Title: Heart Shaped Box
Author: Joe Hill
Publisher: Harper Audio Books
Narrator: Stephen Lang
Duration: 11 hours, 6 minutes
Copyright: 2007
Genres: horror, paranormal, suspense
Filed in: Audiobook reviews
Review copy provided by Carrollton Public Library.
THE GIST: Jude Coin is a famous rock musician with a taste for the macabre. His collection of dark objects would shock most people, a cookbook for cannibals, a human skull with holes drilled in it, etcetera. When an anonymous fan alerts him to an online auction in which a ghost is being sold to the highest bidder, he doesn’t have to think twice. The auctioner claims that the spirit of her step-father is irrevocably linked to his favorite suit of clothes, and whoever buys the suit, will thus inherit the ghost. Right up Jude Coin’s alley.
Soon after the suit arrives, packaged in a black, heart-shaped box, Jude finds out that this was no hoax. To his horror, he discovers that the ghost is very real, and is now haunting him. When he calls the seller, she has quite a tale to tell. She is actually the sister of one of Jude’s ex-girlfriends, a girl who committed suicide after Jude dumpte her. Their step-father, a noted hypnotist and mentalist, vowed on his deathbed to get revenge.
MY THOUGHTS: I’ve been eager to read “Heart-Shaped Box” for a long time and finally got my chance. Boy, was I disappointed. “Heart-Shaped Box” has all the makings of a good creepy ghost story, but Joe Hill was unable to deliver. There were moments where I could feel the author trying to build up some suspense, most notably a scene where Jude is sitting at his computer and receives an email from the dead man, but it just doesn’t work. Hill never convinced me that I should care about his characters.
As you may, or may not, know, Joe Hill is reallyJoe King, eldest son of Stephen King. It's hard to be objective in this case, Stephen King being my favorite author, but I tried to be. I urge you to give this audio book a try for yourself and see if you like it.
NARRATOR: A bad narrator can ruin a good audio book, and a good narrator can salvage a mediocre one. It wasn’t Stephen Lang that ruined "Heart Shaped Box, but he wasn't good enough to salvage it either. His reading was a bit wooden and unemotional.
FINAL WORD: Joe Hill had a great story idea here, it just needs a little more character development. Even though “Heart-Shaped Box" didn't work for me, I can see where this audio book might appeal to a lot of people. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
In the Night Room by Peter Straub (Audiobook Review)
Summer of night by Dan Simmons (Audiobook Review)
Dead Lines by Greg Bear (Audiobook Review)
If you liked this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get "Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill (Unabridged Audiobook) from Amazon.com.
This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
Come back soon for more audiobook reviews from Audiobook-Heaven.
Aha! That's why the name sounded so familiar. Joe Hill is a King, but the talent doesn't fall down the apple tree, eh?
ReplyDeleteI'll still give it a try. The premise alone sounds good but as we both know, we writers need WORDS to back them up.
I can only think of one novel I've read that was written by the child of a successful novelist. And I can't remember the title or the writer's name. I do remember thinking that he should have asked his Dad for a little help.
ReplyDeleteI don't vote for the children of elected officials, unless they have the credentials needed, and I don't read the works of the children of writers, unless they have a decent writing track record.
:)
By the way, what file compression utility do you use? WinZip? Jrar?