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Loading... Heart-Shaped Box (2007)by Joe Hill
  
Best Horror Books (45) ALA The Reading List (39) » 16 more Books Read in 2008 (57) 2000s decade (78) Bram Stoker Award (13) Horror: Top 10 (6) Books Read in 2011 (137) mstrust's scary list (34) First Novels (347) Great American Novels (136) Five star books (1,608) No current Talk conversations about this book. This was a pretty good audiobook, but not something I could have gotten through in book form. It's a ghost story, serviceably told, plain and simple. (  ) bookwrapt | Mar 31, 2023 |  This story is about a rock star and his girlfriend who end up being haunted and terrorized by a very horrible, scary ghost. The story touches on themes of love and revenge, and surprisingly, for a non-literary thriller, the character development is very good. The book is really squarely in the horror genre though - - so if you like horror, you'll love this book. If you don't like horror, I wouldn't give it a try. It is graphic - - sexually and violence-wise. It's fast, compelling reading, and I always have a tough time with books where the premise isn't something realistic. Yet, in this book, I really felt chills despite the fact that I don't believe in ghosts or the supernatural at all. It didn't quite garner 5 stars though as I thought there were a few times where the characters behaved in irrational ways that really weren't justified. Nonetheless, it was fun to read a book that just never let you sit back and relax. I can totally see this book as a movie. (  ) Anita_Pomerantz | Mar 23, 2023 | Shit, this book was intense. It did not let up, you were constantly on the edge of your seat freaking out because FUCKING HELL HOW ARE THEY GONNA SURVIVE THIS SHIT? And it also managed to be scary, and not only stress-inducing. Very impressive in that way, even though I really hate constant feelings of anxieta when consuming fictions. The way the story starts was less impressive. Like, the supernatural elements were introduced basically via a phone call infodump that seemed extremely weird, tbh. I get that it wasn't meant to be a slow build and that we the readers were meant to know that supernatural shit was REAL from the start, but ... nah, it was a bit weird. Maybe because I had no idea what the book was gonna be about: this copy lacks any kind of back blurb regarding the plot (which I fucking hate!). Also the main character ens up in the book's entire mess because he buys a haunted suit. Like, for real dude, you almost deserved to die for that. However, it wasn't just a scary story, it was part murder mystery, that plot was well-written too. Which I gotta say I liked, it's like two stories in one. I didn't find it too predictable, although some of the flashbacks with the baddies seemed a bit off for some reason. They didn't come off as scary in those. But having the main character be a 50 rock stars who exclusively dates 20-something girls was a little gross. Could've aged him down 20 years or so, tbh. ( ) upontheforemostship | Feb 22, 2023 | Lots of potential, and actual writing is good. But the trite plot decisions and a plethora of trashy, southern stereotypes just make it kinda eye-rolly. ( ) Ravenwoodwitch | Dec 25, 2022 | Goodness me. This is the first novel I've read by Joe Hill. I should have known after reading his graphic novel series Locke and Key that his imagination can go to some seriously dark places, but I was still thrown by how truly scary this guy's writing is. Heart-Shaped Box was the audio book for my work commute, and there were times when I got out of my car and had to literally shake it off. Stephen Lang did a nice job as the reader, especially with his portrayal of Jude and Craddock. Recommended to anyone who's up for a good scare. ( ) Harks | Dec 17, 2022 |
 "Heart-Shaped Box" truly deserves the superlatives heaped upon it by the publicists who smoothed the path of this first novel's advent. Hill masterfully keeps the action moving and the drama escalating, giving readers just enough revelations to keep them on board this Southern train of a ghost story. While I would not go so far as to hand Joe Hill his father's crown just yet, this debut is a promising start. It's safe to say a new contender for the throne has arrived. Heart-Shaped Box isn't about appeasing fathers, and learning to love them, and seeing that they, too, are human beings and not monsters. It's not about that at all. It's about knowing your father, and finding him, and then killing him. That's what the best artists do.  Hill’s debut novel is as assured a debut novel as I have ever read, regardless of genre. Heart-Shaped Box, itself an entertaining and superb novel, offers hints of a great writing career to come. Belongs to Publisher SeriesEditora Sextante (2007), Arqueiro (2010)
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML: Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman's noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet. I will "sell" my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder. . . . For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghostsâ??of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What's one more? But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing. And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door . . . seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang . . . standing outside his window . . . staring out from his widescreen TV. Waitingâ??with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand. . . . A multiple-award winner for his short fiction, author Joe Hill immediately vaults into the top echelon of dark fantasists with a blood-chilling roller-coaster ride of a novel, a masterwork brimming with relentless thrills and acid terror. This special edition includes an excerpt from Joe Hill's newest novel, Horns, and a letter from the author No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing AuthorJoe Hill is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing. Popular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.74)
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