Nomadic SA Chick
Yeah, I Social Media, and Stuff ...
  • Words
  • Manda
  • Contact

Book 15 (popular author's first book): Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

2/27/2015

0 Comments

 
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Picture

Aging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre -- his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used hangman's noose, Aleister Crowley's childhood chessboard, etc. -- so when his assistant tells him about a ghost for sale on an online auction site, he immediately puts in a bid and purchases it. 

The black, heart-shaped box that Coyne receives in the mail not only contains the suit of a dead man but also his vengeance-obsessed spirit. The ghost, it turns out, is the stepfather of a young groupie who committed suicide after the 54-year-old Coyne callously used her up and threw her away. Now, determined to kill Coyne and anyone who aids him, the merciless ghost of Craddock McDermott begins his assault on the rocker's sanity.




                             ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~                                                ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

This was my first encounter with Joe Hill, and I am smitten.  He is a great author and weaves together a great story.  This book quickly grabbed my attention as it becomes a pretty fast paced story pretty quickly.  The one down side I have found with a lot of recent "horror/suspense" stories is that they will spend half the book building up to the climax, and then the pivotal moments of the story are spent in 10-20 pages.  That is not the case with Heart-Shaped Box.  This story is off and running in the first 20 pages, and keeps on running for 300 more.  It wasn't completely predictable, which was refreshing.


I give this a 4 out of 5.



Not relevant to this review or book at all, but I wanted to mention the Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King, one of my favorite authors.  King is the reason I had avoided Hill for as long as I have.  I was afraid that he was just going to try and recreate his fathers stories, or try to take his place.  I am sorry for how wrong (and ignorant) I was about that.  Hill holds his own, and is an excellent author.  I have three more of his books on my reading challenge list (NOS4A2, Horns, and The Wraith).  I am pleased to have found a new author that I'm sure will become one of my favorites!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Blog Contents:

    Alaska Stuff
    Books and Reviews
    Cats
    Cooking
    Daily Life Stories
    Horrors of Dating
    Movies and TV Shows
    Pictures

    Random Bits
    Recipes
    Reviews of Things 
    Student Affairs Tidbits
    Thoughtless Ramblings Work Stuff
    ..... 
    Basically Whatever I Want


    Goodreads: Book reviews, recommendations, and discussion

    Archives

    September 2016
    August 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    August 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly