, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it. It moved along quickly and had some seriously creepy imagery that I'd love to see onscreen in the future.

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Mar 28, 2013 Amy Shojai rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thrillers, horror

I enjoyed this book, although for me it started a bit slow and seemed scattered. The further I read, though, the more the characters grew on me. All are damaged, and several are genuinely unlikeable, especially at first. But the growth of these characters, how they changed and impacted each other for me was the best part of the book. I'll admit to being a reader who has thrown books across the room (virtually or literally) when an animal character died--the author in this case made it work, and...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Beth Rea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am only giving this book a 4-star rating here, because honestly, I can't bring myself to review a books as "amazing". I don't know why. To me "Really liked it" is closer to "I loved it" - and so I'll go with that. However, on my Amazon review, I will be giving this book 5-stars.

I don't generally give 5-star reviews. I save those for books I truly feel are worthy of "Classic" status. This book definitely qualifies as a Classic within its genre, Horror/Supernatural. It has all the elements for...more

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May 20, 2011 K.Z. Snow rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An unfortunate example of why the horror genre is in desperate need of another Shirley Jackson.

Less is more. A deft touch trumps ham-handedness.

I was absorbed -- at first -- in spite of the asshole "hero." However, what I thought would be a richly imagined and nuanced spookfest quickly degenerated into a derivative gorefest with wholly unsympathetic, undeveloped protagonists. (Going into excruciating, repetitive detail about characters' pasts and larding those details with sordid melodrama is no...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Kit★ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: keep-forever, horror, older-hero-younger-heroine

Will be giving this a much-deserved and needed re-read when the Stephen King Fans group does it for the August book of the month. I'm psyched to get to re-read it finally! I remember finding this book in a box of books in cardboard mailers, monthly selections from book clubs that I didn't send the reply card back in time, and they sent me books... there was a lot of books in there I wasn't interested in, but this one was a super-score! All these unopened boxes of books had been floating around i...more Will be giving this a much-deserved and needed re-read when the Stephen King Fans group does it for the August book of the month. I'm psyched to get to re-read it finally! I remember finding this book in a box of books in cardboard mailers, monthly selections from book clubs that I didn't send the reply card back in time, and they sent me books... there was a lot of books in there I wasn't interested in, but this one was a super-score! All these unopened boxes of books had been floating around in the trunk of my car for awhile, waiting to be returned, though I never did get around to returning 'em. That was back in, oh, the beginning of 2007, and I had no idea it was SK's son when I first read it. But as I was reading it, I kept getting that niggling feeling of recognition, a familiar voice or something, and took myself to the library one afternoon to get online and look this author up. Imagine my delight at finding out who he was... I was like, no wonder I'm loving this book! So that started my love affair with Hill. I tried to get my mum to read it, as she's the one who started my love affair with SK all those years ago when I was a youngster, and she had it at her house for over a year but never got 'round to reading it, and finally gave it back to me a couple of weeks ago. Then it won the poll for August book, so what better opportunity to jump into it again? I'm so glad I re-read it. I enjoyed it to the hilt, I liked Jude a lot, and I could totally relate to Georgia/Marybeth. I felt they were both fleshed out very well, I could feel for them, root for them, wish for their happiness. And the dogs, Angus and Bon, they were great too, especially in how they helped against Craddock's ghost. Makes me feel a whole lot better about keeping my dog close by. I was sad their roles were so short, but they were great nonetheless. I also really liked the 'flashback-y' bits, seeing about Jude's past as a younger person, and also his past with Anna/Florida. I liked her character too, even though she was already gone, I still found myself hoping for her to have a good end. What happened to her was horrible, and her sister's reasoning of it all, and willingness/eagerness to go along with their step-father's nastiness was just sickening. Especially when it came to her own daughter! I was glad she got to go to prison for it, nothing less than she deserved. I also liked how her daughter, Reese, made a brief reappearance toward the end, and how Jude and Marybeth welcomed her and helped her out, even though all that crap had went down before. I gotta say I loved the end, how they pulled through and triumphed over nasty Craddock and his craziness, and they both survived and Jude became a better man (at least in my opinion), and especially how they were together, married and happy. It made me grin when I closed the book, I was in a good mood. It had a good plot that kept me reading away, good characters, even the bad ones, and a good amount of creepiness mixed with a few gory bits. I sooo can't wait for Hill to publish more and more stuff, 'cause I'm going to read it all.
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Oct 13, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Another debate on star number...3.8, 3.9? Still for a contemporary ghost story I really enjoyed this one. There were some predictable moments, though to list them would constitute a spoiler.

Just think before you...oops, almost let that slip.

bwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha

I am not primarily a fan of ghost stories, but I liked this one...it surprised me a bit.

(view spoiler)...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Stephen King fans, horror fans

Shelves: horror, owned, 2009, reviewed, joe-hill, mystery-and-thrillers

I've been a Stephen King fan for more than half my life. I remember reading his books at a time when other kids my age were reading "Babysitter's Club" books or "Sweet Valley" books.

