Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So, when I checked this book out from the library, I found a 9 of Clubs serving as a bookmark about 90 pages in. As it turns out, this is a fabulous way to make a horror novel way scarier. I mean, it raises some creepy questions: if you use a playing card as a bookmark, you must mean to do so temporarily--so why was the book returned, apparently unfinished, with the card in place? What happened to the reader? And what of the deck of cards, now ruined due to the misfortune of the reader? Is there eve anyone left to play with the broken deck?*
But this is a digression from the actual book.** The actual book is pretty good. For one thing, playing card or no, it's actually pretty scary. One sleepless night in and the book was tossed on the the DO NOT READ AT BEDTIME pile, so that tells you something.
Joe Hill does a nice job of making the supernatural threat feel genuinely threatening, while also having weaknesses that the heroes could plausible exploit.
The best part of the book, though, is that the characterization is very good. Jude, in particular, is nicely balanced. He is interesting and appealing--one has no trouble rooting for him, but he is also flawed, and not completely good. He feels like a real person, even if his existence is kind of implausible.***
* When I returned the book to the library I put the 9 of clubs back where I found it, obviously.
** But keep in mind that my opinion is influenced by the creepy playing card bookmark.
*** Seriously, how many heavy metal frontmen are actually still millionaires into their fifties. I'm guessing not too many.
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