Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill: Book Review

October is when I want creepy books.

Give me ghosts, haunted houses, supernatural stories, mysteries, and anything that feels just a little darker than what I’d normally read.

So, when I decided to read Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, the timing couldn’t have been much better.

This was actually my first Joe Hill book, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I’d heard of him, of course, and I knew Heart-Shaped Box was a horror novel, but that was about it.

And I’ll admit, I had a little trouble getting into this one at first.

The beginning moved somewhat slowly for me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the main character, Jude. He’s an aging death-metal rocker who collects macabre objects, dates much younger women, and isn’t exactly presented as the warmest person in the world.

Basically, he’s about what you’d expect from an almost washed-up old rocker.

I wanted to like him.

And then, surprisingly quickly, I did.

The book also started picking up speed.

And once it did?

It was like a runaway train.

My Opinion of Heart-Shaped Box

There were so many things I liked about this book once it got going.

First, it was genuinely creepy.

Not just supernatural.

Not just suspenseful.

Creepy.

Joe Hill was incredibly descriptive, particularly when it came to Craddock. I could picture him. I could picture the razor blade dangling from the chain. I could picture the things happening around Jude and Marybeth.

This is one of those books that played almost like a movie in my head while I was reading it.

And honestly, it would make a fantastic October horror movie.

But Craddock himself was what made the supernatural element so interesting.

He wasn’t simply a ghost who appeared in dark hallways and scared people.

He could control them.

Using his voice and his ability to hypnotize people, Craddock could make someone hurt another person or even kill themselves.

And you actually get to watch him do it.

That made him so much more frightening than a traditional ghost because Jude and Marybeth weren’t simply trying to escape something supernatural.

They couldn’t necessarily trust their own minds around him.

It Was Also a Mystery

This was probably one of my favorite parts of the book.

Heart-Shaped Box isn’t just about Jude trying to survive a murderous ghost.

There’s a mystery underneath everything involving Jude’s former girlfriend, Anna, whom he called Florida.

Jude initially believes Anna killed herself after their relationship ended.

And because Craddock is Anna’s stepfather, it seems like his hatred of Jude makes sense.

Craddock blames Jude for Anna’s death.

Jude blames himself, too.

Except that’s not what really happened.

MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD

If you haven’t read Heart-Shaped Box yet and don’t want to know what happens with Anna, Craddock, Marybeth, the dogs, or the ending, stop here.

Seriously.

Go read the book.

Then come back because I have feelings about all of this.

What Happened to Anna Made Me So Mad

As Jude starts putting the pieces together, we learn that Anna didn’t simply kill herself because Jude ended their relationship.

Her family killed her.

Anna had been abused by Craddock, and they needed to keep her quiet.

They manipulated Jude into believing he was responsible for her death and then deliberately sent Craddock’s suit to him so Craddock could kill him, too.

Ugh.

That made me so mad.

I already felt bad for Anna because of everything she’d been through, but discovering what really happened to her completely changed the story.

Jude had spent all that time carrying guilt for something he hadn’t actually caused.

And Anna wasn’t the enemy.

She ultimately became part of the reason Jude and Marybeth survived.

I loved that.

Using Anna’s ghost against Craddock was smart, and it gave Anna a chance to help stop the person who had hurt her.

I Loved Marybeth

Marybeth, whom Jude initially calls Georgia, could have easily become the girlfriend who exists mostly so the main character has someone to save.

She wasn’t.

She was caught up in this nightmare because of Jude, but she fought like hell right alongside him.

I really liked her.

And as Jude started figuring out what was happening, one of the things that made me like him even more was that he didn’t want Marybeth to die for him.

By that point, Jude wasn’t simply the aging rocker we met at the beginning of the book anymore.

Or maybe he was, but we finally understood that there was a lot more underneath that exterior.

Their relationship became one of the parts of the story I cared about most.

Which made the ending incredibly stressful.

But the Dogs…

If you’ve read many of my book reviews, you probably already know where this is going.

I hated that the dogs died.

I understand why it happened within the story.

I understand what they did to Craddock and how important they were.

I still wanted them to live.

There are apparently limits to what I’m willing to accept in my horror novels, and killing the dogs is one of them.

But I will admit that Joe Hill did something with their deaths that I loved later.

When Jude was in the hospital and started seeing his dead bandmates and then the dogs, I immediately assumed he was dying.

I thought that was it.

And at that point, I also thought Marybeth was already dead.

So, I was preparing myself for a very different ending.

And Then We Got a Happy Ending!

I was so relieved.

Marybeth wasn’t dead.

Jude didn’t die.

And after everything these two went through, they actually got to have a life together.

They got married.

They traveled together and returned to different places on their anniversary.

And Jude got more dogs.

Thank you, Joe Hill.

I needed that.

I also loved getting the update about Reese.

Her mother went to prison, which she absolutely deserved, and Reese was doing better. She even eventually paid Jude and Marybeth a visit.

Jude and Marybeth were also finally free from suspicion surrounding everything that had happened.

It felt like an actual ending.

Not necessarily a perfectly happy one because these characters went through absolute hell to get there, but they survived.

And after spending so much of the end of the book convinced one or both of them were about to die, I was very happy to get that.

Would I Read Another Joe Hill Book?

Absolutely.

Heart-Shaped Box took a little longer to grab me than I expected, but once the story really started moving, I didn’t have that problem anymore.

It had ghosts.

It had horror.

It had gore.

It had suspense.

It had a mystery I genuinely wanted to figure out.

And it had characters I became much more emotionally invested in than I expected when I first met them.

Craddock was also a fantastic supernatural villain because his power wasn’t limited to simply haunting Jude. His ability to get inside someone’s mind and control what they did made every interaction with him dangerous.

And the descriptions throughout the book made the horror incredibly easy to visualize.

That may have been one of my favorite things about Joe Hill’s writing.

Who Should Read Heart-Shaped Box?

I’d recommend this one to readers who enjoy:

• Ghost stories
• Supernatural horror
• Thrillers
• Suspense
• Dark mysteries
• Gore
• Creepy villains
• Stories that become increasingly intense as they go

If you’re looking for something light and cozy for fall, this probably isn’t it.

But if October makes you want to turn off the lights, curl up with a genuinely creepy ghost story, and wonder whether you should really be reading this right before bed?

Heart-Shaped Box is a pretty good choice.

And considering this was my first Joe Hill book, I’d say it definitely won’t be my last.