Heart-Shaped Box (this is not a post about Nirvana)

Boy, oh boy, do I like Joe Hill.  I know I am late to the party on this one, but his books are the perfect combination of smart and easy-to-read.  His narratives weave the perfect path between innovation and predictability that is difficult to even describe.  His setups are good and then they take unexpected turns that keep his reader interested.  In this novel, he opens with an aging rockstar deciding to buy a ghost online from an auction site.
Judas Coyle, the goth rocker protagonist of the novel, is connected to the dead man in a particular way that is not revealed until later in the novel.  Jude buys the ghost as a curiosity because he has money to burn and learns later that he was set up by the seller to ensure his purchase.  This ghost was meant for him.
There is a lot of pleasure in discovering the rules of this haunting so I won't go too far into details of the narrative.
However, what I like about this book is the way that Coyle becomes more personable.  Hill is able to write this character in such a way that he can be appealing and shitty at the same time.  In fact, this is what Hill's character banks on for his professional success.  He is at the same time callous and sensitive, he can be caring and also ruthless.  The complexities of his character and his flaws make him more endearing.  In the beginning, Coyle believes that the haunting is motivated by revenge for what he may have done to the relative of the dead man.  This means that Coyle is at the same time sensitive to his own ability to hurt others and unwilling to make excuses for himself.  He never once tries to argue that his treatment by the dead man is unfair, he just wants to be free of the ghost.  Later in the novel when Coyle learns more about the nature of the haunting, and the man behind it, he doesn't feel particularly vindicated.  The motivations are other than what he had at first suspected, but Coyle knows that this doesn't really let him off the hook.
One thing that Hill is particularly good at is bending the reality that Judas Coyle experiences for his reader.  The ghost makes Coyle and those around him see altered versions of his reality, a future in which he has killed his family or girlfriend.  This does freak everybody out and it makes them question their version of reality and is genuinely spooky. 
Heart-Shaped Box is Joe Hill's first novel, and it is the first of his that I have read.  As I have mentioned in previous posts about Hill's work, I am still excited to continue to read him.