Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel [Paperback]

Joe Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

Aging death-metal rock legend Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. But nothing he possesses is as unique or as dreadful as his latest purchase off the Internet: a one-of-a-kind curiosity that arrives at his door in a black heart-shaped box...a musty dead man's suit still inhabited by the spirit of its late owner. And now everywhere Judas Coyne goes, the old man is there—watching, waiting, dangling a razor blade on a chain from his bony hand.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Do you sleep with the light on? Are you in the habit of checking your doors and windows before you go to bed? Maybe even checking under your bed? If you are about to crack open Joe Hill's chilling thriller Heart-Shaped Box, you might want to rethink your nighttime habits--Hill's story about an aging rock star (with a penchant for macabre artifacts) who buys a haunted suit online will scare you silly. But don't take our word for it. We asked bestselling authors (and masters of dark terror tales themselves) Scott Smith, and Harlan Coben to read Heart-Shaped Box and give us their take. Check out their reviews below, and you might want to pick up a nightlight while you're at it. --Daphne Durham

Guest Reviewer: Scott Smith In 1993, Scott Smith wowed readers with his stunning debut thriller, A Simple Plan. Thirteen years later, he spooked us again with The Ruins, a horror-thriller about four Americans traveling in Mexico who stumble across a nightmare in the jungle. The set-up for Joe Hill's novel, Heart-Shaped Box, is appealingly simple. Jude Coyne, an aging rock star, buys himself a dead man's suit. He acquires it online, lured by the promise that the dead man's ghost will be included in his purchase. Jude thinks this is a joke, of course. He also assumes the seller is a stranger. We soon discover that he's wrong on both counts, however, and from this point on the story moves with an exhilarating urgency. Jude wants the ghost gone; the ghost wants Jude dead. We watch, chapter-by-chapter, as they battle for survival. "Watch" is the appropriate word, too, because this is an extremely visual book. Hill's prose is lean and precise, and he renders Jude's world with impressive confidence. It feels solid, every detail both correct and fresh. And this physicality provides a firm platform for the book's otherworldly happenings, which seem all the more frightening for being so securely grounded. Hill has a flawless sense of pacing. His narrative never flags, nor does it ever move so quickly as to outrun itself. And one can sense his literary ambition pushing at the margins of the genre. There are times when his writing, for all its spare efficiency, seems to jump away from him, stopping one small step short of poetry. An e-mail to Jude from the ghost (trust me, it's not as absurd as it sounds) could even pass for something ee cummings might've written, in an especially morbid mood. And toward the end of the book, when Hill describes a trip down death's "night road" in a '65 Mustang, the passage has a startlingly lyrical beauty. The story's horror ultimately has as much to do with Jude Coyne's past--his mistakes, abandonments and betrayals--as with anything supernatural. Jude has caused a lot of pain over the years, moving through life with a carelessness that verges on the callous. His battle with the ghost brings this behavior into sharp relief, forcing him to reflect upon his own capacity for cruelty. This dawning self-awareness leavens the book's bleakness and gore (and it is delightfully gory in places) with an unexpected sweetness. Despite our initial impression, Jude is gradually revealed--both to himself and the reader--as an essentially decent, even kind man. It's this kindness, this fledgling ability to love and be loved, that will ultimately be of crucial consequence in his death struggle with the ghost. And it's what makes Hill's debut not only well-written and terrifying, but also--as it draws to its close--surprisingly moving. So go ahead, take a chance, and open his Heart-Shaped Box. I think you’ll be happy you did. --Scott Smith

Guest Reviewer: Harlan Coben Harlan Coben is the author of the beloved Myron Bolitar series about a wisecracking sports agent, as well as stunning stand-alone novels like The Innocent and his breakout thriller Tell No One. His new novel The Woods releases on April 17, 2007. You, dear reader, are obviously somewhat versed in making online purchases, so today, immediately after you click on the yellow "Add to Shopping Cart" on the top right hand corner of this page, why not do an online search and buy something totally unique? Like, say, a vengeful ghost. That is what rock-star Judas Coyne does, thinking it will be a laugh, fun for his "sick-o" collection of such things. It seems a random buy, but Judas soon learns that it is anything but. This particular ghost is one Craddock McDermott, step-father to recent suicide victim and boy, is he cranky. He demands revenge for his step-daughter’s death, which he blames on Judas’s shabby treatment of her. Or is he after something else? There are Amazon readers who will give you a better plot summary. Don't read them too closely because Joe Hill provides plenty of fun surprises. Heart-Shaped Box is a true spine-tingler. I don’t use that hyphenated word much anymore. We have seen and read it all, haven't we? But right away, in the first chapter, there was a subtle line that made the hairs on the back of my neck go up in a way I haven't experienced since I first discovered great horror as a teenager. Hill writes with a sure hand. The prose is compelling. Like most memorable tales of horror, this book is more about redemption than scary moments--though Heart-Shaped Box has plenty of scares. They are visceral, shocking and very well done. The characters are flawed and real. The father-son relationship adds texture and surprising poignancy. So here's the thing. My guess is, you won’t find a ghost to buy online, but if you read the Heart-Shaped Box, you will be getting something that will haunt you and startle you and stay with you and yes, visit you in your dreams. Sleep well, dear reader. --Harlan Coben

