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sa1twaterfish 's review for:
Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
5.0⭐ A Genuine Campfire Horror
I felt like the plot, conflict, and climax of this story was a 4.5, but that last little chip of star that makes this a 5.0⭐ read is the way this story came together in an incredible tone of unsettling fear. I found myself experiencing genuine qualmishness. Physical shivers went down my back. The type of shivers where you have to jerk your neck just to stop them from going right down to your soul.
Hill told a great ghost story. He told it in rapid, crisp prose. And he told the story all the way to its end with surprising brevity. Many horror stories (films especially struggle with this) fail at making it to the end.
There's only one way to take a self-involved, uncaring, depraved, egotistical rockstar and make him into someone worthy. I didn't want to like Judas Coyne, but as he gave away (and lost) his many empires of dirt, as his past was revealed, as he grew and changed by learning what he'd done to the peole around him, and as his shitty, bullshit attitude was dwindled into a desperation to make things right, I found myself cheering for the bad guy. For that, Hill rewarded me by turning the good guys into bad guys before the end - a nice, subtle plot twist that was just right. This book started with human sickness, and was cured with sacrifice and eventually, love.
I honestly just loved this story through and through. So far, Hill has never disappointed.
Edit: the reader of the audio did an incredible job as well. He may have actually been responsible for that last touch of shiver. A five star performance.
I felt like the plot, conflict, and climax of this story was a 4.5, but that last little chip of star that makes this a 5.0⭐ read is the way this story came together in an incredible tone of unsettling fear. I found myself experiencing genuine qualmishness. Physical shivers went down my back. The type of shivers where you have to jerk your neck just to stop them from going right down to your soul.
Hill told a great ghost story. He told it in rapid, crisp prose. And he told the story all the way to its end with surprising brevity. Many horror stories (films especially struggle with this) fail at making it to the end.
Spoiler
There's only one way to take a self-involved, uncaring, depraved, egotistical rockstar and make him into someone worthy. I didn't want to like Judas Coyne, but as he gave away (and lost) his many empires of dirt, as his past was revealed, as he grew and changed by learning what he'd done to the peole around him, and as his shitty, bullshit attitude was dwindled into a desperation to make things right, I found myself cheering for the bad guy. For that, Hill rewarded me by turning the good guys into bad guys before the end - a nice, subtle plot twist that was just right. This book started with human sickness, and was cured with sacrifice and eventually, love.
I honestly just loved this story through and through. So far, Hill has never disappointed.
Edit: the reader of the audio did an incredible job as well. He may have actually been responsible for that last touch of shiver. A five star performance.