• Heart-Shaped Box

  • By: Joe Hill
  • Narrated by: Stephen Lang
  • Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (11,289 ratings)

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Heart-Shaped Box  By  cover art

Heart-Shaped Box

By: Joe Hill
Narrated by: Stephen Lang
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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)

Featured Article: Authors Like Stephen King


Best-selling author Stephen King has published a staggering amount of work, from gripping crime thrillers to epic fantasy series, winning prestigious awards. Yet King’s varied writing is united by common themes, styles, characters, and settings. King fans will recognize a book by him for elements ranging from child characters to atmospheric settings, from eerie psychological horror to New England locations. Undeniably, King’s influence is evident in many of the horror genre’s leading and emerging authors. If you're a fan of Stephen King, these horror authors should be on your radar.

What listeners say about Heart-Shaped Box

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Some Expletives

It’s really hard for me to get scared from a book because I’m more visual when I’m reading a fictional horror genre. “Heart-Shaped Box” didn’t do anything for me. I forgot what I was reading before I went to bed and had no nightmares or wasn’t disturbed as I listened where I left off. I was more startled from the techno music at the beginning of each chapter. I’m not sure what the producers were thinking when they were adding the music, but each time the random sound effects came on, I jumped out of my chair and said some expletives. Maybe this is how Joe Hill is trying to scare his readers? His style of fear has always been more like a comic book novel than a full chapter of horror.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great reader

The story is good and spooky but the way it’s read makes it perfect. It can’t be easy to do the different characters but he nails it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great book

Loved the story. Music was weird and too loud to hear story over. Still a great story finished it in one day.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very intriguing !

I enjoy the book, it had a hint a king in it. Hill is doing a good job. I could see a movie out of this.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book. but weird music between chapters

I would listen to this book again ...... WELL DONE!
except for the weird music that was ODD

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it!

Great, creepy story! Loved the characters and the narrator was perfect. This is the first book I've listened to buy this author, but it won't be the last.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Joe Hill has a lot of his daddy in him awesome

We're all getting older so I'm glad Stephan King had children to carry the torch a little further

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    5 out of 5 stars
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skeptical at first...

my first audio book. was skeptical at first about the narrator but really did a great job. good spooky book for anyone who likes suspense and thrillers.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Somewhat original

Although well written, Joe Hill's novel is not as cohesive as his father's books. Many of the descriptions of ghosts seem familiar rather than original. The only nice surprise is the reversal of guilt discovered in the middle of the plot. The characters growth is delayed so far that it is hard to wait until the end to empathize with them.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good book.

very intense story. good read. couldn't stop reading. Joe Hill is a great writer. read

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