Joe Hill "Heart-Shaped Box" Signed Limited Edition No. 277 of 500 [Very Fine]

Personally signed by Joe Hill, the award-winning fantasy/horror author whose novels include Heart-Shaped Box (2007) and NOS4A2 (2013). He's also the oldest son of novelists Stephen King and Tabitha King.

SIGNED LIMITED EDITION NO. 277 OF ONLY 500 PRODUCED

Subterranean Press (2011). "Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill. Signed Limited Edition. Personally signed by the author Joe Hill directly onto the special numbered limitation page. This is number 277 of 500, in the first state by the publisher. What makes this book significant is that "Heart-Shaped Box" was Joe Hill's first published novel in 2007. 

This edition is now OUT OF PRINT from the publisher. Very Fine without any flaws.

• Artist: Vincent Chong
• Author: Joe Hill
• Book length: 341 pages
• Book type: Novel
• Country of manufacture: United States
• Print status: Out of Print
• Publication year: 2011

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Vincent Chong

Subterranean Press is proud to announce the limited edition of Joe Hill's first novel.

Here's the description, straight from the author's site:

Rock star Judas Coyne is a collector of the bizarre and the grotesque. He has a used hangman's noose, a cookbook for cannibals, a snuff movie. So naturally when he learns there's a ghost for sale on the internet, Jude doesn't think twice. Some impulses require no consideration.

But this ghost is different from the spirits that have haunted Jude most of his life: the abusive father he fled as a boy, the bandmates he betrayed, the lover he abandoned and who killed herself. This ghost isn't just in his head; it's real. Delivered to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box, the latest addition to Jude's collection means to chase him to the limits of sanity -- and beyond.

If ever there was a case of caveat emptor, this is it....

In addition to being a supernatural thriller, I also think it's a story on a classic American theme -- the possibility of reinvention, of casting off the person you used to be, and creating a new and more satisfying identity for yourself. Because before he was Judas Coyne, my hero was Justin Cowzynski, a lonely, desperate country kid, a person so unhappy he finally could not stand to be himself anymore, and so had to become someone else. The book is at least in part an investigation into whether or not anyone ever really walks away from their past clean. Furthermore, it also features a nicely pornographic sprinkling of goth sex, and several scenes of violent dog-on-man combat.

The Subterranean Press edition will be printed in two colors throughout, in three unique editions:

Limited:

300 sewn hardcover copies
bound in full cloth
signed by the author
numbered 201-500

Deluxe Limited:

200 sewn hardcover copies
bound in a different cloth
the deleted first chapter, printed as an appendix
an exclusive afterword by the author
two two-color illustrations
an exclusive review of Hammered for Life: 15 SuperRock Hits
signed by the author
numbered 1-200

Lettered:

15 leatherbound copies, lettered A-O
all of the extras in the Deluxe Limited
housed in a custom "vault" traycase

Heart-Shaped Box

“Wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty….A Valentine from hell.”
—Janet Maslin, New York Times

The publication of Joe Hill’s beautifully textured, deliciously scary debut novel Heart-Shaped Box was greeted with the sort of overwhelming critical acclaim that is rare for a work of skin-crawling supernatural terror. It was cited as a Best Book of the Year by Atlanta magazine, the Tampa Tribune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Village Voice, to name but a few. Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling Neil Gaiman of The Sandman, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys fame calls Joe Hill’s story of a jaded rock star haunted by a ghost he purchased on the internet, “relentless, gripping, powerful.” Open this Heart-Shaped Box from two-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Hill if you dare and see what all the well-deserved hoopla is about.

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals... a used hangman's noose... a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet.

I will "sell" my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder...

For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts—of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What's one more?

But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing.

And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door... seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang... standing outside his window... staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting—with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand...

Editorial Reviews

[Hill]’s got horror down pat, and his debut is hair-raising fun.” -- Kirkus Reviews

“A relentlessly scary ghost story.” -- Bookseller (London)

“Powerful . . . a fast-paced plot that crackles with expertly planted surprises and revelations . . . a truly memorable debut.” -- Publishers Weekly(starred review)

“You can’t go wrong with Heart-Shaped Box.” Top Five Fiction-Books of 2007 -- The Observer

“A fast-paced journey on wheels borrowed from hell’s used-car lot, and there aren’t a lot of comfort breaks...The pictures [Hill] painted colored my dreams and darkened my mood even after I’d put the book down.” -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box, The Fireman, and Full Throttle. He won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his long-running comic book series, Locke & Key, co-created with artist Gabriel Rodriguez. Much of his work has been adapted for movies and television. His second novel, Horns, was translated to film in 2014 and starred Daniel Radcliffe. His third novel, NOS4A2, is now a hit series on AMC, starring Zachary Quinto. The first season of Locke & Key was released on Netflix in early 2020 and became an overnight smash. His story, "In The Tall Grass," co-written with Stephen King, was made into a feature for Netflix, and became a mind-bending cult horror sensation. Most recently, Hill has returned to graphic novels -- his latest comics include Basketful of Heads and Plunge for D.C., and Dying is Easy for IDW.

A multiple-award winner for his short fiction, Joe Hill immediately vaulted into the top echelon of dark fantasists with this blood-chilling roller-coaster ride of a novel, a masterwork brimming with relentless thrills and acid terror.

Joseph Hillström King, better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.

King is the son of authors Tabitha and Stephen King, and the brother of writer Owen King.