Book Review: Horns

Horns is a tale of young love, revenge, jealousy and the supernatural. It may sound pretty much like any teen/ tween/ young adult novel that is popular right now with that description, but I promise there aren't shirtless werewolves or sparkling vampires. I hope I get my point across as this book was so damn good I had a really hard time putting it down. I will try my best, but my advice is to just read it and experience it for yourself.

Joe Hill (Joseph Hilstrom King) is the oldest of Stephen King's children. It's not the first Hill book I've read. I listened to NOS4A2 which was pretty good in its own right, but nowhere on the level of Horns. I received an email from amazon.com last week, asking me to try this new service Audible, which is their e-audiobook service. They gave me a free trial and I searched Stephen King. I couldn't find one that I wanted to listen to so I searched Joe Hill since I am a HUGE fan of his comic book Locke and Key. Seriously, read this comic, you won't regret it. Horns has also been on my to-read list for a long time so I gave it the old college try and downloaded it. One of the best decisions I've ever made.

Horns starts off with our protagonist Ig Perrish. Ig is short for Ignatius which seems fitting because Ig's character is almost saint like. He is very loyal, caring and is the worst liar in the entire world. Uncharacteristically he wakes up in a drunken stupor, not remembering what happened the night before. Next to him lies his old childhood friend Glenna Nicholson, who starts telling Ig every single bad thing she's done in her life. Most recently hooking up with Ig's best friend Lee. He stumbles awake and notices that he has sprouted little horns on his head. Ig goes to the doctor  to get his "horns" checked out. The doctor's office is a surreal experience for Ig considering the secretary, a mother and her child in the waiting start spewing awful facts about their life and don't seem to be bothered by it. All these confessions are poured out because Ig has developed some sort of power that is tied to the horns that he's grown. He tries to find comfort with his family, but the horns have the same effect on them and he finds out a terrible secret.

A year before the book starts, Ig's long time girlfriend Mirren Williams was found dead in the forest near an old foundry. Everyone suspected that Ig was the one who murdered her and left her body. Ig and Mirren were the perfect couple. Both extremely smart, both extremely involved in the church and their community. So the death of Mirren Williams, was a huge tragedy in the small town of Gideon, NH. Knowing Ig and his back story, you know he wouldn't be capable of such horrific acts. Ig was scheduled to start a job in Britain, and Mirren breaks up with him ending a ten year relationship. This scene was the most intense, heart wrenching chapter I have ever read in my entire life. Joe Hill was brilliant displaying how deep their love was for each other and how hard it is to let go to someone you love. I was enraged, depressed, on edge and completely exhausted after their break up and set up the rest of the story perfectly.

The main antagonist is Lee Tourneau, as I mentioned earlier, is Ig's best friend. Hill tells a tale of when they were younger and Ig rolled down a hill in a shopping cart into a pond. Ig grows up thinking that Lee saved his life and is forever indebted to him. Their relationship has its ups and downs. Lee turns out to be a real scum bag but finds "Christ" after an accident with a cherry bomb in which he loses vision in one of his eyes. Lee is the epitome of modern day evil. The definition of a wolf in sheep's clothing. He can talk his way out of anything and uses intimidation and cunning to force people to take the fall for him. He eventually gets into politics and uses his "gift" to further his career.  Hill makes you want to punch Lee repeatedly in the face for hours. He oozes vileness and really gets you riled up. Thinking about his character gets my blood hot.

The book slowly reveals what happened that night at the foundry, and covers Ig's transformation into something outer-worldly or should I say under-worldly?? What makes this book so great is how real these characters felt. You can truly believe the love between Ig and Merrin, the jealousy and hate of Lee and the reality of the secrets that people hold deep inside of them. I know this is a bold claim, but I enjoy this book way more than a lot of Stephen King books. It is early in Joe Hill's career but he is really hitting them out of the park. I hope he has a long and illustrious career that mirrors his fathers'. I will say that Horns is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. Thus giving it.......

5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.