Joe Hill is a pseudonym. Most everyone, editors and the book-reading public, know that he’s actually Stephen King’s son. It was never a well-kept secret except when he was doing award-winning short stories. His skill as a writer, a good writer, was a better kept secret because as everyone knows very few short story writers really get a lot of notice.
All that changes with the publication of that new writer’s first novel if he or she hits one out of the park. Joe Hill has done exactly that with his first book.
The premise of Heart-Shaped Box is deceptively simple. It sucked me right in. Imagine in this day and age of being able to buy anything and everything on-line that you could buy a ghost. What kind of ghost would you get? A chain-rattler? A friendly ghost?
More than likely, you wouldn’t get what you were planning on. And if the characters had in the novel, the excitement and borrowed fear would never have kicked in.
Even with a premise like this, I wasn’t convinced that Joe Hill, no matter whose son he was, could pull off an entertaining story. Even with the legacy and the premise, I put off getting the book for a while.
And for time, while reading the novel, I wasn’t convinced I’d spent my money wisely. Of course, book readers aren’t so much worried about the money they spend on a book as much as they are the time they spend on a book. I just don’t get that many free evenings to read, and each one is precious to me.
Hill’s prose flows smoothly but he didn’t seem to be going anywhere very fast at the beginning of the book. I got bored from time to time and just wished he would get on with the story. To make matters worse, I didn’t like his main characters.
Judas Coyne, called Jude by his friends, is an aging rock-and-roller whose days on a stage are gone. He’s in his early fifties and has become pretty much a social cripple. He’s not interested in meeting people anymore and he has all the money he needs. The only thing they gets him up in the mornings is his dogs.
Article comments
1 - Nicole Saraiva
Unlike a great part of the readers for Heart Shaped Box, I actually bought this book with no idea of the author and his relation to Stephen King.
While in the bookshop, I spotted this book at random, and it seemed to call to me.
Reading the blurb, I gathered that it was a horror that greatly appealed to me.
The musical influences, the supernatural, the tortured past, the suicide, this all painted an amazingly intriguing picture, and I knew I couldn't leave the store without that book.
Myself, I originate from Texas and currently live in New York City. As a teen I grew up with the Gothic "sub culture" and have continued with the lifestyle, and I've done some pretty shitty things with myself...as a result I felt I could identify totally with Georgia/Marybeth, and also, to maybe a lesser extent, Jude.
I see the eerie parallels with my own life ; the guilt of betrayal, the emotional damage, the ghosts of the past.
Heart Shaped Box showed me these things, in a context I could understand and accept.
This isn't really a book review so much as a deep heart felt thank you to Joe Hill.
This book opened me up to being able accept new ideas about life, and that being emotionally dead to avoid people wasn't saving me.
It helped me achieve the confidence to confront my own ghosts and break through the fog that was clouding my mind...and now at the end of the day I'm smiling again, and eagerly looking forward to tomorrow.
2 - Ginger Haycox
I feel the same way. I was about to do a review on this book after reading it, but I've changed my mind because I think the book needs no help in finding readers on it's own. I am not a Stephen King fan - not totally anyway. I read some of his books because I like the way he tells a story. With exception to some good vs evil classics like The Stand, I wasn't really hooked on any of his tales tho'.
So if I say Joe Hill hasn't fallen far from the tree with an exception, I mean that only in the best sense. He has the story-telling abilities plus a good story to tell. At least so far.
I did find that the Heart-Shaped Box meandered off at times, but not in a critically bad way. I was fascinated with his girls and happy at where some of that led. Nicole, this to you; I'm sure glad the book served such a positive purpose for you too, because we have eternity to obsess over death - life is ever so short and we need to obsess over it too, while we still have the chance. The rewards can be beautiful even if the road getting to that beauty is ugly. Trust me - I speak from experience.
3 - Elaine Newvine
Loved this book! I was hooked from the first chapter. This was not a waste of my reading time, and would find myself reading a chapter or two while making dinner. It was hard to put down.The story and character's personalities were intense. Can't wait to read more of Joe's books.