Heart-Shaped Box

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Stephen Lang

“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.

©2007 Joe Hill; (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers

Wtf is up with the crappy techno music between chapters?!

This isn’t my favorite Joe Hill book, but it’s pretty good. However there is this generic techno miso that intermittently pops up between some chapters. It is jarring and out of place. It really takes you out of the story, and makes the whole thing feel cheesy.

Spooky, Creepy, and Smart!

One word comes to mind after listening to Heart-Shaped Box.....TALENT! The book was extremely spooky and creepy. The characters are well written with depth. Had a hard time pausing the book, I did not want to leave the story or characters.

A solid ghost story

Nicely crafted, Joe Hill compares favorably with dear old dad here...original characters and a nice take on your basic ghost story.

Some twists and turns, nice character development-Ifelt I got to know Jude Coyne and MaryBeth. The "Koontzian" involvement of mans best friend is a bit derivative but nicely done.

Hill improves with each new novel..nice to have another solid paranormal mystery writer around, who hasn't yet fallen into recycling his well known plots.

However, Hill does have a hard act to follow in his chased genre. We constant readers will have to see if he's able to insert originality in the genre King owns.

Narration was also solid. Worth your credit!

Author and Reader Well Matched

I have had the unfortunate experience of listening to great books read by bad readers. Not so with this audio! This is a GREAT book enhanced by a TERRIFIC reading. I often found myself sitting in my car after arriving at a destination so that I could listen longer.

The author does a fantastic job of creating sympathy for people that I normally would cross the street to avoid based on their looks. Mr. Hill provides depth to what could have been flat stereotypical characters.

I thought it was interesting that the "heroes" of this story are a heavy metal (devil music) musician and a goth groupie and the antagonist is a talk radio fanatic (republican?) who enjoys fire and brimstone preaching. A nice touch.

Eh...not that impressed

What did you like best about Heart-Shaped Box? What did you like least?

I like the premise of the story, but it seemed to be dragged out longer than it needed to be. There seemed to be a lot of 'filler'.

If you’ve listened to books by Joe Hill before, how does this one compare?

Not as good. I enjoyed Horns much more.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was average, but what really brought it down as a whole was the unnecessary techno musical interludes placed randomly throughout the reading.