Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill: A Review
I have always had the strangest of relationships with Stephen King. Before this gets too weird, let me explain what I mean.
I am one of those bookworms who started to read way too soon. Not only that, but I started to read books that were most definitely not meant for someone my age—next to those that were actually meant for kids my age, causing the funniest of contrasts; I would read a Dr. Seuss book and then follow that one with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the original version of the text. I think that was precisely what made me so eager to read more, and what made me so passionate about books and the abstract concept of literature and languages in general. This was also what made me discover Stephen King’s most iconic horror stories when I was still the most impressionable kid. Contrary to what anyone would assume, though, I realized I was fascinated by not only his books, but the horror genre as a whole. However, given these were the times before the internet was an accessible source of information for me, I stuck to Mr. King because he had proven to be a brilliant storyteller. Thus, helped by my passion for making lists of things that I need to do, read or watch, I decided I would read every single book Stephen King had ever written up to that point—which I didn’t really manage to do, but I have actually read most of the things he published up to 2011.
You might be wondering why I started this post by saying that I have the strangest of relationships with Stephen King. Truth is, as I got older, I somehow got tired of his books. I am not quite sure what it was that made me feel that way—I have a few ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with the contents of his books, though—but I stopped reading his books for almost an entire decade, until lockdown came and I couldn’t go outside anymore to buy more books to add to my endless pile of works to be read. Thus, I started reading 11/22/63, a book I got as a birthday present back when it came out but that I had completely forgotten about—surprisingly so, since it has pretty much everything I enjoy in life: time travels, conspiracies surrounding JFK’s assassination and a TV adaptation starring James Franco. And yes, not only did I love it, but it also reminded me why I used to be so fascinated by Stephen King’s writing in the first place. He is a storyteller, in the ancestral meaning of the world. When he writes about some primal fear or unknown creature, he does it as if he had encountered that in real life himself, not as it was something that came to his mind one fine day—which is already an achievement in itself.
Of course, Stephen King’s talent doesn’t justify Joe Hill’s, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the fact that he was Stephen King’s son what caught my attention in the first place. By the time I found out he has a book titled after one of my favorite songs in the entire world, featuring nods to other songs and bands that are also a fundamental part of my existence, I was sold. I had to read his work or, at least, this book. However, it wasn’t until last Christmas that I finally had the chance to get my hands on a copy of Heart-Shaped Box, published in 2007. And though I have talked about Stephen King for a while now, this is actually the reason why I’m writing these words—a few months later than what I had planned.
Heart-Shaped Box tells the story of Judas Coyne, an aging rockstar with a taste for all things obscure and haunted that he keeps as a collection in his home. This is why, when his assistant tells him about a ghost being auctioned online, he is determined to get it—even when the seller seems to be eager to get rid of the ghost.
Unsurprisingly, Judas wins the auction and he gets a black heart-shaped box containing the suit of a dead man that supposedly is possessed by the spirit of its former owner. Soon enough, the singer will learn that not only is this true, but also that this spirit is seeking revenge for the suicide of his stepdaughter, who used to date Judas before their breakup led her unstable mind to her own death.
I can say without a shadow of a doubt that my favorite part about the whole story is the fact that all characters are inscrutable. There are no characters with just one side, those poorly constructed characters you find in books from time to time that are either intrinsically good or rather the opposite. They are all very human, with their good things and their—very—bad things. There are no real human beings out there who have never done a bad thing, even when they’re overall good. Joe Hill’s characters are vulnerable and human, even when they no longer belong to the essential concept of humanity. Even the best of characters can surprise you, and so it happens the other way around. Naturally, this is also very refreshing when it comes to the plot, since the fact that they don’t have such a prototypical nature makes them unpredictable enough to keep you wondering until the very end—even when you can already guess what the outcome will be.
Next to his talent when it comes to character depiction and narrative structure, I can also say that I was completely smitten with Joe Hill’s writing style. This is a little harder to judge when you read a book that has been translated—I read this book in Spanish, since I am currently living in Spain and usually it is easier to find books in Spanish than in its original language—but no translator can turn a bad book into a masterpiece and the other way around—prove me wrong, though. And even when translated, I couldn’t help myself but to think of Stephen King’s style. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Joe Hill is actively trying to imitate his father’s style or that it feels the same way a King novel does, but it somehow hits the spot.
I mean, what else do you want me to say? I really loved the book. And not only because it includes one of the obscurest references to My Chemical Romance I have ever read with my very own two eyes in a mainstream book.
There are some things I would also like to take a moment to criticize, though. Mainly, the same issue I have with most movies and books made by men. Even though there are quite a few female characters in this story, most of them are present because they have been sexually involved with Judas Coyne, and even though there is an interesting character development present in the main plot, the women in this story still feel like support characters that have no value of their own. I am positive that not everyone will see the female representation in this novel the same way I do, though. You can tell that these are also characters that were made with care and attention, which is not always the case when females appear as plot devices instead of characters of their own right. I will leave that up to you.
Have you read Heart-Shaped Box? I’d love to know what you think. I would also love to find more rock-related horror novels, so if you know any, don’t forget to comment!
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