What’s it all about?:
Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.
At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.
Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.
But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside.
What did I think?:
Regular visitors to my blog might remember that I have a teeny tiny Stephen King obsession. Seriously, I’m in love with (almost) every word he has ever written. However, I was absolutely determine to judge Joe Hill’s books on their own merits and not to compare him to his father and when I read his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, I was delighted to find another writer of such skill and panache where I would instantly pre-order and devour everything they have published and are due to publish. Next up on the small-ish Joe Hill back-list was his second novel, Horns which was also made into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe. Would it be as good as Heart-Shaped Box? The expectations were sky high and I’m happy to say, completely fulfilled. Horns is a disturbing, fantastical and eerily supernatural read that enthralled me from the beginning and was structured so beautifully that I was compelled to read it at the speed of light whilst savouring the deliciousness of Joe Hill’s prose.
Our protagonist for the novel is a young man called Ignatius Perrish (Ig for short) who hasn’t had an easy life. He was head over heels in love with his girlfriend, Merrin Williams until she was raped and brutally murdered. Worse thing is, everyone in town including some of his family, think Ig carried out the crime and it was only because of a lack of evidence that the case was thrown out of court and he didn’t go to trial. Ig has been beating himself up about Merrin’s death since it happened and is drinking heavily. One day he wakes up with the world’s worst hangover and two extra unexpected gifts on the top of his head – horns, that no-one else can see and that he soon discovers gives him the supernatural powers to find out what people are thinking and encourage them to act on their deepest and darkest desires. The novel follows Ig as he uses the horns to his own advantage, finding out some heart-breaking, disgusting and life-altering truths in the process. We also get a look back into the heady days of his youth when he was in love with Merrin, his relationship with his friends and finally, answers to what really happened to Merrin all those years ago.
I have to admit, when I read the premise for this novel I was a little unsure. Interested – definitely but I wasn’t sure if a story about “magic horns,” could grab my attention as much as it ended up doing. I needn’t have worried, within just a few pages Joe Hill, storyteller extraordinaire, had completely captivated me and I found myself both shaking my head at Ig and rooting for him in equal measure as certain secrets begin to be revealed and he begins to find some sort of closure after years of suffering and unhappiness. He makes some dodgy decisions, that’s for sure but I loved how flawed yet strangely vulnerable he was as an individual and this made him all the more easier to love. There are some real shocking moments in this novel as well, especially surrounding Ig’s family and friends but I must leave you to discover all the juicy and disquieting details for yourself! Once more, Joe Hill has written a novel that was so immersive and utterly brilliant in its denouement that I’m struggling to see how he could ever write a bad novel! I’m looking forward to dipping into his short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts soon on my Short Stories Challenge and I also have big plans for his next novel, NOS4R2 coming soon on bibliobeth.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