I've always loved Stephen King. I wasn't sure that I would love his son, so I put off reading this book for a while after obtaining it. It may be a little neurotic, but I thought that if I didn't like Joe Hill's writing, that it would lessen my love for Stephen King's writing.

Luckily, that wasn't the case. I thorou...more

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Sep 05, 2008 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who loves a good ghost story

Shelves: 2008, horror

I’m not very familiar with the horror genre. Other than the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” series, I don’t like vampire stories. I don’t care for monsters, werewolves, demons or other such horror fare. I do love a good ghost story though and “Heart-Shaped Box” by Joe Hill is an excellent ghost story. It’s also a very good story about a man coming to terms with his past and growing up at the age of 52.

As ridiculous as it sounds, “Heart-Shaped Box” is a very believable story. The characters are reali...more

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Jul 27, 2008 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Chris by: jess

This is the only book I’ve ever seen my girlfriend even begin reading, which is probably nothing she needs broadcasted to the world. I forget how she exactly stumbled across it, but the concept of a dude foolishly buying a ghost over the internet seemingly piqued her interest. She anxiously waited for it to arrive; I was eager too, stoked I might actually catch her reading something other than “Star” magazine.

About a year later, she still hadn’t read it, so I decided to. This works out for bot...more This is the only book I’ve ever seen my girlfriend even begin reading, which is probably nothing she needs broadcasted to the world. I forget how she exactly stumbled across it, but the concept of a dude foolishly buying a ghost over the internet seemingly piqued her interest. She anxiously waited for it to arrive; I was eager too, stoked I might actually catch her reading something other than “Star” magazine.

About a year later, she still hadn’t read it, so I decided to. This works out for both of us, I got to read “Heart-Shaped Box”, and while she scrutinizes my internet activity, maybe she’ll pause to check out this review and find out what the book is about.

Judas Coyne is a hero for this new millennium, a self-indulgent rockstar past his prime with a history of personal issues and full of crass sarcasm and a penchant for the finer things in life: privacy, hot goth chicks half his age with countless tattoos and piercings, and grim artifacts of antiquity like severed skulls and torture devices. When his personal assistant, Danny, comes across an internet offer to purchase a dead man’s suit (and supposedly the dude’s ghost along with it), Coyne can’t possibly pass this up. He buys the suit, and sure enough, the ghost does indeed tag along. It turns out that the offer wasn’t exactly what it initially seemed, that this ghost has a more personal connection to him and a hell of a grudge.

Overall, the book was pretty enjoyable, and I’d be interested to see what else author Joe Hill might do next. The characters were likable enough, the story wasn’t great but did a good job entertaining, and his humor is pretty good throughout (my favorite example was when he’s consulting a ouija board and explains that he feels stupid, but once in a music video he “had run in mock horror through a field of clover, chased by a dwarf in a dirty leprechaun suit and carrying a chainsaw” so acting like a fool isn't exactly new to him). Hill does seem influenced by Stephen King, the most obvious nod of the hat being the crossbreeding of the horror genre and rock and roll, with the title taken from a Nirvana tune, and chapters named after songs by Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, and Led Zeppelin. I’d think that fans of Stephen King who are on the verge of soiling themselves in anticipation of his next book can probably use “Heart-Shaped Box” to get them back to a state of regularity.

UPDATE: I've just learned something interesting thanks to a comment by GoodReads member ShellBell (who apparently has her fingers firmly on the pulse of the publishing world), in which she inquired whether Joe Hill is living up to his old man's reputation. His dad? I pondered the surname, and finally thought, Jesus, don't tell me Benny Hill actually had kids that lived. To confirm this sad truth, I hit up Wikipedia, only to discover that Joe Hill is Stephen King's kid! Well, I'll be damned, no wonder I thought this guy was King-influenced; the influence is more than skin deep, it's confirmed as genetic. I almost have to believe that Joe wrote this story to speculate as to what Larry Underwood (of dad's opus The Stand) would be doing in the present day had the Superflu not come about.

It's funny, nowhere on the book jacket is there any sort of notice that Hill is the living proof that King is capable of reproduction. According to the Wiki-article, Hill decided not to broadcast the connection to see if he could stand on his own merits without the comforting crutch of Big Steve's legacy, much like King's own foray into The Bachman Experiment. At this point, I'm thinking that Hill has officially proven he’s not really capable of much more than regurgitating his old man’s style, even down to the selection of marketing gimmicks.

