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BookBrowse Reviews Heart-Shaped Box: A first novel, horror of course, from the son of Stephen King

Heart-Shaped Box
A Novel.
by Joe Hill
Paperback, Apr 2008,
320 pages.
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Joe Hill's first novel is a horrific little tale centered on Jude, a 54-year-old aging heavy-metal star living comfortably on the royalties of his albums. Jude buys a haunted suit on the internet believing it will be a suitable addition to his ghoulish collection, but he gets more than he expected when the suit turns out to be genuinely haunted by a ghost who has no intention of being part of a collection, especially when he has a personal vendetta to fulfill.

The irony is that Jude has spent his life exploiting the macabre with his stage persona, but now he is the target, and his fantasy seems to have taken a very realistic turn. It transpires that the ghostly bag of bones is a Vietnam vet turned mesmerist (a form of hypnotism) who also...
Beyond the Book
Joseph Hillstrom King (pen name: Joe Hill), born in 1971, is the oldest son of Tabitha and Stephen King. He has an older sister, Naomi, and a younger brother, Owen. His stories have appeared in a variety of magazines and his first book, a collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, won the British Fantasy Award for "Best Collection" and "Best Short Fiction" in 2006, but was not published in the USA until October 2007.

On the one hand, Hill appears to have...
This review was originally published in February 2007, and has been updated for the April 2008 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.
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