Heart-Shaped Boxes

There are two heart-shaped boxes in the novel. The first is a large, black heart-shaped box in which the suit that Jude buys from Jessica Price – which ‘contains’ the ghost of Craddock McDermott – is packed when it arrives at his house. The second is a yellow heart-shaped that contains a bullet collection Jude had when he was a teenager, and which he finds at his studio in his home in Piecliff even though he had left it at his father’s home in Louisiana 30 years before. Later, when he returns to his father’s house, Jude sees Craddock McDermott’s ghost climb out of this same yellow heart-shaped box while he is in his old bedroom with his father. Although heart-shaped boxes are usually used to deliver chocolates and other gifts to loved ones, the heart-shaped boxes in this story both deliver the malevolent spirit...