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)

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.

Creepy good

Intrigued by the premise, I added this book to my library. I am forever in search of good horror to fill my time between Stephen King novels. This one did quite nicely (and by the way, Joe Hill is SK's son!) The book is creepy and intense, it kept surprising me by going in directions I did not anticipate. What I enjoyed most was the characters were not what I expected. At first, I thought I did not care one bit about either Jude or Georgia, but by the end of the novel, I really grew to care for them. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars, reserving 5 stars for The Stand, etc., but I still highly recommend this intense read.

Great concepts, poor excution.

Any additional comments?

Some cool ideas here, and unlike many reviewers, I didn't mind the characters (and their poor moral attitudes). But what I didn't like was that many of the ideas really didn't matter, and the writer needed to make some big stretches to make things fit (or at least partially fit). For example, once you finish the book, ask yourself if the heart shaped box theme was needed or if maybe it was just a cool title that the writer wanted to make fit into the story. This was a problem in a few areas of the book, as in it felt like there were many good ideas that were afterthoughts, or maybe thrown in and then forced to fit (the sin of plotting too much and not allowing the characters to create the story). But overall, this is entertaining and worth the listen (unlike Strange Weather, which was most definitely not).

Another favorite!

Another great book by an awesome story teller!!!Im now onto the next one! HORNS! so excited!

Good Story

Ok it was a good story but I didn't think it was scary at all.

I usually hate horror, this was awesome.

What made the experience of listening to Heart-Shaped Box the most enjoyable?

Some parts are very dark and twisted. If you are easily offended, don't purchase this. I love the really dark stuff.

What other book might you compare Heart-Shaped Box to and why?

This is the one horror novel I've read. No good comparision. I'm afraid it might have ruined horror for me, it was such a good book.

Which character – as performed by Stephen Lang – was your favorite?

Craddock. Really well described, really well written, very scary. Tons of fun when he shows up.

Any additional comments?

All around tons of fun. Not a complaint here.