Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill - RIPXIV #1

I've already talked about Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, a bit, but I decided I wanted to have a separate post up that's got "RIPXIV" in the labels, so here 'tis. Let's do the goofy version of a review, shall we?

So, there's this rocker dude named Judas Coyne (not his real name). He's not a nice guy, really. In the past, he's been a bit of a sexual deviant because rock stars can get away with that crap. When he takes up with a woman, he calls her by the name of the state in which they met (or, maybe "hooked up" is the better term), rather than by her actual name. The same is true of his current babe, Georgia.

Judas collects macabre items and when a haunted coat comes up for auction, he buys it. Why not? He doubts its authenticity but whatever. When the coat arrives and it is haunted by the ghost of his former flame's uncle, he's creeped out. When it somehow plucks Georgia's finger and gives her an infection, he's spooked. When the ghost keeps showing up with squiggles in front of his eyes, he's freaked. Then, he finds out he was targeted; the ghost wanted to end up with him so he could kill Judas. How can Judas get rid of the ghost?

Epic road trip, that's how. Judas leaves with Georgia and his two dogs. Much chasing and haunting and making of revolting wounds that won't heal ensues. Death, destruction, and possession occur. But, it ends on a high note, so there's that.

Recommended, if you like that kind of thing - I gave up Joe Hill (with the exception of his short stories) a couple years ago, after I read The Fireman (link leads to my review, which I just posted with a 2016 date to backdate to the actual reading) because he has an unfortunate tendency to kill off cats. And, apparently dogs. But, the guy who makes my neck stop hurting told me, "You have to read Heart-Shaped Box and then talk to me about it!" when I told him about the RIPXIV. So I read it and we talked and you guys, it's really cool to have a physical therapist who likes to talk books. I am, however, still essentially done with Joe Hill. Except for the short stories.

Not sure why I didn't write a review of The Fireman at the blog in 2016 but the review I just posted is one I wrote at Goodreads. Fortunately, I had that content to move over to the blog. Goodreads now just shows my rating.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Fireman by Joe Hill

The Fireman is set in a dystopian world where a fungus commonly known as Dragonscale that can cause people to literally go up in flames has infected a large portion of the population and caused out-of-control wildfires, disruption of services like electricity, and a divided society in which some of the healthy are determined to exterminate the infected to prevent further spread of the disease.

Harper is a nurse who volunteers to work at a hospital, helping with the outbreak. When she becomes infected, her husband Jakob presumes he's infected, too, and says he wants to go through with "our plan" (really, his plan) to commit suicide. Harper escapes with the help of John, also known as "The Fireman". John has figured out a way to not only live with the infection but use it to his advantage. He takes her to a campsite where a community of the infected — who have learned to live with Dragonscale and keep it from consuming them — are hiding from the Cremation Crews killing their kind. Jakob becomes one of the killers and he is determined to kill his pregnant wife. Harper is equally determined to survive long enough to give her child a chance.

OK, the good and the bad. I liked Harper and John, although John spends most of his time alone on a small nearby island, so the titles seems a wee bit off. Eventually, he becomes more prominent but the story is really Harper's. However, the story is about a disease that sets people on fire, so that falls into the "eh, whatever" category.

As usual, Hill goes all-out with popular culture references, using favorite music, a Dr. Who reference ("Allons-y!"), quotes from various books and allusions to them, etc. I'm not all that familiar with Stephen King's work but apparently there are some parallels to his father's work, as well. I felt like he went way overboard on the pop culture references; it got a little too cutesy and I found it annoying, particularly the music and Harper's bizarre love of Mary Poppins. That was a negative.

The characterization was very good but not quite as deep as it has been in previous books. In NOS4A2, there was no question who was evil and who you were rooting for. I found that a little harder to pinpoint in The Fireman, possibly because there are so many characters. Some just didn't stick; there were hints about at least one having darker motives; one or two became surprise baddies.

