I'm current on vacation in Maine, staying near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. I just finished a book that was simply amazing, a beautiful piece of fiction. I had planned to wait until I got home next week to write a review of it but felt I needed to do it before it left my mind completely. Since I'm doing this from my phone, please excuse any weird spelling mistakes as I have been hit by autocorrect many times.
Joe Hill is a writer I specifically got into due to my huge enjoyment of Stephen King. I read Hill's Heart-Shaped Box a few years ago and automatically loved it, noticing the similarities but still extreme differences than King's work. I later got into Hill's comic series, Locke & Key, which is also pretty amazing as it's not like any other comic out there. His short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, was great from the stories I read (I tend to read short story collections piecemeal, bit by bit). It was inevitable that I'd enjoy his latest novel, Horns, but I didn't expect it this much.
The story of Horns is really intriguing. Ignatius "Iggy/Ig" Perrish wakes up one day to find horns growing out of his head. it has been a year since his girlfriend, Merrin, was mysteriously murdered, a crime Iggy was blamed for but was never declared guilty due to a fire destroying all key evidence. After waking up with the horns, he finds out that anyone he talks to doesn't pay much attention to the fact that he has horns, but instead com into a type of trance and want to declare their deepest desire to sin, asking Iggy if it would be ok to do it. Examples are his current girlfriend waning to literally pig out on a box of donuts, a reception wanting to tell off a mother with a rowdy daughter, and a cop wanting to cause Iggy pain just be size he doesn't like him. If Ig somehow touches someone, he experiences parts of their life, mainly sins they have done. Talking to his family shows him just how much they do not like him. His powers eventually lead to him finding out who murdered his girlfriend, and the rest of the novel follows Ig as he tries to bring about revenge.
I found the style of exposition to be incredibly unique. After the first part of the book, we have a section that is a flashback to the summer 11 years before where Ig's life changed when he met Merrin and his best friend Lee. The reader is torn at this point, wanting to know more of present Ig's powers and quest for revenge yet also intrigued to see more of younger Ig's adventures. Hill does a great job of keeping the reader interested in the younger Ig, making you almost forget about the present Ig.
Several times throughout the novel, the narrator also changes, during Ig's power of touch where we experience the sin of Others first hand. A real interesting section of the book, right after a very climatic scene that leaves us wondering about Ig's fate, switches gears and tells us the life story of Merrin's murderer, about how they got to be the way they are and all the bad things they had done. Included is the exac point everything changed, which was never explicitly blamed but the reader just knows that's where it all went wrong. Once again, Hill gets you emotionally invested in someone, where you don't mind not reading about Ig and wondering what had just happened to him.
The final narrative direction that cemented my love for the book was towards the end, in a beautifully written scene that con currently tells a life-or-death scene and a flashback to the night before Ig started growing horns, showing the reader exactly what occured that unknown night. The style of writing throws you straight into the scene, you fall even more in love with the Ig and his well-being. I'm not going to lie, at that scene in the book my eyes began to get misty. Then, during the last 3 chapters of the book, the tears began uncontrollably streaming down my face.
Now, I don't normally cry with books. I do with great movies and tv shows (most recent was during the Doctor Who episode that took place on Devil's Run). The last time I remember crying this hard over the ending to a book? Stephen King's Insomnia. You can get so emotionally invested in these characters and the writer just knows the exact way to put you emotionally over the edge. Those are the times when I know what I just read was a great piece of literature. Horns fits that bill beautifully!
Now, Horns is not for everyone. I tried to describe the book to my mom yet when I started talking about how a central plot point was when Ig realises that the Devil was actually a hero and not a villain, she just did not want to hear anymore. She's very religious (she doesn't think so, but this just proves my point) so putting the Devil in a good light means she could be never be emotionally invested in a character that has turned into s literal Devil. You get to the point where you're rooting for Ig as he begins his baptism of fire and ascension to revenge.
If you are not extremely religious, or are at least open minded enough to be able to read a book about a literal Devil, then I highly suggest this book. I had been in a rut with books recently and glad I picked Horns up. This book has definitely climbed into my Top 10 favorite books.
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