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I mentioned a few posts back that I'd gotten Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box. Well, the verdict is in, and it's mixed.
Summary: Judas Coyne has left a lot of broken people in his wake on his quest for rock superstardom. One day, he buys a ghost on the Internet. He thinks it's a joke, but the very next day, a heart-shaped box arrives on his doorstep, and what's inside takes him on a journey down the nightroad.
The Good: There is nothing new under the sun, or in the shadows for that matter, but Mr. Hill takes several horror tropes-the Man in the Black Hat, phantom cars, prophetic statements from the living and the dead, and the afterlife-and shapes them into a fun, compelling story. His prose, with a notable exception near the end, is sharp and clean, mean and lean, and the plot moves forward fluidly, with a minimum of clunky, supernatural huggermugger. Once you accept the admittedly dubious premise-that Jessica Price put the suit on the Internet knowing that her intended target would just happen to find it within the auction window and be intrigued by a tatty old suit-the story roars out of the gate.
The ostensible hero is rather a turd. In fact, he's self-centered and dismissive to those around him and freely admits that nine months is the typical shelf-life of his sexual relationships. He treats his PA with disdain, and when the supernatural didoes kick in, he contemplates foisting the cursed suit off on an unsuspecting fan. He's a Class-A prick.
His girlfriend of the moment isn't much better. She's a whiny, snobby, uncouth brat. As the story progresses, however, both characters are deepened and given more dimension. For instance, Judas Coyne was once Justin Cowczinsky, a dirt-poor, abused kid from Moore's Corner, Louisiana who fled an abusive father, and Georgia was once Marybeth Kimball, a girl molested by her father's friend. Both wrangle with enormous guilt over past actions, especially Judas, who has lived up to his name on more than one occasion.
He is consumed with guilt over the suicide of a former girlfriend, Anna Price, who he unwittingly delivered into the arms of a stepfather who had sexually abused her and her sister for years. In fact, it's Anna who triggers his rude introduction to the supernatural. Her sister, Jessica, is the one who sent him the suit in a twisted act of revenge.
The overarching theme of the book is the expiation of guilt. All of the characters are searching for atonement in one form or another. Judas for his callous treatment of Anna, Georgia for her life as a stripper in seedy nightclubs. Even Jessica, the mad ringmaster of this terrible circus, is seeking redemption for her complicity in Anna's suicide cum murder, and later, her daughter, Reese, makes penance of a fashion and allows Jude to do the same for her.
The Ifs: This is Mr. Hill's first novel, and it shows. Grammar is not his strong suit. The Wiki bio says he has a degree in English from Vassar, but I don't care. There are still numerous grammatical nits and syntax aberrations that jarred me from the narrative flow. At one point, he used the had + got construction in his narrative, a distinctly British flavoring if ever I'd heard one. It happened frequently in the first one hundred pages and stopped abruptly after that. Either the error was caught or Hill forgot he'd started with that particular construction and discarded it. He is also fond of commas. Commas, commas everywhere, even where they shouldn't go. Here is an example of a favored construction:
He rummaged through the closet, pulled out a box.
My English teachers are crying. Oh, Joe, don't leave Little Orphan And behind.
The Uglies: There is entirely too much hip, product-placement smarm in this novel. Judas Coyne is a famous death-metal god, so his music is everywhere-on the radio(ad fucking nauseam), in dreams, as a means to ward off The Evil Hypno Powers of Craddock, and even on a Kidz Bop CD. The last one made me laugh, because while Kidz Bop has turned out some truly hellacious crap, I doubt they've got the kiddies belting Slayer tunes.
If that weren't enough, there are Ipods and XM radios, and Internet auction sites that are Really, Really Not Ebay. So Not Ebay, D'You Hear? In fact, it was so Not Ebay that he mentioned it four times.
Overall: Definitely worth a look. It's his first novel, and though inexperience with the format shows, he's bound to improve once he's defined exactly who he wants to be a a writer and what stories he wants to tell. He also needs to tame the Narcissism Monster that bays at the heels of every writer, be they pro or not. He's still too keenly aware of his fingers tapping the keys.
B+, and I will definitely pick up his next offering.
My bouncing baby board has been quiet, but I'm not going to tie myself in knots over it. Folks will either post, or they won't, and if they don't, at least I tried.