And, the violence . . .  this nearly did me in. I am pretty much convinced that I'm not going to read future books by Joe Hill. Much of the book is palatable and even a bit plodding as it focuses on camp life with just a few dangerous missions. But, once it became violent, it was relentless and vicious. I prefer to avoid images that lead to nightmares and this was nightmare-inducing stuff. Also, there was a cat-murder scene. I'm a cat lover; I can do without that kind of horror.

The best thing about the book is the pacing. It took a while for me to get into the book, possibly because I was suffering from jetlag, but even when I couldn't keep my eyes open I was aware that it was well-paced. The pages really flew, once I got past the fatigue. High marks for excellent packing.

The storyline itself is also one that deserves acclaim for its uniqueness. In a book world saturated with dystopian tales, Hill really came up with something totally his own.

Overall, The Fireman is not my favorite by Hill (the short stories in 20th Century Ghosts still are his most impressive work, in my humble opinion) and yet I liked it better than NOS4A2 because there are breaks between the intense scenes; I appreciated the early focus on characterization and the fact that there was less violence. Once it became violent, though, it was just a bit too much for this reader.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

N0S4A2 by Joe Hill

Backtracking a bit, here.  I read N0S4A2 by Joe Hill in October and I think the reason I likely did not review it immediately has to do with the fact that it scared the bejeebers out of me and I just wanted to freaking forget Christmasland, but I'm over it, now.

N0S4A2 (besides being a pain-in-the-butt of a title to type) is a chunkster at nearly 700 pages, and I tend to shy away from chunksters.  However, I absolutely loved Joe Hill's short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts.  Oh, wow, look at that link.  I read 20th Century Ghosts way back in 2007, before it was published in the U.S.  Believe it or not, I have not yet managed to get the creepy Button Boy character from one of those stories to exit my mind.  So, I resisted Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.  I just wasn't ready for that level of creepy to return to my world.  Much as I adored Hill's writing and the inventiveness of his stories, I preferred the ghosts and time travel to horror and horror is the road he seems to prefer. And, yet, I knew I was missing some very fine writing by resisting.

N0S4A2 is about Vic, a girl who can travel wherever she wants to go by biking quickly across a wooden bridge. Even after the bridge ceases to exist, it remains in her imagination so she can still go there; it's her special skill to travel via the map within her mind. There are others who have a similar ability and one of them has created a terrifying world called Christmasland.  He is basically a mass-murdering vampire who is convinced that he's doing kids a favor by taking their undead bodies to this bizarre place and killing their families.  Vic, of course, has to save the world from the bad guy.  

Okay, wait, I think I know why I put off reviewing the book (well, another reason). There's a lot to this story.  And, of course, it's not fun mentally revisiting the gore. Why did I keep reading?  Because Joe Hill knows how to create characters a reader really cares about.  But, N0S4A2 is extremely bloody and I confess that I'm surprised I made it all the way through the book, in spite of the incredible characterization and some pretty rocking fine storytelling. And, I'm glad I did hang in there; it does have a knockout ending. I marked a passage to remind me that I thought one of Hill's influences, in this case (he has a tendency to make sly references to books, movies and real people) was the movie The Great Escape. He sprinkled numerous hints to that effect and then actually used the words "our great escape" (to which I said, "Ha!" aloud).  

Recommended particularly to readers who love horror.  Joe Hill is a tremendously skilled and imaginative writer; I admire his ability to create such wonderful and awful characters.  But, the book was too bloody for me.  

The ending of N0S4A2 is exciting and sad and a huge relief at the same time so I'm glad I got to the point of resolution because, damn, that evil bad buy needed killing in a big way.  But, I do think I'll likely avoid Joe Hill in the future until/unless he gets around to writing an unbloody time travel novel in the Jack Finney vein.  One of the stories in 20th Century Ghosts was clearly an homage to Finney and I personally think he could write a brilliant time travel, although I hope he doesn't go wildly overboard as I think his father did with 11/22/63 (personal opinion - loved the time travel; thought the romance was dull).  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.