Heart-Shaped Box

by Joe Hill

I was lucky enough to get this book almost as soon as it was ordered by and delivered to the library. And I must say that I was not at all disappointed in it.

You've got to admire Joe HIll for setting off down the road that's been well-traveled by his dad. I think one day though he'll be paving his own road--perhaps it will run parallel to his dad's, but it'll be his own, all the same.

Initially I couldn't rouse much empathy or sympathy for Jude Coyne--an aging heavy metal singer with lots of baggage and a taste for the macabre--his collection includes a snuff film, a skull with a hole bored into it, a noose that was actually used in executions, a witch's confession. His latest acquisition, a dead man's suit, which arrives in a heart-shaped box, comes with its own ghost, and Jude discovers that the seller wasn't kidding about that.

He and his current squeeze are harrassed by the ghost and for a long stretch of the book it doesn't seem possible that they can be rid of it. It's come for revenge. But they discover that there is a way to fight back. I found myself rooting for Jude and all his failings as a person.

That's one of the many things I liked about this novel--Joe Hill did an excellent job of fleshing out the characters. It would've been easy to caricature an aging rock star, but Joe wrote Jude Coyne's character very well. You understood where he came from, what his motivations were, and the best part was that it wasn't developed through boring narration--the flashbacks, the dialogues were written in wonderful but never overwhelming detail.

There were some parts of the book I suspected early on--for example, the truth behind Jude's previous girlfriend's death, and her own back story. I think I've just developed that sense from reading Joe's dad. It didn't spoil the book for me though. And the ending was satisfactory, though I really wished that there had been two fewer dogs sacrificed.