Granted, I won’t deny that it’s somewhat nice to see that the guy is trying to discover if he’d be worth a damn without riding dad’s coattails, but then I consider that the only reason the public is even getting a sample of his work is because he’s King’s son (and the publisher undoubtedly knows that if sales are slow they can always slip the word to the press and watch it fly off the shelves like penicillin after a sorority party). This makes any sort of resulting ‘cred’ pretty flimsy; to take a chance to stand on your own with the possibility of failure is honorable, I don’t give it much respect when that potential fall is buffeted by a large, golden parachute. Only someone akin to the heir to the King throne can even consider snobbishly refusing a guaranteed success by distancing themselves from Stephen King. The rest of us need the money: I’m sure if most of us had the chance to be published, but we’d have to keep up the façade of being related to Stephen King for a year, we’d immediately be requesting a floorplan of King’s house to make to bullshit we were going to spew sound more convincing.
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Jan 21, 2008 Christine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like New York Times book reviews

I found this book in a "best books of the year" list in the New York Times. The premise of the book was interesting...a semi-washed up death metal star buys a ghost on eBay. There were some lovely evocative language moments, but I thought the characters' backstories were disappointingly predictable and the transitions between reality and fantasy a bit awkward. Nevertheless, it was interesting to read, from a "how to write a book that will end up favorably reviewed by the NY Times" perspective. I...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2007

THE HEART-SHAPED BOX BY JOE HILL: One thing I admire greatly about Joe Hill King, son of famous bestselling author Stephen King, is that he didn’t get a leg up from his father like our President did. While I’m sure he’s had plenty of help and advice, Joe Hill has earned his own success through his own writing. Having won a Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection with his first book 20th Century Ghosts, he now returns with his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, which was naturally making a trem...more THE HEART-SHAPED BOX BY JOE HILL: One thing I admire greatly about Joe Hill King, son of famous bestselling author Stephen King, is that he didn’t get a leg up from his father like our President did. While I’m sure he’s had plenty of help and advice, Joe Hill has earned his own success through his own writing. Having won a Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection with his first book 20th Century Ghosts, he now returns with his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, which was naturally making a tremendous amount of buzz before the book even came out. And the congratulatory quote on the back of the book from Neil Gaiman just made it that more popular.

Our main character, Judas Coyne, is a famous guitarist of a band that was once up there with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, but after the sudden deaths of two band members, the guitarist is now a successful solo artist whose eccentricities range into the banal, naturally. His favorite is to collect items and trinkets of the most unusual – the weirder the better! So when Jude sees a ghost for sale on an auction site, he immediately jumps on it, chooses the buy it now option and soon has the package on its way. The single mother is very happy to get rid of the ghost of her grandfather who has been haunting her and her son for so long, and Jude now has his very own ghost.

The package arrives in a large black heart-shaped box and inside he finds an ancient but impeccable suit. Judas is impressed by it, closes the box and soon forgets about it. Then the haunting begins: strange noises and soon they see the ghost, walking around. Then things take a turn for the worse, as the ghost comes after Judas and his friends.

Sadly, when it is revealed where this ghost has come from the story kind of goes downhill. It turns out the ghost is the deceased grandfather of the sister of a former girlfriend of Jude’s who killed herself after he dumped her. While the supernatural element of the ghost remains, and it is on their tail trying to catch them, the reasoning behind it is weak and destroys the foundation of the plot. Nevertheless there is a darkness and depth within this novel that reveals a talented writer with a bold future ahead of him. Like Carrie, this is not the best first novel, but with the talent in Hill’s genes, we know there will be many more stories for him to tell that will be great and terrifying.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Sep 30, 2007 Z rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007

Wow, it's been a long, long time since I read a good horror story. The protagonists in Joe Hill's debut offering (out earlier this year) are an aging rock star and his newest goth girlfriend. Rock star Judas Coyne has a passion for the morbid. To add to his collection of gruesome objects, he responds to an intriguing offer online for the sale of a ghost. He buys it. Little does he realise he's just been set up, and the ghost has been waiting for a chance to wend its way to him.

It doesn't matter...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Ghost story people

This is the creepiest ghost story I've come across in years, one of those that doesn't seem oh so scary while you're reading, but once the lights go out and you're curled up in bed the images start infiltrating your head, and pretty soon you're Macaulay Culkin hiding under the bed with every light in the house turned on. The main character is an aging rock star (who in my imagination must be modeled after Rob Zombie) who is a collector of items of a macabre nature. He buys a "haunted" suit off o...more

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Should this book be made into a feature film?	17	103	Apr 19, 2013 07:17am
Horror Aficionados : Is Heart Shaped Box really scary?	27	122	Apr 18, 2013 11:54pm
Not Your Mama's B...: Boston Globe Review	1	3	Feb 19, 2013 12:29pm
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Not Your Mama's B...: NYT Review	1	6	Feb 12, 2013 03:25pm
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About Joe Hill

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Joseph Hillstrom King (born 1972) is an American writer of fiction, writing under the pen name of Joe Hill.

Hill is the the second child of authors Stephen King and Tabitha King. His younger brother Owen King is also a writer. He has three children.

Hill's first book, the lim...more

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Quotes from Heart-Shaped Box

“He had tried to explain the way he felt to Danny once, about compulsive behavior and time rushing too fast and the Internet and drugs. Danny had only lifted one of his slender, mobile eyebrows and stared at him in smirking confusion. Danny did not think coke and computers were anything alike. But Jude had seen the way people hunched over their screens, clicking the refresh button again and again, waiting for some crucial if meaningless hit of information, and he thought it was almost exactly the same.” — 23 people liked it

“You want sympathy, go fuck James Taylor.” — 20 people liked it

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