Rating: 3/5
I'm not sure that I'll have very much to say about this book, mostly because it took me so long to read this book that I don't know if I can say much. I literally started this book in May of 2020 (I think) and I didn't finish it until February 2021. I really only finished it because I buddy-read the last 150 pages with my friend. If not for that, who's to say if I would've ever picked it back up. Luckily, I still remembered everything that was happening when I picked the book back up, so I wasn't lost or anything. But, I digress, let's get into the review.
Trigger Warnings: mentions of past assault (of adolescents), animal death
Summary from Amazon:
"Aging death-metal rock legend Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. But nothing he possesses is as unique or as dreadful as his latest purchase off the Internet: a one-of-a-kind curiosity that arrives at his door in a black heart-shaped box...a musty dead man's suit still inhabited by the spirit of its late owner. And now everywhere Judas Coyne goes, the old man is there—watching, waiting, dangling a razor blade on a chain from his bony hand."
So, the premise is very cool and it was executed well. Like the concept of a ghost being sent to you to kill you for something that you have done is super interesting. My biggest concern for this entire book was the pacing. The pacing was so strange that it totally put me off. Like, the action starts the first 20 or so pages into the book. It starts so quickly and builds so quickly, that by the time you're like 100 pages in, you're almost immune to it. Like, it really plateaued for me. Where can you go when you've already built the action up so much? It just reached a point where I was becoming disenchanted with the book. There were just big sections of so much happening and then nothing at all. Plus, what's with all the blank pages in the book? Felt like a big waste of space. Over 30 pages are just blank. The writing was good, very agreeable. This book could be read and understood by everybody, which I think is a good thing. Overly complicated writing tends to get on my nerves. Hill is a lot like his father in the way that his writing is very plain/blunt, but descriptive. He described the characters and the environment very well, there was a general sense of foreboding and a creepy factor all throughout the book. The villain was very well-written. Craddock was an awful human being, and he was an even more formidable entity. Sometimes the characters' depth didn't quite match the situation. There is some death in the book, and the reaction to these deaths felt very shallow. Like it was almost like Jude didn't really care, when we know that he would've. I won't get more specific so I don't spoil anything. But like, can we hear it for Anna? She's probably my favorite character in this whole damn book, she really went through it and she felt like such a complex character. Bravo with her. The ending was a little meh, it felt appropriate, but I would've preferred if it had gone the other way (maybe an unpopular opinion).
In all, this was a fine horror novel. It accomplished what it set out to do: being creepy as hell. Clearly I had some problems with it, but it wasn't bad. I don't regret reading it. I think this was a fine foray into understanding Joe Hill's writing style. I do want to read more from Hill, I bought Horns recently, I might just have to get into it at some point. If you're looking for a supernatural horror novel that has some mysticism kind of sprinkled in, that is pretty fast paced (well, for the most part), this book will be a really good read for you. Make sure you keep my trigger warnings in mind before picking it up.