Heart-Shaped Box

In NOS4A2 Joe Hill really settles into his own voice and tells a kick ass story that completely blew me away and I highly recommend it. Heart Shaped Box is an earlier work and he clearly shows his influences. If you're going to emulate a style you could do worse than Stephen King, especially if he happens to be your father.

It's the next generation of King. The musical influences that littered King's earlier work are updated for a new generation. Instead of Baby, Can you Dig Your Man our protagonist singer is an aging goth rocker with albums like Happy Little Lynch Mob. Classic muscle cars, monster trucks and long American highways also feature prominently. And the writing is at that same languorous pace of human interaction and slowly building characters.

Some deft touches and flourishes here that I really enjoyed but halfway through the penny dropped and I realized what sort of book I was reading, and exactly how it was going to end. Still a well told story that hasn't diminished my enthusiasm for Joe Hill and I will read his Horns I'm sure.