Preview
  • Heart-Shaped Box

  • By: Joe Hill
  • Narrated by: Stephen Lang
  • Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (11,404 ratings)

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Heart-Shaped Box

By: Joe Hill
Narrated by: Stephen Lang
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Publisher's summary

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is widely known. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, a thing so terrible-strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet.

I will sell my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder.

For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts: of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What's one more? But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost. It's the real thing.

And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door...seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang...standing outside his window...staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting - with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one hand.

A multiple award-winner for his short fiction, author Joe Hill immediately vaults into the top echelon of dark fantasists with a masterwork brimming with relentless thrills and acid terror.

©2007 Joe Hill (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers
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Critic reviews

  • Audie Award winner, Thriller/Suspense, 2008
  • Thriller Award, Best Novel, 2008

"Powerful....[Hill's] subtle and skillful treatment of horrors that could easily have exploded over the top and out of control helps make this a truly memorable debut." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mr. Hill elicits honest empathy for Jude, who turned his stage persona into a nightmare version of his fears and must now figure out what strength he has left for legitimate battles. This dynamic is both frightening and funny, and the book weaves together those two threads in clever ways." (The New York Times)

Featured Article: Authors Like Stephen King


Best-selling author Stephen King has published a staggering amount of work, from gripping crime thrillers to epic fantasy series, winning prestigious awards. Yet King’s varied writing is united by common themes, styles, characters, and settings. King fans will recognize a book by him for elements ranging from child characters to atmospheric settings, from eerie psychological horror to New England locations. Undeniably, King’s influence is evident in many of the horror genre’s leading and emerging authors. If you're a fan of Stephen King, these horror authors should be on your radar.

What listeners say about Heart-Shaped Box

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story - a bit scary

Not a bad book if you like ghost stories. Good characters. The movie is on Netflix.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The book is fantastic!

The book is fantastic, the storyline is great. Hell the narrator has a special way of really pulling you in. BUYER BEWARE when the reader breaks they play this loud horrendous tone from the 1980’s commercials or something. Overall the book is well worth it!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Joe Hill is worthy of his father’s praise

This book is a fantastic. I love the characters, and the situations get down right intense! Great listen!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Greatly worded

Hill (King) is truly following his father's steps with how much detail is put into their work. Very impressed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

loved it!

really enjoyed the story and the reading. scary and exciting and not sure how it would end which is rare.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well written and narrated

Well constructed with reasonable character development & nice subtlety. I would recommend it for recreational reading.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t put it down

Had to turn on my audible every free chance I got! Wonderful book. So much going on! And mystery, thrilling, love, and a few laughs!

Loved!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sooo freaking good!

It took me a couple of chapters to get into this book but it ended up being so good! I’m glad I own it in my audible so I can listen to it again later. This is also the first book by Joe Hill I’ve ever read and I’m a fan now.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great characters, writing, good story

Hard to go wrong with Joe Hill. I really got sucked in towards the middle of the book. There was one part near the beginning where the story turned into a over long series of ghostly incidents where the story development took a back seat, that could have been shorter.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining story

Good story overall. The main character is a bit of a jerk that you want to hate, but you start to see a little of a different side of him as the story goes. I like that the story continues on a little while after what you think was the ending, so it wraps up everything nicely.
I loved the narrator, I think he did a wonderful job. He was good at altering his voice enough for you to keep up with which characters were talking.

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