But it’s during this early section that I found out how horrible Jude’s life was when he was a child. How it had shaped him. I understood why he was the way he was, but I still didn’t really care. He didn’t have anything to prove to himself, and he didn’t have anything to prove to me.
It wasn’t until his personal assistant bought the dead man’s suit on eBay that the story really started picking up the pace and getting more interesting. The menace was there, lingering on every page, but not really picking up the momentum for a while.
During this time, the reader also discovers that Jude has a live-in lover who’s half his age and appears to be every bit as emotionally damaged as he is. Jude calls her Georgia, but her name is really Mary Beth. She was a stripper and a band groupie when Jude found her. Their relationship is tempestuous and rocky.
But the ghost of Craddock McDermott quickly terrorizes and unites them. The ghost was the stepfather of another young woman that Jude took as a live-in lover. He called that young woman Florida, but her real name was Anna. What Jude discovers is that Anna slit her wrists in the bathtub after he made her go back home.
Anna’s sister, Jessica, sold the suit on eBay to set the trap for Jude. Jessica and her dead stepfather blame Jude for Anna’s death. Craddock McDermott has come back from the grave for vengeance.
Even with the hook set and knowing that Jude was facing the worst thing that ever happened to him in his life, the interest level for the novel had not peaked for me. It wasn’t until Jude and Mary Beth got on the road and tried to outrun the ghost that things really started get interesting.
At first all the action seemed to be merely rote. The things that Jude did would be expected of anyone trapped in the same fictional situation. However, somewhere in there Jude and Mary Beth came alive to me. They weren’t merely dysfunctional people anymore. They became people I cared about because they started to care about each other. Once that happened, everything mattered.
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.