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cloudyafternoons 's review for:
Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Jude Coyne is a 50-something year old rock star who just bought a ghost. Well, really he bought the suit of a dead man, whose spirit is said to be attached to it. He doesn’t think much of this purchase — it’s just something else to add to his collection of dark oddities. But after the black heart-shaped box is delivered to his house, he finds himself face-to-face with the actual ghost of Craddock McDermott, the stepfather of his one of his past lovers. Craddock is more than just another piece to add to his macabre collection. Jude now owns a murderous ghost. And all sales are final.
——————
I….didn’t enjoy this. Almost fell asleep during the first 15 chapters. It was really slow, not all that scary. Mostly kind of gross in a bad, unnecessary way. I thought I was reading a story about a ghost haunting, not about creepy older dudes preying on young girls. It didn’t help that basically all the characters were unlikeable, especially Jude. Plus he brought his own problem on himself. So I didn’t care what happened till at least halfway through the book.
I didn’t see the twist coming that Anna/Florida didn’t kill herself — it was actually Craddock and Jessica, the sister. So there was at least some motivation there for me to get to the end of the book to see Craddock get what he deserved. But it ended up being so vague and non-specific. He’s a horrible pedophile/rapist, and at the end he just gets pulled into a blinding light? If anyone deserves to burn in hell, it’s that dude.
And honestly, Jude is no better. He’s in his mid 50s sleeping with 20 year olds? Granted what he’s doing is not illegal (nor uncommon for famous rich dudes), but come on. He’s no hero but it’s clear the author is trying to make him out to be a good guy deep down. But he’s so obviously not that it’s actually sickening. So having an entire 300-something page book focused all on him is a bit much. I’d rather have read this from Marybeth/Georgia’s POV. It was sad to read how she was willing to die for him, and that they actually got married. They barely seemed to like each other before Craddock came into the picture. Also, what kind of story like this has a happy ending? Basically Jude and Marybeth get married, Bammy (Marybeth’s grandmother) is supposedly happy for them, and they live the rest of their days vacationing around the world or in wedded bliss at home.
Oh, and the way that everything got blamed on Jude’s dad made NO sense. You’re saying this stroked out man who doesn’t move or talk or eat or drink, who lost function on one side of his body months ago and has been bed bound since, was able to get up through “age rage” and take down two able bodied people? Come. On.
And finally, the biggest point: the dogs. I’m sorry. But the the story/writing has to be GOOD if you’re going to have the dogs die. Jude fucking kicked Bon after she and Angus saved him from carbon monoxide poisoning! And they both sacrificed themselves for him? Just…..no. The only redeeming part of that whole plot point was the spirit/soul of the dog coming back. I liked the part where Angus comes back and hides under the bed, tail thumping; and when Bon leads Jude to Marybeth’s hospital room, I cried. I love dogs. And now that I think about it, I only actually felt any interest in this book when Jude realized how important the dogs were.
But did they really have to die? Ugh.
Overall, did not really enjoy this at all. Will likely not be reading from this author again (yes, I now know that he’s Stephen King’s son. But this book sucked.)Giving 1/2 star because of the dogs being heroes throughout the book and loyal till the very end, and because Marybeth survives (not more because she ends up staying with and marrying Jude). I was honestly going to be SO annoyed if Jude was the only surviving person.
——————
I….didn’t enjoy this. Almost fell asleep during the first 15 chapters. It was really slow, not all that scary. Mostly kind of gross in a bad, unnecessary way. I thought I was reading a story about a ghost haunting, not about creepy older dudes preying on young girls. It didn’t help that basically all the characters were unlikeable, especially Jude. Plus he brought his own problem on himself. So I didn’t care what happened till at least halfway through the book.
And honestly, Jude is no better. He’s in his mid 50s sleeping with 20 year olds? Granted what he’s doing is not illegal (nor uncommon for famous rich dudes), but come on. He’s no hero but it’s clear the author is trying to make him out to be a good guy deep down. But he’s so obviously not that it’s actually sickening. So having an entire 300-something page book focused all on him is a bit much. I’d rather have read this from Marybeth/Georgia’s POV. It was sad to read how she was willing to die for him, and that they actually got married. They barely seemed to like each other before Craddock came into the picture. Also, what kind of story like this has a happy ending? Basically Jude and Marybeth get married, Bammy (Marybeth’s grandmother) is supposedly happy for them, and they live the rest of their days vacationing around the world or in wedded bliss at home.
Oh, and the way that everything got blamed on Jude’s dad made NO sense. You’re saying this stroked out man who doesn’t move or talk or eat or drink, who lost function on one side of his body months ago and has been bed bound since, was able to get up through “age rage” and take down two able bodied people? Come. On.
And finally, the biggest point: the dogs. I’m sorry. But the the story/writing has to be GOOD if you’re going to have the dogs die. Jude fucking kicked Bon after she and Angus saved him from carbon monoxide poisoning! And they both sacrificed themselves for him? Just…..no. The only redeeming part of that whole plot point was the spirit/soul of the dog coming back. I liked the part where Angus comes back and hides under the bed, tail thumping; and when Bon leads Jude to Marybeth’s hospital room, I cried. I love dogs. And now that I think about it, I only actually felt any interest in this book when Jude realized how important the dogs were.
But did they really have to die? Ugh.
Overall, did not really enjoy this at all. Will likely not be reading from this author again (yes, I now know that he’s Stephen King’s son. But this book sucked.)