Customer Reviews: Read 297 more reviews...
 Boring January 5, 2009
It took everything I had to get to the end of this book, in spite of one of its good points; which was its relevance to the spooky nuances of the Internet. Entirely cliche and predictable. The behaviors of the characters were enough to make you want to rip out the pages and scratch the surface for more depth, or maybe scratch your eyes out. I have never provided a review for Amazon but feel it is my duty to help others avoid several hours of wasted time. I would recommend that you skip this book and not be drawn in by its only other good point... a catchy title.
 Didn't live up to the hype... January 3, 2009
Maybe I'm disappointed because of the 4/5 star rating. Or maybe because I put faith in the review by Harlan Coben. Or maybe it's both of those added to the fact that I was REALLY looking forward to a unique story that was genuinely scary - and this book was not, I am sorry to report. I guess I'm really surprised to not like the book after reading all of the rave reviews. In my opinion the story was not very original, the ghost not really scary, and the characters not intriguing. I can't say that I would recommend this to fans of the genre.
 A good read December 28, 2008
When I saw this book in hardcover, a novel about a rock star named Judas Coyne who purchases a ghost in a heart-shaped box for $1000, I thought it was interesting, but I had so much to read and I though maybe I'll read it when it comes out in paperback. I looked at the author photo and thought he looked familiar. Then, I don't know, a few weeks later, I discovered that the author, Joe Hill was the the second child of Tabitha and Stephen King.
I went back to the book shelves, and looked at the back flap where that picture was again and now I saw it. Joe Hill looked a lot like his dad. As a fan of Stephen King -having read almost every novel he's published - I wanted to see for myself if Joe Hill (an abbreviated form of his given name and a reference to executed labor leader Joe Hill, for whom he was named) could write a spooky story that kept me coming back to his dad for the last 30 years.
Sure enough, I think he did.
When Heart-Shaped Box finally came out in paper, I bought and put it at the top of my reading list -which happens all the time, by the way, pushing other books away.
Anyway, the novel and the author have very similar styles as his father. Major themes about the past, and how it never leaves you behind, remind me a many of times of the elder King's works. So does the characters themselves, who evoke a terrible childhood, which is another trademark of Stephen King, along with paying attention to details with language, accents.
Now, its not to say anything of this is bad. By and far, Joe Hill speaks in his own voice, and Heart-Shaped Box is an effective and powerful first novel. I look forward to see how Mr. Hill grows and see if he can be a creepy and suspenseful as his dad.
Boring December 26, 2008
A very slow paced story with uninteresting characters and not in the least bit scary. Don't waste your time with this one. I gave this 2 stars as opposed to one star because of the musical references through out the book and I liked the names of the lead character's dogs.
Good First Novel About Rock N' Roll And A Psychotic Ghost. December 23, 2008
The beginning of this has its creepy and weird moments, but the second half of this one is what really pays off. When you reach page 250, prepare for some really good writing.
When you think about what Joe Hill picked as a premise for his first book-a rock star buys a haunted suit and is then chased by the ghost of it-you realize that he actually picked something hard to make good.
In the world of ghost stories, you can't even count how many there are. I don't care how original the concept is, most of the time, a writer doesn't even want to go near the word ghost. But Joe Hill did, stuck it out, and did a good job for his first time out.
The beginning is a bit slow, setting everything up, but strap yourself in for the last half of the book, which I think is the best.
There are a lot of worse first novels out there. Pick this one up and at least you'll be turning the pages way past your bedtime.
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