Heart Shaped Box is an original twist on one of the most widely used stories in Horror Fiction – the ghost story.|a Originally published: New York : William Morrow, 2007. I had a great time with Heart Shaped Box and want to read more of Hill. Craddock really did a number on her head. She appears to hero-worship Craddock and you find out at the end of the novel she participated in the molestation of Reese. She tries to justify Cradock’s molestation of Anna and her own daughter Reese. Craddock’s other daughter Jessica is a new-kind of deranged. Craddock is able to use his talents as a hypnotist to possess Jude and Georgia and try to get them to hurt themselves and each other. They’re both deeply flawed but completely realistic. Jude and his latest girlfriend, Georgia (aka Marybeth) are not typical heroes. Craddock hypnotised Anna to molest her and he later used his talent to kill her and make it look like suicide. No lost soul and ratting chains in sight. There were a lot of nice touches to Heart Shaped Box that made it stand out from other ghost stories.Ĭraddock intentionally became a ghost so he could seek vengeance on the man he blames for taking his favourite toy away. The pages turned at the speed of lightning. Hill managed to hold my interest all the way through Heart Shaped Box. I really want to read his second novel, Horns now. Hill’s writing style reminds me of his father’s, Stephen King. It can be hard to write in the horror genre without resorting to cliché. I think Hill did a great job at coming up with something so original when there are probably thousands of ghost story novels in circulation. I thought it was very original and miles better than other ‘ghost stories’ I’ve read. I loved the story-line in Heart Shaped Box. He wants to haunt Jude because his relationship with his manic-depressive daughter/victim Anna ruined her and gave her the courage not to comply with the incestuous demands of Craddock and her sister. The ghost in Heart Shaped Box is a nasty old bastard called Craddock whose talents lie in hypnotism, dowsing, sexual abuse and murder.

And none of the artefacts bring a vengeful old ghost with black scribbles over his eyes out of the shadows to chase Jude out of his home, and make him run for his life… The bones don’t make the dogs bark the movie doesn’t make Jude feel as if he’s being watched. But the rest of his collection doesn’t make the house feel cold. It was perfect for his collection: the genuine skulls and the bones, the real honest-to-God snuff movie, the occult books and all the rest of the paraphernalia that goes along with his kind of hard/Goth rock. He bought it, in the shape of the dead man’s suit, delivered in a heart-shaped box, because he wanted it: because his fans ate up that kind of story. ‘Buy my stepfather’s ghost’ read the e-mail.

The heart shaped box book