Heart-Shaped Box

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Stephen Lang

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

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 widely known. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, a thing so terrible-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 ghosts: 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. 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. Waiting - with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one hand.

A multiple award-winner for his short fiction, author Joe Hill immediately vaults into the top echelon of dark fantasists with a masterwork brimming with relentless thrills and acid terror.

©2007 Joe Hill (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

• Audie Award winner, Thriller/Suspense, 2008
• Thriller Award, Best Novel, 2008

"Powerful....[Hill's] 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." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mr. Hill elicits honest empathy for Jude, who turned his stage persona into a nightmare version of his fears and must now figure out what strength he has left for legitimate battles. This dynamic is both frightening and funny, and the book weaves together those two threads in clever ways." (The New York Times)

Worth it!!

Great story! excellent performance! I love Joe Hill and this story doesn't disappoint! deffinently worth listening to.

Pretty good book.

Not to bad alittle different but a fun story none the less. It isnt anything to crazy but a solid book.

one of my favorite Ghost Stories of the last few

shockingly good. Probably the best ghost story I've read in the last five years. Good characters, authentic chills, unexpected twists. What's not to like.

WOW! CREEPY AF!

This book is everything you want in a creepy story. The characters are raw and the plot lines are like a bowl of spaghetti that comb out perfectly at the end. The ghost’s image is frightening, but it’s Stephen Lang’s narration that sends the audiobook to next level horror. Lang is brilliant and at the tippy top of his creepy Southern Preacher game. The long slow enunciations and crisp consonants as punctuation will send literal chills up your spine. This is such a great horrible book. Listen to it!

Awesome story

Had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! Great book! I highly recommend to anybody that would be maybe a Stephen King fan. if you like King you'll love this story.

Solid story, hints of Old Greg

The book does well to plunge into the supernatural without feeling hokey. The dead man came off pretty creepy and Jude/Georgia were just likable enough to care who came out on top. The narrator's Georgian/Bammy accent reminded me very much of Old Greg at times, but other than that did an excellent job.

Headphones- just needed headphones

The story wasn’t awful but it dragged on & earplugs or headphones could have solved part of it.

The music must go

It's a good story weighted down by an excess of descriptive writing in some places. The characters are presented as so unlikeable at the beginning that, at one point, I almost quit listening. I am glad I did not, though. The story picks up the pace, and I began to find redeeming qualities in characters.

The jarring techno music that sets off unexpectedly at times is awful! Really awful. This is my first Joe Hill book. I will be checking to see if his books usually have this kind of music. If so, this will be the last audio book I buy for this author. The music is that bad.

Hooked after the first chapter

Unique take on the traditional ghost story. I enjoyed that the action started almost immediately, and I uncovered/learned things at the same pace as the characters.

excellent book would highly recommend.

great ghost story with lots of twists. don't know how it will end until the last word