Heart-Shaped Box

De: Joe Hill

Narrado por: 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

Creepy but Sexually Explicit

I purchased this on the recommendations of Audible and Amazon reviews as well as the association with Stephen King but find myself somewhat disappointed.

The story flows well, is fairly fast paced, well written and I do find myself feeling tense when the ghost is around. Like the review above, However, I have had a hard time feeling empathy for or identifying with the two pain characters.

Call me a prude if you must, but I find his particular and rather frequent descriptions of sexual encounters disturbing and totally unnecessary to the plot. There are just some images I don't want in my head. I haven't read a lot of Mr. Kings books, but within those I have I don't recall him having to resort to such to make the point. It'd be a good story if these were omitted.

I actually find myself questioning if I want to listen to the remaining 3 hours.

However, if you can ignore these things, you may find that you "enjoy" the creepiness of their interactions with the ghost.

Not for kids, teens and even many adults.

On Par with some of his father's works

It's hard not to compare Joe to his father, especially with writing styles so similar. This book is better than some Stephen King novels, but not better than Stephen King's earliest books. Will Joe get better or worse I wonder? Unlike most reviews that liked the beginning and felt the book get sillier towards the end, I disliked the beginning (though the scare factor was there, the plot was not well developed), enjoyed the middle (I loved the plot twist that manifests itself mid-book), and agreed that the Norman Rockwell ending was silly. He would have been better off killing everyone than what he ended up with. However, as silly as it was, it was better than most Stephen King endings, which isn't saying much. I guess that just runs in the family.

I mostly liked it...

So this book started really slow for me. I was into the premise, but there seemed to be a lot of time spent with the ghost early on. It picked up the pace as the book went along and my enjoyment increased as a result. Are the characters kind of unlikable, as some have said? Well, yes. But I just bought in to that part and it didn't bother me. I thought they were written completely in character and I was glad that we didn't have to watch them become saintly by the end. Did they grow? Yes. Did they change their stripes. No.

I really liked Nos4a2 and thought this was not quite as good. That said, it was an enjoyable read and after it got going held my attention completely.

Grittily Scary

A terrifying tale, full of the darkness of human souls and the power of love in a gritty, modern setting. Found this book to be absolutely riveting. The narrator does a superb job with the accents and voices for the major characters. Contains mature language and content.

Good Listening!

After reading the reviews, I hesitated to read this book. Am I glad I read it! It's excellent listening with all the elements of a good book: engaging plot, interesting characters, good narration.

Judas Coyne has a long baggage train, and some of the contents stink, bad. The two main females characters, Florida and Georgia, are more sympathetic right from the beginning. The ghost is single-mindedly dedicated to Jude's death, and it takes most of the book for his motivation to be revealed.

I didn't find this book to be frightening. Interesting, yes, but not frightening.

After reading other reviewers I was apprehensive about the dogs. I actually stopped reading Dumas Key because of the passage with the dog, and didn't finish the book until a friend suggested I just fast forward past it. Unlike Dumas Key, the dogs in this book are developed characters in themselves. They are integral parts of the plot, and their role is both fulfilling and redeeming. Because of this, their treatment isn't as heart-rending and appalling as that meted out to the helpless and pathetic Jack Russell terrier in Dumas Key. Still, what is it with the Kings and dogs?

Finally, the ending was just a bit too pat, neat; it seems that Hill, like his father King, reserves the worst for the dogs. It's this syrupy, sentimental ending that influenced me to give the book four stars instead of five.

Still, overall, this is a terrific read and I recommend it.