Judas Coyne is a man who collects odd things. Things most people wouldn’t collect. When his manager Danny tells him about a ghost for sale, Judas can’t resist. Little does he know that the ghost is after him to kill him. The ghost doesn’t want the past to come out. And before he knows it, the ghost is everywhere in his house and follows him wherever he goes. Judas wants to live and wants his girlfriend Mary Beth to live. But what lengths will he have to take to make sure that happens or as the book puts it the dead claims its own?
Joe Hill is an amazingly twisted writer. The idea of a ghost following Judas around had me pretty freaked out. I have read other paranormal novels before this but this one had me freaked out because the descriptions were so vivid. Joe Hill is the pen name of the son of Stephen King. I have to say that I was very impressed with this book. I have yet to read a Stephen King novel but if it is half as scary as this well I’ll really be freaked out. The whole idea of this book of buying a ghost just blew my mind.
Judas had a real attitude of not caring about anything. He had lost his wife; he had tossed his last girlfriend aside, and was about to do that to his current girlfriend. I could understand why he didn’t want to attach himself to anyone for very long but it didn’t seem to help in the long run. Mary Beth was a very strong woman who refused to leave even though she knew she might not live to see anything come of it. I couldn’t believe how perverted Craddock was once we saw his whole past revealed. He was one very sick man as well as scary. I really felt sorry for Anna, Judas’ past girlfriend who we see in a lot of flashbacks. She was a sweet woman but had no way out once she went home.
Creepy but good is how I would describe this book. I give it a 5/5 because it was exceptionally written and had me turning pages as fast as I could read them. I don’t normally like being as scared as I was while reading it but it was so fascinating I had to find out if Judas and Mary Beth would survive or die. There were a lot of secrets in Anna’s family or as Judas calls her Florida. Yet through it all she is the one who ends up helping them the most. This is a great book and one I recommend but don’t read it before going to bed. You may not get much sleep.
374 pages 5/5
Well off to read a much needed romance as well as watching American Idol and the results show for Dancing with the Stars. :)
