Heart-Shaped Box - by Joe Hill (Paperback)

About the Book

"Sooner or later, the dead catch up ... Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals, a used hangman's noose, a snuff film. Many of these objects were gifts from the black-clad fans who made his metal band a legend and made him rich. But not all. When is personal assistant told him there was a ghost for sale on the internet, Jude knew he had to have it for his private collection. He didn't think twice. He should have. Jude has spent a lifetime evading ghosts--his abusive father; the bandmates he betrayed; Anna, the suicidal girl he loved and abandoned. But this spirit is different. This one means to chase him to the edge of sanity. He new acquisition--delivered to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box--is the restless soul of Anna's vengeful stepdaddy. Craddock McDermott swore he would settle with Jude for ruining his daughter's life. Soon, everywhere Jude turns, Craddock is there: behind the bedroom door; in Jude's restored vintage Mustang; outside his window; on his widescreen TV. Waiting--with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand. If ever there was a case of buyer beware, this is it..."--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

"Wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty....A Valentine from hell."
--Janet Maslin, New York Times

The publication of Joe Hill's beautifully textured, deliciously scary debut novel Heart-Shaped Box was greeted with the sort of overwhelming critical acclaim that is rare for a work of skin-crawling supernatural terror. It was cited as a Best Book of the Year by Atlanta magazine, the Tampa Tribune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Village Voice, to name but a few. Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling Neil Gaiman of The Sandman, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys fame calls Joe Hill's story of a jaded rock star haunted by a ghost he purchased on the internet, "relentless, gripping, powerful." Open this Heart-Shaped Box from two-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Hill if you dare and see what all the well-deserved hoopla is about.

Aging death-metal rock legend Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. But nothing he possesses is as unique or as dreadful as his latest purchase in this chilling gothic horror novel: a one-of-a-kind curiosity bought off the Internet that arrives at his door in a black heart-shaped box...a musty dead man's suit still inhabited by the spirit of its late owner. And now everywhere Judas Coyne goes, the old man is there--watching, waiting, dangling a razor blade on a chain from his bony hand.

Review Quotes

"Hill is flawless in his ability to articulate frailties that humanize his characters and make the vulnerable to intrusions of the strange . . . . One of the most confident and assured new voices in horror and dark fantasy to emerge in recent years." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box starts with a premise that is as simple as it is brilliant: a ghost for sale on the Internet. But here is a tale that is far from a one-trick pony. It chills with every word, surprises with every page, and twists with every chapter. Here is a debut as literate as it is horrifying . . . and the resounding introduction of a new master in the field of suspense." - James Rollins

"A relentlessly scary ghost story." - Bookseller (London)

"Powerful . . . a fast-paced plot that crackles with expertly planted surprises and revelations . . . a truly memorable debut." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"You can't go wrong with Heart-Shaped Box." Top Five Fiction-Books of 2007 - The Observer

"A fast-paced journey on wheels borrowed from hell's used-car lot, and there aren't a lot of comfort breaks...The pictures [Hill] painted colored my dreams and darkened my mood even after I'd put the book down." - Cleveland Plain Dealer

"The shocks in Hill's riveting debut novel can be lurid and blood-drenched, or as quietly chilling as a casual phone call from an old, dead friend." - Entertainment Weekly

"A wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty tale of horror . . . . a Valentine from hell." - New York Times

"A thriller with moments of terror and genuine humor." - People

"Heart-Shaped Box. . . rocks. It's a flat-out, white-line, turbo-charged, relentless, bleakly humorous, and, above all, honest story . . . Hill's fealty to the autumnal suspirations of the darkest sorts of dread is instantly apparent. And this, as they say, is just the beginning." - Austin Chronicle

[Hill]'s got horror down pat, and his debut is hair-raising fun." - Kirkus Reviews

"Dark, taut, and deliciously terrifying. Heart-Shaped Box is a roaring good read." - New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs