Summary
"Wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty....A Valentine from hell."
--Janet Maslin, New York Times
The publication of Joe Hill's beautifully textured, deliciously scary debut novel Heart-Shaped Box was greeted with the sort of overwhelming critical acclaim that is rare for a work of skin-crawling supernatural terror. It was cited as a Best Book of the Year by Atlanta magazine, the Tampa Tribune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Village Voice, to name but a few. Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling Neil Gaiman of The Sandman, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys fame calls Joe Hill's story of a jaded rock star haunted by a ghost he purchased on the internet, "relentless, gripping, powerful." Open this Heart-Shaped Box from two-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Hill if you dare and see what all the well-deserved hoopla is about.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review:
"This riveting debut novel is so hip and so frightening that there are sure to be scaredy copycats next year. Aging rock god Jude Coyne is enjoying his semi-retirement as a recluse on his farm with his beloved dogs; his latest groupie-cum-girlfriend, Georgia; and a creepy hobby, collecting objets des macabres. Jude's latest addition to his ghoulish collection is a ghost. The specter resides in an old-fashioned Sunday suit, and, once released from the titular heart-shaped box, begins a mission of revenge. Swinging a curved razor, the black-eyed spirit hypnotizes its victims. Jude's assistant, Danny, hangs himself. Then Georgia sticks a gun in her mouth. Even Jude is not immune to the phantom's murderous lullabies and finds himself in the front seat of his cream-puff Mustang, inhaling carbon monoxide. Hill's tone is gleefully morbid, and his plot plunges and flies like a roller coaster trying to dump all of its shrieking passengers. Both an original effort and an honorable homage to the author's father, horrormeister Stephen King (Hill's real surname is King, too), Heart-Shaped Box heralds the arrival of a horribly good new talent.--Mediatore Stover, Kaite Copyright 2008 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review:
"Stoker-winner Hill features a particularly merciless ghost in his powerful first novel. Middle-aged rock star Judas Coyne collects morbid curios for fun, so doesn't think twice about buying a suit advertised at an online auction site as haunted by its dead owner's ghost. Only after it arrives does Judas discover that the suit belonged to Craddock McDermott, the stepfather of one of Coyne's discarded groupies, and that the old man's ghost is a malignant spirit determined to kill Judas in revenge for his stepdaughter's suicide. Judas isn't quite the cad or Craddock the avenging angel this scenario makes them at first, but their true motivations reveal themselves only gradually in a fast-paced plot that crackles with expertly planted surprises and revelations. Hill (20th Century Ghosts) gives his characters believably complex emotional lives that help to anchor the supernatural in psychological reality and prove that (as one character observes) "horror was rooted in sympathy." His subtle and skillful treatment of horrors that could easily have exploded over the top and out of control helps make this a truly memorable debut. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
| Subjects |
Suspense fiction.
Ghost stories.
|
| Publisher |
New York :William Morrow,2007
|
| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Language |
English
|
| Description |
376 pages ; 24 cm
|
| ISBN |
9780061147937
0061147931
9780061944895
0061944890
|
| Other |
Classic View |