A pimp for Part VIII of Danse Macabre.
Summary: Judas Coyne has left a lot of broken people in his wake on his quest for rock superstardom. One day, he buys a ghost on the Internet. He thinks it's a joke, but the very next day, a heart-shaped box arrives on his doorstep, and what's inside takes him on a journey down the nightroad.
The Good: There is nothing new under the sun, or in the shadows for that matter, but Mr. Hill takes several horror tropes-the Man in the Black Hat, phantom cars, prophetic statements from the living and the dead, and the afterlife-and shapes them into a fun, compelling story. His prose, with a notable exception near the end, is sharp and clean, mean and lean, and the plot moves forward fluidly, with a minimum of clunky, supernatural huggermugger. Once you accept the admittedly dubious premise-that Jessica Price put the suit on the Internet knowing that her intended target would just happen to find it within the auction window and be intrigued by a tatty old suit-the story roars out of the gate.
The ostensible hero is rather a turd. In fact, he's self-centered and dismissive to those around him and freely admits that nine months is the typical shelf-life of his sexual relationships. He treats his PA with disdain, and when the supernatural didoes kick in, he contemplates foisting the cursed suit off on an unsuspecting fan. He's a Class-A prick.
His girlfriend of the moment isn't much better. She's a whiny, snobby, uncouth brat. As the story progresses, however, both characters are deepened and given more dimension. For instance, Judas Coyne was once Justin Cowczinsky, a dirt-poor, abused kid from Moore's Corner, Louisiana who fled an abusive father, and Georgia was once Marybeth Kimball, a girl molested by her father's friend. Both wrangle with enormous guilt over past actions, especially Judas, who has lived up to his name on more than one occasion.
He is consumed with guilt over the suicide of a former girlfriend, Anna Price, who he unwittingly delivered into the arms of a stepfather who had sexually abused her and her sister for years. In fact, it's Anna who triggers his rude introduction to the supernatural. Her sister, Jessica, is the one who sent him the suit in a twisted act of revenge.
The overarching theme of the book is the expiation of guilt. All of the characters are searching for atonement in one form or another. Judas for his callous treatment of Anna, Georgia for her life as a stripper in seedy nightclubs. Even Jessica, the mad ringmaster of this terrible circus, is seeking redemption for her complicity in Anna's suicide cum murder, and later, her daughter, Reese, makes penance of a fashion and allows Jude to do the same for her.
The Ifs: This is Mr. Hill's first novel, and it shows. Grammar is not his strong suit. The Wiki bio says he has a degree in English from Vassar, but I don't care. There are still numerous grammatical nits and syntax aberrations that jarred me from the narrative flow. At one point, he used the had + got construction in his narrative, a distinctly British flavoring if ever I'd heard one. It happened frequently in the first one hundred pages and stopped abruptly after that. Either the error was caught or Hill forgot he'd started with that particular construction and discarded it. He is also fond of commas. Commas, commas everywhere, even where they shouldn't go. Here is an example of a favored construction:
He rummaged through the closet, pulled out a box.
My English teachers are crying. Oh, Joe, don't leave Little Orphan And behind.
The Uglies: There is entirely too much hip, product-placement smarm in this novel. Judas Coyne is a famous death-metal god, so his music is everywhere-on the radio(ad fucking nauseam), in dreams, as a means to ward off The Evil Hypno Powers of Craddock, and even on a Kidz Bop CD. The last one made me laugh, because while Kidz Bop has turned out some truly hellacious crap, I doubt they've got the kiddies belting Slayer tunes.
If that weren't enough, there are Ipods and XM radios, and Internet auction sites that are Really, Really Not Ebay. So Not Ebay, D'You Hear? In fact, it was so Not Ebay that he mentioned it four times.
Overall: Definitely worth a look. It's his first novel, and though inexperience with the format shows, he's bound to improve once he's defined exactly who he wants to be a a writer and what stories he wants to tell. He also needs to tame the Narcissism Monster that bays at the heels of every writer, be they pro or not. He's still too keenly aware of his fingers tapping the keys.
B+, and I will definitely pick up his next offering.
My bouncing baby board has been quiet, but I'm not going to tie myself in knots over it. Folks will either post, or they won't, and if they don't, at least I tried.
A pimp for Part VIII of Danse Macabre.
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