Book-A-Day #53 (9/8): Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

This is the first novel (publishing in February) by the noted and award winning short-story writer who's been trying to keep quiet the fact that he's the son of a certain famous horror writer, so that his work can succeed on its own merits. (Given how wonderful his debut collection 20th Century Ghosts is, he certainly has a lot of merits of his own.)

My conflicts of interest include:

• my parent company just bought the bookclub rights to this book, and it will be offered in the SFBC (in fact, I'll probably do a little "handsell" about it)
• I am a World Fantasy Award Judge this year, and Hill is nominated three times -- for Novella, Short Fiction, and Collection

So, in the interests of not having Strange Horizons claim that I was granted the Secret Order of Mu for agreeing to puff up this novel, I think it's best that I not tell you how much I liked it. (Though it is a ripping yarn, and the best comparison I could make is exactly the one Joe Hill would prefer that I didn't.)

Anyway, you'll probably all be hearing a lot about this book come February, so I'll just say: nyah, nyah, I've read it already.