Ok, I’m going to try really, really hard to write this review and not mention Joe Hill’s dad. Damn. Failed already. Ok, let’s start again.
I recently read Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill on the recommendation of several friends and acquaintances. They love it, rave about it, say it is better than anything that guy I don’t want to mention has ever written. I feel like I must have missed something, because I came away from the book feeling sort of meh.
Not that it was bad. Not at all. A great ghost story in the literal and figurative sense, Heart Shaped Box is the tale of aging rock star Jude Coyne and his redemption. Tricked into buying one of his groupie’s asshole stepfather’s ghost (yeah, that’s a tongue twister), he is soon forced to face his past, especially the ghosts of his abused mother and abusive father, as well as the ghosts of his own bad behavior toward others. Despite his nasty façade and taste for the macabre – he collects occult and dark materials, including a cookbook for cannibals and a snuff film – he’s a likable man, though flawed.
His girlfriend, Marybeth, whom he calls Georgia for most of the novel, as he monikers all of his groupies by their state of origin rather than go through the trouble of learning their names, is also a likable but flawed character. Despite the fact that Jude is some 30 years her senior and treats her like crap, she hangs on, refusing to allow him to “run her off.” She is a Goth girl with the heart of gold – sexually abused as a girl, lover of dark heavy metal, knife thrower extraordinaire, stripper, dog lover, and savior of aging a-hole rock stars. In the end, it’s almost as much her story as Jude’s.
The whole age difference thing, as well as “Florida” and “Georgia” melding into one woman, did sort of bug my little feminist heart, but only for a minute. It was obvious this book wasn’t trying to really say anything, so I shook my irritation off and moved on. It became the general irritation that people in general don’t see these things as problems, more than an irritation with Hill’s particular story.
My issue with the book is that it all seemed a little too pat. The story began in such a promising light. I mean, buying a ghost on an auction site is a great idea. As soon as I learned it was “Florida’s” stepdad, however, I felt a little deflated. From that point on, I could see everything that was going to happen from pretty much 100 yards away. For me, this would have been so much more interesting if the ghost had been of unknown origin, and Jude had to battle him from a point of such weakness and vulnerability that I might have actually been scared for a second that he wasn’t going to make it. As it is, the scenes and the characters are too spot on, too much of what we’ve seen a million times before, but with nothing new to make them interesting. From the mean waitress at Denny’s to the pervie used car salesman who gets his comeuppance, it all borders on, well, just, meh. If this were a Stephen King novel … oh, shit. Never mind.
I did love the dogs, though. The dogs were terrific.
Maybe my expectations were too high, considering the level of praise I’d been privy to before stepping into Hill’s world. I want to stress, too, that it wasn’t a bad book. The prose was tight, the premise was interesting, and I really liked the characters, for the most part. The problem for me? It was mediocre. Very mediocre. I prefer my horror to have a deeper meaning, if you will. I want epic battles – good and evil, a struggle against the internal, a struggle against the eternal, life or death of the entire world! Hill’s book felt much smaller than that, more of a stage to give us blood and guts. Still, you have to tip your hat to Hill for even attempting to write horror, considering the circumstances, and for not completely screwing it up. Heart Shaped Box really is not a bad read, as long as you’re looking for an afternoon of entertainment you don’t really have to think too hard about, and if you think of gore-filled novels as entertaining. Otherwise, I say skip this, and stick to the master. You know who I mean.
I recently read Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill on the recommendation of several friends and acquaintances. They love it, rave about it, say it is better than anything that guy I don’t want to mention has ever written. I feel like I must have missed something, because I came away from the book feeling sort of meh.
Not that it was bad. Not at all. A great ghost story in the literal and figurative sense, Heart Shaped Box is the tale of aging rock star Jude Coyne and his redemption. Tricked into buying one of his groupie’s asshole stepfather’s ghost (yeah, that’s a tongue twister), he is soon forced to face his past, especially the ghosts of his abused mother and abusive father, as well as the ghosts of his own bad behavior toward others. Despite his nasty façade and taste for the macabre – he collects occult and dark materials, including a cookbook for cannibals and a snuff film – he’s a likable man, though flawed.
His girlfriend, Marybeth, whom he calls Georgia for most of the novel, as he monikers all of his groupies by their state of origin rather than go through the trouble of learning their names, is also a likable but flawed character. Despite the fact that Jude is some 30 years her senior and treats her like crap, she hangs on, refusing to allow him to “run her off.” She is a Goth girl with the heart of gold – sexually abused as a girl, lover of dark heavy metal, knife thrower extraordinaire, stripper, dog lover, and savior of aging a-hole rock stars. In the end, it’s almost as much her story as Jude’s.
The whole age difference thing, as well as “Florida” and “Georgia” melding into one woman, did sort of bug my little feminist heart, but only for a minute. It was obvious this book wasn’t trying to really say anything, so I shook my irritation off and moved on. It became the general irritation that people in general don’t see these things as problems, more than an irritation with Hill’s particular story.
My issue with the book is that it all seemed a little too pat. The story began in such a promising light. I mean, buying a ghost on an auction site is a great idea. As soon as I learned it was “Florida’s” stepdad, however, I felt a little deflated. From that point on, I could see everything that was going to happen from pretty much 100 yards away. For me, this would have been so much more interesting if the ghost had been of unknown origin, and Jude had to battle him from a point of such weakness and vulnerability that I might have actually been scared for a second that he wasn’t going to make it. As it is, the scenes and the characters are too spot on, too much of what we’ve seen a million times before, but with nothing new to make them interesting. From the mean waitress at Denny’s to the pervie used car salesman who gets his comeuppance, it all borders on, well, just, meh. If this were a Stephen King novel … oh, shit. Never mind.
I did love the dogs, though. The dogs were terrific.
Maybe my expectations were too high, considering the level of praise I’d been privy to before stepping into Hill’s world. I want to stress, too, that it wasn’t a bad book. The prose was tight, the premise was interesting, and I really liked the characters, for the most part. The problem for me? It was mediocre. Very mediocre. I prefer my horror to have a deeper meaning, if you will. I want epic battles – good and evil, a struggle against the internal, a struggle against the eternal, life or death of the entire world! Hill’s book felt much smaller than that, more of a stage to give us blood and guts. Still, you have to tip your hat to Hill for even attempting to write horror, considering the circumstances, and for not completely screwing it up. Heart Shaped Box really is not a bad read, as long as you’re looking for an afternoon of entertainment you don’t really have to think too hard about, and if you think of gore-filled novels as entertaining. Otherwise, I say skip this, and stick to the master. You know who I mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment