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April 2007
Joe Hill
William Morrow
The true identity of author Joe Hill was a brief and not very well-kept secret: he is the son of horror master Stephen King. You can imagine then how high the expectations might be for an author carrying such an esteemed pedigree. Thus far Joe Hill is living up to it.
With Heart-Shaped Box, Hill introduces us to Judas Coyne, an aging heavy metal rock star with a proclivity for collecting ghastly artifacts: a cookbook for cannibals, used hangman’s noose, snuff film, and a dead man’s suit. It is the latter that drives the story, however, because this suit happens to be haunted by an old man with a very deep grudge. Judas discovers that the suit belonged to Craddock McDermott, the stepfather of Coyne's troubled ex-lover, now a vengeful spirit determined to kill Judas as payback for his stepdaughter's suicide. From there this dark tale of vengeance and salvation takes off.
As a debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box impresses with excellent pacing and deeply textured characters. The plot holds plenty of surprises, and much like his father Hill displays a sometimes grim, sometimes whimsical narrative style. One of the few criticisms I can level: there are times when it seems Hill’s writing gets away from him, and you can almost sense the author reeling the story back in. Fortunately it’s never enough to lose his readers, who are safely tucked away inside Heart-Shaped Box’s gripping premise. And securely fastened into place by one fiendish plot device after another.
Heart-Shaped Box is not perfect, but it does give strong indication that Joe Hill will follow in his father’s footsteps. I’m very eager to see what comes next.
B+ -Dan McDermott
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