This book presents the same interesting challenge that I like in a book: how to deal with an absolutely bad protagonist. I don’t mean uncompelling, but a bad dude. And not actually one super interested in redemption. He kind of is by the end, but only because of the costs he incurs throughout the book.
Jude is a semi-retired heavy metal rock star. He’s got a young girlfriend he calls Georgia, from where she’s from. He’s also recently broken up with another similar girlfriend named Florida. You get it.
At the beginning of the book he is contacted by a seller on Ebay (ish) who think he might be interested in buying a ghost. By this she means the Sunday suit seemingly imbued with the spirit of her recently deceased stepfather. He says sure, since he’s bough all kinds of other similar items, like hey this is fun, a snuff film.
Anyway, once he buys it and some weird stuff starts happening, we find out that actually the suit belonged Florida’s stepfather, and it turns out she’s recently died by suicide, and the stepfather’s final wish was to haunt the shit out of Jude.
So next he has to deal with that. The book goes from there.
It’s an interesting book because of the absolutely self-involved depravity of the protagonist who is empty and damaged but not evil. He’s more or less given an opportunity to work back some of the damage he’s down. It’s kind of a pre-me too book written by a man, but it outpaced some of the other ones that have come since.
I think that a book like this is challenging and it’s more or less successful.
(photo: https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Shaped-Box-Joe-Hill/dp/0061944890/ref=sr_1_3?crid=99Q7I5URD1IY&keywords=heart+shaped+box&qid=1558302878&s=gateway&sprefix=heart+s%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-3)
