If the horror novel Heart Shaped Box has an air of familiarity about it, it’s because its author comes by it naturally. Joe Hill is the pen name of Joe King, whose father Steven is known for writing a horror novel or two in his time.
Heart Shaped Box tells the story of middle aged heavy metal star Judas “Jude” Coyne (yes the pun gets addressed in the book) who is now largely retired and reclusive, living on his farm in upstate New York with a series of twenty something women that he nicknames after the state they’re from (he’s currently with “Georgia”). His main pastime is collecting macabre items and memorabilia, such as paintings by serial killers and an authentic snuff film passed on to him from a fan in law enforcement. As such, he can’t resist when he is emailed a link to an online auction in which someone is selling the ghost of their recently departed stepfather. The winner gets the dead man’s favorite suit and his spectral presence along with it.
Of course, everything is not as it seems, the suit which arrives in a large heart shaped candy box was sent by the family of “Florida” a depressive young girl who Jude sent on her way when she got to be too much for him to handle. Florida committed suicide shortly afterward and the family, both dead and alive, are looking to make Jude pay for his past sins.
Hill, like his father, has a knack for turning over common, everyday things and exposing the creepy underbelly. This is used to great effect in a number of unsettling and eerie scenes including one in a Denny’s in which the diner next to them is using one of those electronic voice box microphones which starts talking on its own.
Also like his father, Hill has the talent for developing fully realized and individual characters. There is not one main character in this book that you do not fully find out who they are and their back-story, which makes it all the more horrifying when bad things happen to them.
That’s not to say that Hill is merely a cipher. He is a very talented writer that possesses a dexterity with words and a talent for turning a phrase that has always eluded the older King. Based on his writing, I can easily foresee him producing a literary novel of some note. That is why, ultimately, I find some disappointment with Heart Shaped Box. The potential of the writer is not fully realized. So much more could be done with it. Haunting as metaphor for the regrets, mistakes, and people we have wronged that cling to us, especially in middle age when we begin to face our mortality is so ripe for an in-depth treatment. Unfortunately after a promising beginning, that is not what we get here. The book falls into a comfortable, slightly rote, thriller track about mid-way. It’s entertaining but wholly predicable.
Jude is a little too easily redeemed, the guy was a pretty big asshole at the beginning, and that shouldn’t be completely washed away. Also, can we have a moratorium on sexual abuse in horror/thriller novels? It becoming a little overused as the underlying “big bad” simmering beneath the surface and its use for shock value is wearing thin.
Heart Shaped Box, while not all it could be, has a lot to offer for a debut novel. If you’re a horror fan it has all the requisite chills and thrills. Hill is a talented writer and I hope to see him develop that talent beyond his obvious comfort zone.
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