Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
fantasy,horror
copyright 2007
half-read in March 2019
rated 5/10: readable but only if there's nothing else
… (note re bias: I don't see much point in fantasy horror)
I have just finished an excellent book by Joe Hill. Okay, I think, let's try another. And, while I'm there, a third. Unfortunately I do not appreciate fantasy horror.
I mean, what's the point? There's a supernatural villain which can do anything, anything at all. So it sets its sights on scaring, threatening, injuring and ultimately destroying the characters. The only limit to what it can do is in the author's imagination.
For some reason I am expecting that, in the next chapter, the Blue Bird of Happiness will fly in the window and spit acid rain all over the main character. I mean, why not ?
Why does this particular ghost torment with freezing and fire ? After all, the haunt began with suicide by slashing of the wrists. Why not create a suitable revenge theme and haunt with a slow death of a thousand cuts ?
The ghost is evil but understandable, it was his daughter driven to suicide. I can't particularly sympathise with the main character, he is the one who drove the girl to suicide. That leaves the current girlfriend as a sweet but brainless object as sympathy as she is tormented by ghostly "friendly fire".
Okay, if you enjoy fantasy horror, this book is well written. Slow buildup to inescapable horror, possibly leading to a vaguely logical final bid for safety. If that is your thing, add a few points to my rating.
Or go off and read Joe Hill's better -- vaguely SF -- book. It has a plot, a point and a solid basis of "fact" upon which all the horror is logically constructed.
Half way, I stop reading. I will not even open the third book.
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them." … Robert Jarvik
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