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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Heart Shaped Box Book Review

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

5.0 out of 5 stars Battle Royale of strengths and weaknesses

I remember looking at this book at my local Barnes & Nobles years ago, I was strangely drawn to the title and it's meaning which always puzzled me but the cover was intriguing, not sure what took me so long to read it but I’m so glad that I finally dived in. Sometimes it's hard to pick a new book to read but it's still a delicious torment even if you don't know what is good enough to wrap your mind around, this was a good pick and it was recommended by a friend so I read it with pretty high expectations. In a funny way this book shows the power of love and also it's opposite which is  very driven dark side and even in real life those can be close so making it into a striking, dangerous and scary story was great. Both good and bad things can be done in the name of love, each pushed by an intense energy that seems to beam out of us at certain times, and it's most potent when it's real. The Heart Shaped Box is a great example of mental surgery; the amount of thought that will go into creating this world and it's characters is immense but it also has to be pure, it needs to come from the heart. It's a story told by a man who took the courage to pick up the pen ( or the laptop) and write it all down, Joe Hill is very good and I can see him having a great career in the literary world, having a genius father ( Stephen King) doesn't hurt either hehe.

Making a purchase doesn't seem to be a scary thing unless one is buying something grand, a mansion or a fancy plane, an island or special car, it's a choice we can take with relish  unless it goes wrong. Jude Coyne buys a haunted suit and he definitely gets what he pays for, it arrives in a black heart shaped box and once that lid is off his life starts to go on a dangerous decline, those close to him are in an intense danger and the only way to stop the horrific power behind the purchase seems to be sucked straight out of hell. Coworkers and friends start dying but they aren't gone and neither is the power that pushes them to their demise. Connected to his past, the suit is not an ordinary object but a weapon, Jude must figure out who really is behind it and how to get rid of it or be forced to end his own suffering. I gripped the pages at the end and cheered a few times and also felt some sadness, this hit all sorts of high points for me, a perfect example of a good book.

This story reads almost like a fantasy tale that takes the reader on a ride, I would read out passages to my boyfriend and we'd follow the story together at the end because he would ask me what happened every few hours ... it's a fun yet pungent read, don't be fooled that this is some cute story, there is death and there is intense danger and stress, but oh so well woven together, I enjoyed it tremendously and cant wait to read more form Hill. This is part mystery, part horror and a whole lot of fun intensity, good stuff.

- Kasia S.

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