Heart-Shaped Box

This extremely entertaining ghost story involves an aging heavy metal musician (I basically pictured him as Danzig with a beard) haunted by the ghost of a dead groupie's stepfather. Simple yet effective, this initial premise develops additional layers over the course of the story.

This was my first Joe Hill book, and I was curious to see how his work compares to that of Stephen King, his father. Their styles are decidedly similar. Most of the story takes place in the kind of rural locales favored by King, but Hill emphasizes the South as opposed to Maine. Hill also excels at characterization, one of his father's strengths. But he also avoids some of King's weaknesses. Stephen King characters often tend to have a catchphrase or tic that inevitably wears out its welcome, but that's not present here. Hill also sticks the landing, and ending the story is something that his father has struggled with. While it'd be doing Hill a disservice to compare him to his father too much—especially since he's carved out his own successful career without relying on the King name—if you like King's work you'll probably like Hill's.

I was especially impressed by the characterization and the pacing of this book. Hill starts off with some fairly stock characters in a rockstar and associated hangers-on, but all of them are humanized and made real as the story progresses. The pace is also breakneck. Events in the story built at such a speed that it seemed like I was reaching the climax at only the one-third point. I had to check and make sure this book wasn't a collection of novellas instead of a full novel.

This was an very satisfying read and something I can wholeheartedly recommend to horror fans.

This book had it's moments, but it wasn't particularly scary after the first act. Its funny, the first time I tried to read this book, I was so put off by the retired metal rocker protagonist, I stopped before any of the good stuff. I recently picked it up again on the recommendation of a friend, and once it picks up it keeps things going with steady momentum. I even stayed up late to finish it last night.

I do have to say that I found the hypnotist angle a little flimsy so despite a competent performance otherwise I had a hard time truly going along for the ride. Yes, it already has a ghost and spirit dogs but for some reason it was the hypnotism that threw me.

It was a good read, but not a terrifying book, which is what I was in the mood for at the time.