I have wanted to read Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill ever since first seeing the book’s cover art in the bookstore, long before I knew he was Stephen King’s son (which really wasn’t a selling point with me anyway), but I don’t read a lot of horror fiction, so I had to be in the right mood and I figured Halloween was the perfect time. My fatal mistake was in reading, and worse, believing the reviews and blurbs that praised this book. I settled into it one night expecting it to scare the socks off me. Well, not so much. The premise is a promising one, aging rock star buys a haunted suit whose ghost proceeds to terrorize said rock star. And there were moments, fleeting ones, where I felt the twinge of fear prickle my skin, but those moments never fully actualized into fright. I wasn’t scared to look over my shoulder or stare down our dark hallway. I never had to put the book down, too frightened to keep reading.

So, while I thought it was a very well written book, and one that I enjoyed as a good story that kept me entertained from start to finish, for me it lacked that fear factor of a truly great ghost story.

Although I didn’t count it as one of my choices for Carl’s RIP III Challenge (I read it before October 31st but I’d already completed the challenge), Heart-Shaped Box won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel, so it does count as one of my selections for the Book Awards Reading Challenge.