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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This first novel by Hill, the second son of Stephen King, provides the perfect raw material for Lang to create an auditory world so convincing that the listener will feel as if they have seen a film by the time they are through. The complex plot can be simply stated: as a lark, retired heavy metal star Judas Coyne buys a haunted suit online. The ghost turns out to be the very angry stepfather of an ex-groupie/lover of Coyne's who killed herself after he sent her away. The relentless ghost is there to kill Judas and anyone who tries to help him. Lang's superb narration is nearly hypnotic in its calm delivery, perfect as backdrop for the action and horror that surrounds it. His Coyne is reminiscent of John Goodman, deep and understated, with a foundation of confidence with a barely perceptible trace of a Southern accent. Each disk starts with a bit of Nine Inch Nails–ish heavy haunting electronica, an ideal tone setter for the journey.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 1 Reprint edition (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061944890
• ISBN-13: 978-0061944895
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (441 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The author of the critically acclaimed Heart-Shaped Box and 20th Century Ghosts, Joe Hill is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, and a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and Year's Best collections. He calls New England home.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars And who knew that getting a finger blown off could be....., April 15, 2008

By 

K. Corn "reviewer" (midwest, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'll finish the sentence that started this review in a bit. First, two disclaimers or confessions here:

1. I don't normally like horror stories.

2. I don't usually like novels that have to do with the supernatural or life beyond the grave or any of that - with some notable exceptions. Many of them simply don't seem all that engrossing. Gross? Maybe. But captivating? Not usually.

But this book grabbed hold of me from the start. It could be because I've been thinking about mortality lately and so the plot (centering on life and death, love and revenge) was compelling to me. But I don't think so. I think it is truly a good book.

The plot:

Judas Coyne (known simply as Jude to most) collects macabre objects, even snuff films (and yes, this is a sign that his soul is a bit awry and aching). But when he buys a dead man's suit he isn't prepared for what is coming to haunt him.

Joe Hill, the author of this novel, did such a fine job creating the atmosphere and characters in this book that I didn't want to put it down. Jude Coyne, the main guy in this one, isn't prone to staying in relationships and he can be a cold, hard man. As the book progresses, I found his evolution and development to be compelling. I was rooting for him. Would he be able to face his internal and external ghosts, past and present, and become a better person for it? I really wanted to know and I found him to be believable, however flawed (and maybe more compelling because of his flaws).

The author has a firm grasp on the art of creating cliff-hanger endings for chapters. Take this sentence: "And who knew that getting a finger blown off and losing half a pint of blood could be so good for your sense of humor?", for example. It may not be a main sentence but it gave me pause because...

It takes a gutsy author to pull off a sentence like that but it works, amazingly. If the thought of that intrigues you even a little, I suggest you grab this one. It is now available in paperback. Next to building the Eiffel Tower in Legos, reading this book was the most entertaining - and challenging - thing I did all week.

95 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unputdownable! Joe Hill Fills Some Big Shoes, March 5, 2007

By 

Colleen McMahon ""Omnivorous Reader"" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was a Stephen King fan going way back and always love to get my hands on a new book that makes me feel like I did when I first read King classics like The Shining, The Stand and Misery--like I was riding in a car barrelling down a road at night, going a little fast for my comfort but knowing that the driver had a sure hand on the wheel...even if he's overdriving the headlights just a little and the landscape around the car is getting more surreal, I'm sure we'll make it out okay on the other side so I just have to buckle in and enjoy the ride.

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a horror/supernatural book in that way. When I saw the great reviews for Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box, I got my hopes up and hurried to get the book in my hands. I was not in the least disappointed.

Heart Shaped Box is a bit of a horror tale, more than a hint of Southern Gothic, a road story but above all it is a tale of redemption. Judas Coyne is a heavy metal rocker who used his music to express the anger and hurt of his own abusive upbringing, and is now living in luxurious if semi-meaningless retirement. He manages his holdings, has a succession of much younger girlfriends named after states, and has a collection of oddities bought off the internet or purchased over the years. So he can't resist the opportunity to buy a real ghost, which comes attached to an old fashioned suit the ghost used to wear.

As soon as the ghost arrives, however, Judas finds there's much more at stake. He's been set up, and this ghost-or whatever it is-has a very personal vendetta with him. He and everyone close to him will die, the ghost promises. The rest of the story unfolds the plot against Judas, and his attempts to outrun the ghost and its vengeance, saving his own life and that of his latest girlfriend. In the process he tries to redeem not only his own humanity, but that of Georgia, the latest girlfriend, and Florida, the one whose tragic death set the entire ghostly plan into motion.

Like my favorite STephen King books, there are moments of absolute realism and moments of almost absurd grossness that is nonetheless unforgettable. The plot is tightly wound and never loses steam, and even better, both Judas and the other main character, Georgia, develop into people I was genuinely rooting for. I read this book in less than a day and eagerly await more from Joe Hill. If you like good horror and good suspense, this is one to check out.

