Books: Heart-Shaped Box

Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel by Joe Hill (2007, William Morrow). It is difficult for me to separate experience this novel without talking about Joe Hill's father, Stephen King, even though I know he and his publisher would really I rather not. His fault, though, for writing a horror novel that has some key elements that are obvious emulations of his father's style. As someone who has aped the master of horror's tricks and flourishes in my own work, I know it when I see it.

That said, Heart-Shaped Box is a good read. Not lump in your throat scary but it does have a breakneck pace that pushes you towards it's end. Hill, while not as adept with word choice and phrasing as I usually like in my reading, weaves a nice yarn and hits with several big surprises over the course of the nearly 400 pages. By the end, you are rooting for the unlikely protagonists and are never quite sure that they will make it.

It wasn't a deep read by any means and didn't leave me with any of the internal questions that much of my recent fiction has inspired but I liked it enough and it did inspire a reading playlist:

1. The Horror - Rjd2
2. Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Stars
3. Giving Up The Ghost - DJ Shadow
4. Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
5. Dead or Alive (1988 Boingo Alive Version) - Oingo Boingo
6. Deadweight on Velveteen - Jose Gonzalez
7. Walking Dead (Feat. Chester Bennington) - Z-Trip
8. Dead Nigga Blvd (Pt. 1) - Me'shell Ndegeocello
9. Wake Me When I'm Dead - The Brand New Heavies
10. Dead Man Walking - Stiff Little Fingers
11. Walking With A Ghost - Tegan and Sara
12. Nights of the Living Dead - Tilly and The Wall
13. One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead) - Stars
14. Ghost Ship in a Storm - Jim O'Rourke
15. 2 More Dead - Rjd2
    

Mildly recommended for the ghost story fan.