Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Hello, hope you are well....blah, blah, blah, niceties over, time to move on! Forget chicken cooking, house work, etc. We must talk! I purchased a book called Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. Do you know who Joe Hill is? Huh? Do you? Go on, guess, I'll wait. NO don't google! Unfair! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls...Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. You've heard of legacy acceptance into ivy league schools, multi-generational presidents, now we have father and son writers. No, no, not just any writers, horror writers! If I didn't buy this book, not knowing what it was like would literally wake me up at night. Would he write like his dad? Was his dad actually writing for him and slapping sonny's name on it, kinda like a nice inheritance? Would the writing be juvenile? Would it be big words sending me repeatedly to the dictionary like he had something to prove? You know I have a love/hate relationship with Stephen King. Okay, mostly love, I highly doubt you can have had the longevity he has as an author without a whole lotta love. But, his wordiness and tangents totally get on my every last nerve. What about the offspring?!?! Sit down, yes, I know you have far more interesting things to investigate in your life, congratulations Nancy Drew. I had to know if the son was like the father. Had to!

Do you want me to tell you? Draw it out longer? Build the suspense? I'll spill. Joe Hill is amazing! Yes, amazing! No tangents at all (picture me looking up to the heavens mouthing "thank you"). No wordiness. What is left? I'll tell you, a super strong plot. A great ghost story where you see the ghost several times but it is the tension...ah the tension of what is about to happen that spurs you faster and faster through the book. The plot unfolds in such a way that takes some kind of unlikable characters and slowly evokes your compassion and eventually you're rooting for them. The story twists and turns, when you think it might slow down it doesn't and the whole time it is scary. At some points, I couldn't read this book at night. Honestly. Then, I couldn't help but read it anytime I could fit in a page or two. It was so good. It reminds me of everything I love about Stephen King and eliminates the things I don't like. Reading this took me back to reading The Shining, and that is a huge compliment as it started my interest in pleasure reading.

Yep, Joe Hill has some talent, bred or learned I don't care, long as it keeps coming. Long live the King and Crown Prince. I'll start practicing my curtsy.