Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill

I read the synopsis for Heart-Shaped Box several weeks ago in an offline advertisement somewhere, thought it very intriguing, and made a mental note to look for it online when I got the chance. When that chance finally came, I had not only forgotten the title but the author’’s name as well! The nice thing about the Internet is that if anything is worth reading or watching (or not), you”ll hear about it quickly. So far, Heart-Shaped Boxes is getting stellar reviews. I”ll be adding mine in the near future. Review Excerpt from Scott Smith of The Ruins

The set-up for Joe Hill’s novel, Heart-Shaped Box, is appealingly simple. Jude Coyne, an aging rock star, buys himself a dead man’s suit. He acquires it online, lured by the promise that the dead man’’s ghost will be included in his purchase. Jude thinks this is a joke, of course. He also assumes the seller is a stranger. We soon discover that he’’s wrong on both counts, however, and from this point on the story moves with an exhilarating urgency. Jude wants the ghost gone; the ghost wants Jude dead. We watch, chapter-by-chapter, as they battle for survival. “Watch” is the appropriate word, too, because this is an extremely visual book. Hill’s prose is lean and precise, and he renders Jude’s world with impressive confidence. It feels solid, every detail both correct and fresh. And this physicality provides a firm platform for the book’’s otherworldly happenings, which seem all the more frightening for being so securely grounded.

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