book data
3,079 ratings,
3.67
average rating, 839 reviews
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published
February 1st 2007
by William Morrow
binding
Hardcover, 376 pages
setting
The United States
literary awards
ALA Reading List - Best Horror 2008; Nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2008)
isbn
0061147931
(isbn13: 9780061147937)
description
Do you sleep with the light on? Are you in the habit of checking your doors and windows before you go to bed? Maybe even checking under your bed? If y...more
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3 stars (866)
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2 stars (276)
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1 star (73)
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avg 3.67
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Book Burners :)
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. "...more
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. "...more
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Read in October, 2008
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(4 people liked it)
2 comments
Read in May, 2008
(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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in May, 2007
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
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Read in April, 2007
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 ki...more
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 ki...more
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Read in May, 2008
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 item...more
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Read in January, 2008
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in August, 2007
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, s...more
The beginning of this book—the first hundred pages or so—was truly frightening to me. A secret: vampires, werewolves, mummies, s...more
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Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
those wanting a ghost story in a modern setting, with odd characters
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who likes a good ghost story
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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bookshelves:
--2009--,
4-star,
fiction,
hauntings,
horror,
owned,
owned-read,
reviewed,
tnbbc-winter-challenge-08
Read in January, 2009
recommends it for:
Stephen King fans, horror fans
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.
...more
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.
...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who loves a good ghost story
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 belie...more
As ridiculous as it sounds, “Heart-Shaped Box” is a very belie...more
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Read in June, 2008
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. ...more
About a year later, she still hadn’t read it, so I decided to. ...more
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Read in January, 2008
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"...more
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Read in March, 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 makin...more
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Read in September, 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 doe...more
It doe...more
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Read in April, 2007
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"...more
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Read in August, 2007
I went into this blind, without any idea what it was about (but Res liked it, so I'd give it a try). I should probably give it more than three stars -- it's far closer to 4, but I'm not sure of that yet. We'll see after the book's had some time to settle into my brain some. (Vague spoilers below.)
Joe Hill writes himself some good character. I loved how clearly everyone was drawn and how so much of who and what everyone was was shown in their words and actions. The skewed POV of ...more
Joe Hill writes himself some good character. I loved how clearly everyone was drawn and how so much of who and what everyone was was shown in their words and actions. The skewed POV of ...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who enjoys goosebump-inducing ghost stories
Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box is a ghost story of old that starts out with a washed-out, aged rocker buying a ghost over the Internet. Hill's novel is one of a break-neck pace that also doesn't let up or let go until the end, and it's gruesome enough to satisfy horror fans looking for a little blood, but detailed enough in its description of the ghost to keep traditional ghost story fans more than happy. While not as character-centered as Mike Carey's novel The Devil You Know (which is told from...more
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Read in July, 2007
I gave this book 4 stars only because I'm not a big reader of horror, but I think most horror fans will love it. It reads like early Stephen King for a pretty good reason: Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. It's dark and creepy with malevolent ghosts, spirits speaking from beyond the grave, and nightmarish visions. Judas Coyne is an aging rock star with a taste for groupies under 20. He degrades them by calling them by the state they come from rather than by their real names, chucking them out...more
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quotes from this book
"The mad sometimes drilled holes in their own heads to let the demons out. To relieve the pressure of thoughts
they could no longer bear. Jude understood the impulse.Each beat of his heart was a fresh and staggering blow felt in the nerves behind his eyes and in his temples. Punishing evidence of life."
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