Ah, finally another good book. I picked this book up when I went to the previous Big Bad Wolf Warehouse Sales. Books were really cheap there, averaging RM8 though of course you won't find popular international best-sellers there. Most of them were pretty much unknown here, which made it even better for me. =D
Anyway, I went to the sales alone as I couldn't find anyone to go with me. So I took my time and lugged 7 books back home.
Out of the 7 books, this book cover caught my eye the most. I guess you could say I do actually judge a book first by its cover. When I first saw this book, I instantly thought how the title sounds completely different from the cover illustrations and synopsis at the back. I discovered it was actually a horror book and I've always been a fan of horror but have yet to find any good, original ones. And something told me this one was gonna be good.
And yep I was right. Although it did take me a few weeks to finish it 'coz in between finishing I finished another book as well, "Acting It Up" by Melissa Nathan, a typical, predictable chic-lit (which I managed to finish during the weekend.) I guess the reason why I finished the chic-lit first was because I've always felt that they were easier to read. There's not so much to process, storyline is almost predictable. In other words, I guess you could say I was lazy to get some serious reading done.
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"Heart-Shaped Box" wasn't at all like how I predicted. The title alone is misleading, at first glance I thought it was another romance story. But it was more than that. (Note: It's actually a title of a Nirvana song). It tells a story of how middle-aged rock star Judas Coyne hears of someone selling a ghost on the Internet. Being a collector of various dark and macabre artefacts, Judas fell for the bait.
The ghost arrived in a black heart-shaped box and inside it was a suit that once belonged to the ghost. At its arrival, the house became cold, the dogs started barking and made Judas wonder if he was beginning to hallucinate things.
But it doesn't stop there. The ghost was "sent" to Judas for a reason. A reason so fearful that it made him run for his life.
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Joe Hill has done an excellent job keeping the atmosphere of this book with deep resonances of the dark and macabre. I find that this book maintains a good balance of reality and fantasy. Despite the mentioning of many occult and gothic elements, the true and masked horror contained here is the vicious cycle of human abuse. How victims of abuse can grow up to become an abuser themselves.
There is actually a bit of romance in this story , that is if you could actually call it romance. Judas has got a live-in girlfriend who was also dragged into his ghostly endeavours. At the beginning of the book, you could see that it was a love-hate thing. Of course, Judas being a rock star with an abusive background would have all emotions and sentimentality robbed of him. So, don't expect lots of "I love you"s. But there's something about Judas's character that's so well written that you will find him so likeable. Even his girlfriend's character will surprise you in the end.
All in all, I think that this book is worth wayyy much more than the price I paid. Nowadays, with so many books repeating the same themes especially chic-lits (sorry I just can't get my head around them =P) it's hard to find really good books that stands out. Sure, I do read Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series (in fact, it's the only chic-lit I like) but that's more for entertainment. To find something that can be appreciated as good literature is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Well at least to me. =D
P.S. I know I'm probably slower than others, but Green Day's latest album 21st Century Breakdown is awesome!
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