Review of Horns by Joe Hill

BOOK DESCRIPTION  FROM GOODREADS

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: Best known for his terrifying (really) debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and his famous dad, Joe Hill continues to make a name for himself with Horns, a dark, funny exploration of love, grief, and the nature of good and evil. Ignatius William Perrish wakes up bleary and confused after a night of drinking and "doing terrible things" to find he has grown horns. In addition to being horribly unsightly, these inflamed protuberances give Ig an equally ugly power--if he thinks hard enough, he can make people admit things (intimate, embarrassing, I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that details). This bizarre affliction is of particular use to Ig, who is still grieving over the murder of his childhood sweetheart (a grisly act the entire town, including his family, believes he committed). Horns is a wickedly fun read, and reveals Hill's uncanny knack for creating alluring characters and a riveting plot. Ig's attempts to track down the killer result in hilariously inappropriate admissions from the community, heartbreaking confessions from his own family, and of course, one hell of a showdown. --Daphne Durham

Wow! Joe Hill has knocked this one out of the park and then some. This novel, appropriately named Horns got its grip on me early on and did not let go till the very end. Ignatius Perrish and the rest of the cast were really fleshed out characters all with intense psyche that keeps you flipping the pages of each point of view just to see what they are going to do next. I am seriously awestruck with the places in my head that this book took me. The series of events that took place to show you that...moreWow! Joe Hill has knocked this one out of the park and then some. This novel, appropriately named Horns got its grip on me early on and did not let go till the very end. Ignatius Perrish and the rest of the cast were really fleshed out characters all with intense psyche that keeps you flipping the pages of each point of view just to see what they are going to do next. I am seriously awestruck with the places in my head that this book took me. The series of events that took place to show you that there is a devil inside all of us. Ig, an average guy and Merrin, his soul-mate travel a destiny fraught with chaos and disaster and of course, a love that is as deep as an ocean. Lee Tourneau, man, I hated this guy and was ready to take him out really early on. All the pop-culture references in this book make it really fun too and when I would read over one it would kind of put a smirk on my face and randomly blurt things out like, "heh! Nice!". The majority of this story for me was just as simple as the continuous struggle in all of us with good and evil and that paved a road for a great, great novel. But, what took it to the next level for me was that despite what Ig became in the end, he held onto the good inside him. The unfaltering love he felt for Merrin truly made me feel sympathy for the devil.

As a side note... I read Heart Shaped Box a few years ago although I do not have an actual review of it up on goodreads (yet). It was a really good novel as well and leads me to this: Anyone who knows who Joe Hill is, knows that stepping into any kind of writing would be a huge shoe with and even bigger shadow to fill. In fact, it makes me cringe to even bring it up because if I was Joe Hill, I would probably get very tired, very quickly whenever it was mentioned at all. But after just two novels he has shown me atleast that he writes really really well and I will continue to read his stuff with no other pretenses than that. Keep up the amazingly wonderful writing Mr. Hill. I like your shoes just fine.