Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

"Buy my step-father's ghost." You'd think this was a novel idea, but it is something you can find on ebay today. I was going to link something here but got the heebie jeebies just searching for haunted items and don't need the bad vibes right now. Although I have to wonder, does it increase the value of an item to describe it as haunted? In either case, buyer beware!

Heart Shaped Box is Hill's first full-length novel, published in 2007 (he also published a collection of short stories two years prior to this called 20th Century Ghosts). I had read Hill's Horns and liked it. I have also heard good things about Nos4A2, but haven't gotten my hands on it yet. In the meantime, Heart Shaped Box landed on my bedside table.

The owner of said box is Jude Coyne, a rock star who likes to collect macabre items like the skull of a trepanned peasant which makes for a good pencil holder, apparently. And after looking up what trepanning is, I get it. So when he sees an ad for a ghost, he can't resist, throws caution to the wind, and goes all in with the "buy-it-now" button - to hell with bidding! Of course, the seller doesn't believe souls can be sold, so they send the dead man's suit, hoping the ghost will follow.  

Jude quickly starts experiencing strange things. Some subtle, like how his girlfriend pricks herself on an unseen pin in the suit, and some more obvious, like seeing a man sitting in the chair in his hallway. The action starts quickly and doesn't let up in this story. And Hill is great at taking fairly mundane things, like describing eating a chocolate covered cherry, and turning it into something macabre - like biting into an eyeball.

This is a fun story about a haunting, but it also involves deeper questions about the things that tie people to one another, in this case death. Through his characters, Hill addresses various stages of death - pre with Coyne's love interests, post a la the ghost, and peri through Coyne's father who is on his deathbed. Hill explores how decisions you make in life can affect all of these stages. 

I am of two minds about this book. There are some really great things going on that I dig - like how Hill can transition so quickly and seamlessly into horror. While I wouldn't describe the book as scary, it definitely has satisfyingly creepy moments and the pacing of the story is just right. There aren't long lulls in the action. 

But there are other things that give me the ick - like a scene that mixes violence and sex, references to a snuff film, child sexual abuse, and the ~30 years age difference between Jude and his girlfriend.  

So while I think overall it's better than it was worse, consider yourself warned!

Horns by Joe Hill

In a series of strange incidents, a man with a goatee finds himself in hellish heat, surrounded by snakes, and holding sharply pronged lawn equipment. If that is too subtle for you, there's the fact that he's also sprouted horns overnight.

Horns is a slowly unfolding story told from different perspectives. I haven't quite figured out if I love or hate the literal horns part of the story, but if I press the "belief suspended" button, I can get around that dichotomy. And really, I think that's a part of what this tale is about.

Iggy Perrish is a twenty-something guy whose life has brought him to a distinct point (points?) when we meet him. He wakes up one morning, after a drunken night of desecrating the place of his former girlfriend's sexual assault and murder, with two horns on his head. Seeking advice from his current girlfriend, the medical profession, as well as his family proves fruitless as the horns seem to hypnotize those around him. Instead of figuring out his own dilemma, Iggy learns the dark, secret desires of those he encounters.

While he's still trying to figure out if this is a blessing or a curse, Perrish learns details about his former girlfriend's last night that leads him on a path of revenge (that's not a spoiler, BTW, as the book cover says, "when it comes to revenge, the devil's in the details"). While he's slowly gaining new insight into those he loves and the world around him, he's also slowly gaining, uh, a very particular set of skills, that seem to be related to his latest predicament.

There is a lot to like about this book. Hill's story of Perrish, his best friend, girlfriend, and brother is interesting enough without the horns thrown in. Hill backtracks and changes perspectives to give us insight akin to end-of-life flashbacks. Small details, words, and scenes reveal significance that can only be seen with hindsight. And Perrish's transition, we learn, is not an overnight one. Perhaps his entire life pointed to this inevitable, literal, reminder of evil that has now manifest itself upon him. Perhaps, we learn, good and evil isn't quite so red and white.

Hill's playful writing is both figurative and literal. Through liberal and, at times playful, use of religious imagery including a lot of fire, horns, crosses, and thinly vieiled biblical references, we learn about contrasts. Hill explores literal good and evil, sure, but he also shows how two people can experience the same thing and walk away with completely different meanings. Could both people have been right? Can this same contradiction occur within an individual too? Or are we all completely good or bad?

Perrish's evolution to literal devil is a slow one, complete after a baptism by fire. But understanding his life gives you insight into the true question of whether he is blessed or cursed. But you have to read the book to find out, because as we've already been told, the devil's in the details.