63 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get on that nightroad..., February 13, 2007

By 

H. Bala "Me Too Can Read" (Just moved to posh Marina Del Rey, CA - where if you drop a quarter, why, you just keep on walking) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel (Hardcover)

Reading HEART-SHAPED BOX is like getting sucker-punched with a vicious left hook to the gut. This book comes with a mean streak and a bittersweet aftertaste. At not quite 400 pages, it feels like a slimmer novel, it motors along so easily. I got so immersed into the reading of this book that the alarm clock went off and totally shocked me with all the time that had sped by.

SPOILERS begin.

The plot involves aging rock star Judas Coyne who, in the course of his rock-and-rolling career, has casually amassed an assortment of freaky memorabilia (sketches of the Seven Dwarfs by John Wayne Gacy, Aleister Crowley's childhood chessboard, a three-hundred-year-old confession signed by a witch, etc). On a whim, while viewing an online auction site, he purchases a ghost for a thousand dollars, this ghost being embodied in the dead man's old-fashioned Sunday suit. Not until later does Jude find out that that auction site was meant for him - and him alone...

Jude thinks nothing more of his purchase until, some time later, a UPS truck drops off a black, heart-shaped box housing the suit. Immediately after, eerie and unsettling events begin to happen, starting with Jude's alarming glimpse of a shadowy old man sitting in his hallway one ominous night. From there, it gets really, really frightening and perilous as he and his lived-in, much younger girlfriend Georgia (he always calls his girlfriends by their state of origin) are mercilessly haunted and terrorized by the vindictive ghost.

The ghost is written as such a powerful and malevolent entity that I really couldn't fathorm how Jude and Georgia could possibly end up on the sunny side of things. Thru the course of the novel, we find out that the spirit, whose real name is Craddock McDermott, had been a celebrated hypnotist and dowser while alive. In life, his preferred tool of trade was his razor blade dangling from a chain, which he had used as a focusing point for his hypnotisms. Now it serves to add to the boo factor. In death, Craddock's powers of persuasion seem to have increased exponentially as, now, he is able to rapidly and even more insidiously influence his victims. Craddock also has a way of inhabiting radios and televisions as he uses these mechanical objects to further harass Jude and Georgia, and, in one instance, influence a non-involved driver to nearly run them down. Each progressive encounter with Craddock finds Jude and Georgia more wounded and devastated as their terrified flight from the ghost becomes rapidly tinged with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.

One of the reasons I picked up this book is that, sometime last year, I read (either in Daily Variety or Hollywood Reporter) that Joe Hill was, in fact, the son of my all-time favorite horror writer, Stephen King. I was curious to see if the horror gene is transferrable. The answer seems to be...yes. HEART-SHAPED BOX is Joe Hill's first full-length novel, but it doesn't read like a rookie effort. The pace and aura of dread are relentless. And, thanks to Hill's uncompromising, fully-realized characters, he imbues the supernatural story with a solid grounding. Pretty much everyone in the book has been hurt in the past, at one time or another, emotionally, psychologically, and/or physically. The protagonist himself, Jude Coyne, is, a lot of times, an unmitigated bastard and an unapologetically thoughtless and cruel protagonist. Jude's road to fame is strewn with the sad results of his wild excesses, friends he had betrayed, and women he had casually flung aside. Hill thoroughly covers Jude's tortured past, detailing in full why he's turned out the way he did. That the reader ends up ultimately empathizing with him is a credit to Joe Hill's writing.

In fact, the author does a good job of fleshing out all of his characters. I particularly find intriguing Jude's relationship with current "love" Georgia (real name MaryBeth). Georgia is almost 30 years his junior, yet the age disparity doesn't dissuade her from being firmly in love with him. Jude, for his part, is kind of fond of Georgia but isn't sure how deep his feelings for her go. Much more painful to read are the flashback portions narrating Jude's doomed, earlier relationship with the troubled Florida (real name, Anna), who, by the way, plays an integral part in why the suit ended up with Jude.

End SPOILERS.

Hill has a talent for writing wicked scary sequences. There are well-executed passages early on which lay down a sense of foreboding, which Hill later brings to full realization with pay-off scenes of spine-tingling chills. I'll say it again, this ghost is one formidable and implacable mother. HEART-SHAPED BOX is creepy and suspenseful, and, sure, it's uncomfortable reading, at times, as Joe Hill doesn't pull his punches. But he weaves his story so well and so intimately that you can't help but be caught up in his story. And if you enjoy HEART-SHAPED BOX, then I definitely recommend Joe Hill's excellent 20th CENTURY GHOSTS (an earlier compilation of 15 of his short stories, not all horror, but all pretty darn good reading).

So, c'mon, get in that vintage Mustang and coast down that nightroad and join a 50-something-year-old rock god, his sweet groupie girlfriend, his two faithful dogs, and his two ghosts, one perhaps benevolent and the other wickedly restless as hell. But you might want to leave that radio off, huh? You just never know...