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  • http://danjalin.blogspot.com/2008/06/heart-shap...

    Joe Hill 的第一部長篇小說走的路線十分傳統，故事也很直截了當，而角色性格 的精心塑造以及緊湊刺激的動作場面描寫更豐富了整個閱讀經驗。

    由於我聽過最前衛的音樂不過就是 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band，因此無法深刻體察主人公 Jude 處處顯露的搖滾背景典故，也少了些許「同道中人」的趣味。不過無妨 。重點在於 Jude 和 Marybeth (Georgia) 面臨催眠惡鬼 ... Continue

    http://danjalin.blogspot.com/2008/06/heart-shap...

    Joe Hill 的第一部長篇小說走的路線十分傳統，故事也很直截了當，而角色性 格的精心塑造以及緊湊刺激的動作場面描寫更豐富了整個閱讀經驗。

    由於我聽過最前衛的音樂不過就是 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band，因此無法深刻體察主人公 Jude 處處顯露的搖滾背景典故，也少了些許「同道中人」的趣味。不過無 妨。重點在於 Jude 和 Marybeth (Georgia) 面臨催眠惡鬼 Craddock 追殺的同時（再強調一次，動作場面真的很寫實細膩），如何改變心 境，面對自己過去的陰暗面，進而重新融入經過自己多年來改頭換面 形塑完畢的性格，使自己成為更「完整」的人。

    從這個角度看來，部分讀友（如顏九笙）所指出的人物設定問題其實 也不算瑕疵。畢竟就如事件導火線 Florida (Anna) 一樣，從 Anna 到 Florida 再構成 Anna/Florida 的過程是兩位主角也必須經歷的（雖然深入的層次有所差異），自然 就不存在為何不離不棄的理由。而標題所突顯的「心形盒」，也由於 這層緣故，在故事的前後有所呼應，而不僅僅是包西裝的容器而已。

    Hill 也在書中提到他對恐懼的觀點："Horror was rooted in sympathy, after all, in understanding what it would be like to suffer the worst." Nussbaum 的評論中特別針對這點有著精闢的討論。我只能再加兩分錢，認為根 源於同情的恐懼是可以面對的，而且有時也是無法逃避的。愈在乎就 愈痛、愈怕，但也愈要去克服。

    我對 Stephen King 的作品很不熟，所以也沒辦法拿他來和兒子的作品比較。倒是書中所 著墨的父子關係，對比卷首獻辭，頗值得玩味，不過那也是熟諳 Hill 和 King 生平的讀者才做得到的事。我唯一能做的就是早點將 Hill 拿下 Stoker Award 的 20th Century Ghosts 排進閱讀計畫而已。

    

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• ― DaNee said on Jun 5, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Great start, but I lost interest as it went on.

    

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• ― pktechgirl said on Jun 27, 2009 about the Audio CD edition| Add your feedback

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  • Like father, like son

  • Good book - quite a simple story and little bit predictable as it went on. But had some good shocks in it.
    Very similar style to his dad (Stephen King) - not just in genre, but something about the tone of writing too. If you're a SK fan, I can recommend this.

    

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• ― Athene1710 said on Oct 6, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Truly the worst book I have ever read in a long time.

    

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• ― steve said on Aug 13, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • I'll admit that when I picked this book up I had no idea that Joe Hill was the son of someone famous, and to be honest it matters not one jot. It makes no difference whatsoever and I feel that some reviews have unfairly cast a shadow over this novel because of the size of Hill's father's shoes.

    < ... Continue

    I'll admit that when I picked this book up I had no idea that Joe Hill was the son of someone famous, and to be honest it matters not one jot. It makes no difference whatsoever and I feel that some reviews have unfairly cast a shadow over this novel because of the size of Hill's father's shoes.

    This is one of the best books I've read this year. I'm aware that I tend to give books everything - if I like them I tend to really like them, but in this case this book really is great. Sure it has its flaws, but I don't think I've read a perfect debut. But neither, and this is the important bit, have I picked up a debut novel before and stayed awake all night to read it all in one go.

    This book has a little too much fat in places which slightly stifled the sense of urgency but despite this the book is still well paced and you get the feeling that nothing is included by accident. Towards the end of the book all sorts of seemingly random facts and anecdotes are pulled together to not only paint a picture of a tormented man, but to help explain his behaviour and his fears.

    A novel that is cunningly disguised as a ghost story, the pages deftly share the cycle of abuse from the abused's transformation to abuser and the fear of facing our own demons, until a climax that ticks all the boxes without seeming forced or rushed.

    

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• ― Kieran Delaney said on Jul 24, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Not great, but an entertaining read

  • Judas Coyne has just bought a ghost. Or at least, he has paid for a suit, on the understanding that with the suit will come a ghost. Just one more thing to add to his collection. The collection of a retired death-metal rock star. Only it turns out that it wasn’t just an accident that led to Jude vis ... Continue

    Judas Coyne has just bought a ghost. Or at least, he has paid for a suit, on the understanding that with the suit will come a ghost. Just one more thing to add to his collection. The collection of a retired death-metal rock star. Only it turns out that it wasn’t just an accident that led to Jude visiting that e-bay wannabe website. Some one really wanted Jude to buy that suit. And once bought there are no returns and no refunds.

    Sooner or later the dead catch up.
    I did quite enjoy this book. It isn’t fantastic, and I can’t really see myself rereading it, but it is easy to read, and every now and then there is a really nice touch. However, overall it just isn’t anything special. The horror aspects aren’t horrifying enough. And the whole plot doesn’t make a huge amount of sense. Why was the ghost so bothered about Judas? I’ve a feeling that a touch of exposition was left, or perhaps edited, out. Revealing that in order for Mr. Ghost to return he had to have this “great duty” to perform. But while this is hinted at in the novel a few times I don’t think we ever really got the ghost’s motivation. Or then again, maybe I just skimmed that part. This is the sort of book I tend to skim rather than really read.

    A lot of things happened to quickly to be effective.

    It is a pity, in a way, because the first half, well, maybe more the first third of the book was really very good. It built up the suspense and the creep factor. You could really feel the ghost’s presence. But then, I dunno, it just seemed to get away from Hill. Once things began to happen, like going on the road, the creep factor got replaced by much more of a gore factor. And I just don’t really enjoy that sort of horror. That being said, if you are a horror fan then it isn’t the worst book out there.

    

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• ― Dee said on Jun 3, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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 as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly 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, no benign conversation piece. 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 bony hand. . . .

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

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• Genre: ThrillerhorrorGhostAmericanDeathFictionFiction: North American LiteratureScaryGhosts StorySuspense
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