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Nov 09, 2020SLDESLIPPE rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Ever get the feeling that the book you finished isn’t quite the same as the book you started? I don’t mean like a full-fledged, Game of Thrones about-face that made you wonder if a whole new team of writers was hired that knew nothing other than the names of the principle characters. I mean a subtle, uncanny valley-esque transition that makes you feel that the author ultimately did not write the book s/he intended to write at the beginning. That’s kind of how I feel about Heart Shaped Box. Based on the book description and the first few chapters, I get the feeling that Hill intended to write the main character Judas Coyne as a monster. He keeps no shortage of macabre memorabilia in his home, which goes well past the sort of endearingly quirky Addams Family material and straight on to American Psycho. The book description implies that he’s a pathological heart-breaker and serial narcissist but the truth is I thought he was just kind of a dick. This makes things difficult when the ghost arrives. Had the character been more evil, the reader might have had more ambivalent or conflicted feelings about the protagonist which could have heightened the tension. It would have forced us to ask what we want to see happen to Coyne and (by extension) wonder what that says about us. On the other hand, had Coyne been totally innocent, the story could still have worked as a classic ghost story and the tension would come from whether or not he was able to escape. The final product feel somewhere in the middle and instead of pleasing both sides of the coyne (get it?), ultimately rang a little hollow. Complicating matters is the twist in the second act that changes both the hero’s objective and the background story of the ghost. I won’t give it away but essentially it exaggerates the distinction between good and evil that sort of undercut any ambiguity established in the first half of the book. This change in circumstances leaves the hero feeling somewhat vindicated to the point that he doesn’t express remorse for his previous behavior. Like I said, he wasn’t a terrible person, but he could be selfish and having him apologize to the people he wronged could have led to a more complete character arch. As is, the story left me feeling a little flat. To be clear, I liked this book. The premise is really engaging, the pacing is crisp and I certainly cared about the outcome. I just feel that it would have been stronger if the author had been a little more stark or committed in his initial description of the main character and the motivations of the ghost.