We finish the week out with a post from Circulation Services Director Melissa Simpson.
This is a departure from my usual fluffy reading fare, a book that had me ridding the closet of all those pretty, empty Valentine’s Day boxes of candy and peering into the dark corners of the room looking for ghosts…
Jude Coyne is a 50-plus “retired” heavy metal rocker living in a comfortable farmhouse in upstate New York. He has a unique collection of the macabre – gifts from fans as well as things he purchased over the years that fed this fascination with the bizarre. When his assistant finds an ad to purchase a ghost online, Jude doesn’t hesitate to offer the top dollar to own it.
Once the dead man’s suit arrives, things get creepy.
The dead man, Craddock McDermott, is the stepfather of one of Jude’s former girlfriends, the one he called “Florida” after her hometown state. According to Florida’s sister, selling Jude the ghost was the plan she and her stepfather put in place to make Jude pay for Florida’s suicide.
But as Jude and his current girlfriend Mary Beth (aka “Georgia”) try to get away from the vengeful ghost with all the suspenseful trappings of a “run for your life” cross country trip – we also learn a lot about Jude and what really happened to Florida when she returned home. That look into the past gave a human depth to this thriller which is probably why I continuing listening to the audiobook after dark.
Jude ends up being a pretty decent sort of guy, far removed from the callous jerk he was in the beginning of the book — and Craddock McDermott, well, let’s just say he’s motivated by something other than parental love.
I thought Hill (son of Stephen King) did an excellent job with this debut novel. I’m probably going to pick up his next book, Horns, after the images of dead people with black scribbles for eyes fades a little from my memory.
I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Stephen Lang. I could easily picture Jude after hearing Lang’s gravelly voice. And frankly, I don’t think reading the book alone would have been as scary since hearing Craddock’s voice was such an integral part of his terror-inducing scheme.
Check the WRL catalog for Heart-Shaped Box
Check the WRL catalog for Heart-Shaped Box on audio
I tried this book a few years back and got bored out of my gourd, quit after three chapters. Maybe it was my fault, for expecting Joe Hill to be more like his daddy. But after reading tons of positive reviews for Hill’s sophomore effort, I tried Horns and liked it.
But wait! There’s more!
Faced with the prospect of a long drive a coupla weekends ago, I decided to to try an audiobook, even though I don’t normally listen to books. Neil suggested I try HSB in audio, and since I really had enjoyed Horns, I figured I’d give it a shot.
I was still bored out of my gourd, not scared at all. I will say that listening to the book for six hours pulled me deep enough into the story that I finished the balance in print form, my ennui notwithstanding.
This might be a defect in me: I was reading hardcore Stephen King when my age was still measured in the single digits, so every other horror/thriller since then has been kind of a letdown. At any rate, I’ll post my glowing review of Horns in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
[…] had been reluctant to try this book, because Joe Hill’s debut novel did not suit me. Part of the problem was that I kept wanting him to be his father, which he […]
[…] Hill impressed a lot of critics (though not me) with his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and he impressed a lot of critics (including me) with his second novel, Horns. Unfortunately, […]
LOVED THE BOOK. Couldn’t put it down. Read it in two days. I didn’t even know that he was Stephen King’s son and I was going: “I like him better than Neil Gaiman–Oh Stephen will hate me for saying this!”