seraphcelene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seraphcelene) wrote2013-10-24 07:57 pm
seraphcelene) wrote2013-10-24 07:57 pm
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Books: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
I do not generally read anything that reeks of mainstream horror. I can't remember what attracted me to Heart-Shaped Box, but I'm glad that it found me. It was an awesome ride.
Written by Joe Hill, who I was surprised to discover today is the son of Stephen and Tabitha King, Heart-Shaped Box is a paranormal thriller from start to finish. I was scared and grossed out, but also touched by the complexity of the characters. The story is one of loss and discovery as much as it is about ghosts and revenge.
Jude Coyn, a washed-out rock icon, purchases a haunted suit from what he thinks is eBay. He doesn't believe that it's actually haunted, but when the suit arrives, reeking and tucked into a black heart-shaped box, things go to shit pretty quickly. Jude and his girlfriend, Georgia nee Marybeth, find themselves on the run from a vengeful ghost. The journey takes them home, reconnects them to each other and to their pasts. There are plenty of twists to keep things interesting and I was enraptured. Hill has a deft and easy hand with the storytelling. Apparently, it runs in the family. The pacing was great, I never grew tired. The descriptions were elegant and spooky.
I loved how much Marybeth and Jude actually love each other. I love that Jude has to literally be shaken out of the malaise of aging stardom and shocked into realizing how much he loves her. I think that it's not unrealistic. We take for granted those around us and realize too late that we had something great when it walks away.
Marybeth turned out to be far more interesting than I originally thought she would be. I wasn't expecting her to turn into a real character. She was pretty cool.
There was a lot of wiggins going on. I loved the squiggly eye thing with the ghosts. I LOVED that Bon and Angus, Jude's Shephers were like his familiars. It was strangely appropriate that Jude finally got to have that knock down drag out fight with his father that he always wanted to have. It was oddly sad that his dad seemed really happy, if amazed, to see his son. So trifling, and maybe one of the only bits of underdeveloped plot that we got.
Hill did a great job of integrating all of the story elements so that all the adventures and events of the novel led one into the next. They made sense to the unfolding of the story, and if anything had been changed, the entire story would have changed.
This book took me forever to read because it was creepy enough that I did not want to read it at night! That's saying alot because I am a total "one-more-chapter" kind of girl. And you know that one more chapter at the end of the day always leads to five or six and next thing you know you're done with the book and only have three hours of the night left to get some shut-eye before work.
I feel like the ending might have been a little bit of a cop-out, but I loved it all the same. If it had ended any other way I actually would have been really disappointed. Heart-Shaped Box was a great read. I can't wait to read more from Mr. Hill.
Written by Joe Hill, who I was surprised to discover today is the son of Stephen and Tabitha King, Heart-Shaped Box is a paranormal thriller from start to finish. I was scared and grossed out, but also touched by the complexity of the characters. The story is one of loss and discovery as much as it is about ghosts and revenge.
Jude Coyn, a washed-out rock icon, purchases a haunted suit from what he thinks is eBay. He doesn't believe that it's actually haunted, but when the suit arrives, reeking and tucked into a black heart-shaped box, things go to shit pretty quickly. Jude and his girlfriend, Georgia nee Marybeth, find themselves on the run from a vengeful ghost. The journey takes them home, reconnects them to each other and to their pasts. There are plenty of twists to keep things interesting and I was enraptured. Hill has a deft and easy hand with the storytelling. Apparently, it runs in the family. The pacing was great, I never grew tired. The descriptions were elegant and spooky.
I loved how much Marybeth and Jude actually love each other. I love that Jude has to literally be shaken out of the malaise of aging stardom and shocked into realizing how much he loves her. I think that it's not unrealistic. We take for granted those around us and realize too late that we had something great when it walks away.
Marybeth turned out to be far more interesting than I originally thought she would be. I wasn't expecting her to turn into a real character. She was pretty cool.
There was a lot of wiggins going on. I loved the squiggly eye thing with the ghosts. I LOVED that Bon and Angus, Jude's Shephers were like his familiars. It was strangely appropriate that Jude finally got to have that knock down drag out fight with his father that he always wanted to have. It was oddly sad that his dad seemed really happy, if amazed, to see his son. So trifling, and maybe one of the only bits of underdeveloped plot that we got.
Hill did a great job of integrating all of the story elements so that all the adventures and events of the novel led one into the next. They made sense to the unfolding of the story, and if anything had been changed, the entire story would have changed.
This book took me forever to read because it was creepy enough that I did not want to read it at night! That's saying alot because I am a total "one-more-chapter" kind of girl. And you know that one more chapter at the end of the day always leads to five or six and next thing you know you're done with the book and only have three hours of the night left to get some shut-eye before work.
I feel like the ending might have been a little bit of a cop-out, but I loved it all the same. If it had ended any other way I actually would have been really disappointed. Heart-Shaped Box was a great read. I can't wait to read more from Mr. Hill.