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calamity_mary 's review for:
Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
I added this book to my tbr pile for several reasons: Joe Hill’s “Heart Shaped Box” is a award winning horror book (Bram Stoker and Locus)and Joe Hill himself is not only the author of “Locke and Key” a award winning comic book that I love but also the son of the master of horror - Stephen King. The fact that Hill seemed reluctant to advertise this fact only made me like him more.
The book’s main character is Judas Coyne an almost retired fifty-four year old rock star with a thing for young Goth girls and an ego the size of a small country. Coyne has a penchant for the macabre, twisted and occult, as his rock star persona demands and throughout the years he has collected assorted items – a real snuff movie, several rare books on the occult, sketches from serial killers, a trepanned skull, etc – and the last item to catch his attention is a ghost that is being sold over the internet. Believing this to be good for publicity, he buys this ghost, or better he buys the dead man’s suit, guaranteed by the seller that will bring along the spirit. As it turns out this is the spirit of a evil, vengeance obsessed man, who is also the stepfather of one of his ex-Goth girlfriends that committed suicide after being dumped by Coyne. As the story progresses we learn that nothing is as straightforward or as simple as it seems and the result is a twisting and twisted story with lots of classic horror elements and obvious homages to King’s works. We get assassin ghost cars, tons upon tons of rock / metal culture references, ghosts that are mediums that are hypnotists that are almost super powered after death,german shepperds that double as familiar spirits, induced insanity as a method of haunting and pure stereotypical evil.
On the overall Hill manages to keep the suspension of disbelief well enough (and believe me, there is some weird crazy crap going on in this book), but in some aspects I think he failed, relying on insanity and evilness as a means to justify the chase the dead man and his family do on Coyne. To me, implying a character is being driven to death and insanity merely because the villain is an insane control-freak with a love for psychological torture and sexual abuse is copping out. The truth is Coyne never was a real threat to the villain and as such there seems to be no real reason to go after him, except for the delusions of a dying mad man.
On the other hand, I didn’t like the way Hill stereotyped the Goth culture. Being somewhat attached to that culture and being a female I was confused and appalled, since apparently not only should I have been trough some horrible trauma during my childhood (to explain the way I dress and act) but I should also be either a stripper, drug-addicted groupie or a crackpot fortune teller. Or all three. It made the novel seem a bit short sighted and prejudiced and that’s why I can’t give it a 4 star review.
However, if you are a horror fan I would still advise you to read this book. For me it was like seeing a blockbuster: It was easy to see and fun, but not memorable. Perfect for distracting your mind before heading to more heavy reading.
The book’s main character is Judas Coyne an almost retired fifty-four year old rock star with a thing for young Goth girls and an ego the size of a small country. Coyne has a penchant for the macabre, twisted and occult, as his rock star persona demands and throughout the years he has collected assorted items – a real snuff movie, several rare books on the occult, sketches from serial killers, a trepanned skull, etc – and the last item to catch his attention is a ghost that is being sold over the internet. Believing this to be good for publicity, he buys this ghost, or better he buys the dead man’s suit, guaranteed by the seller that will bring along the spirit. As it turns out this is the spirit of a evil, vengeance obsessed man, who is also the stepfather of one of his ex-Goth girlfriends that committed suicide after being dumped by Coyne. As the story progresses we learn that nothing is as straightforward or as simple as it seems and the result is a twisting and twisted story with lots of classic horror elements and obvious homages to King’s works. We get assassin ghost cars, tons upon tons of rock / metal culture references, ghosts that are mediums that are hypnotists that are almost super powered after death,german shepperds that double as familiar spirits, induced insanity as a method of haunting and pure stereotypical evil.
On the overall Hill manages to keep the suspension of disbelief well enough (and believe me, there is some weird crazy crap going on in this book), but in some aspects I think he failed, relying on insanity and evilness as a means to justify the chase the dead man and his family do on Coyne. To me, implying a character is being driven to death and insanity merely because the villain is an insane control-freak with a love for psychological torture and sexual abuse is copping out. The truth is Coyne never was a real threat to the villain and as such there seems to be no real reason to go after him, except for the delusions of a dying mad man.
On the other hand, I didn’t like the way Hill stereotyped the Goth culture. Being somewhat attached to that culture and being a female I was confused and appalled, since apparently not only should I have been trough some horrible trauma during my childhood (to explain the way I dress and act) but I should also be either a stripper, drug-addicted groupie or a crackpot fortune teller. Or all three. It made the novel seem a bit short sighted and prejudiced and that’s why I can’t give it a 4 star review.
However, if you are a horror fan I would still advise you to read this book. For me it was like seeing a blockbuster: It was easy to see and fun, but not memorable. Perfect for distracting your mind before heading to more heavy reading.