Blog Tour: Horns by Joe Hill
Please join Joe Hill, author of Horns, as he tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!
Reviewed by Mac M.
The existence of God and Satan; the essence of good and evil; the true nature of man at birth – all of these most basic theological issues have been viciously debated by philosophers, preachers, and poets for ages. The wide ranging choices in religion and ethics in the world speak to the diversity of thought on these topics. Whatever your position, Joe Hill’s Horns forces you to confront your beliefs, and the experience may be uncomfortable.
After a hazy night full of alcohol, celebrating the anniversary of his fiancé’s brutal murder, Ignatius Perrish awakes to find horns growing from his head, pointed and sore from their eruption. Worse yet, the horns induce raw confessions from people. When Ig shows the horns to someone, they unburden their deepest, most sinful yearnings. Glenna, Ig’s live-in girlfriend, begins binge-eating and, between glazed bites of doughnut, she admits to an episode of parking lot sex with his best friend. Ig’s doctor reveals a substance abuse problem and an unhealthy fascination with his teen-aged daughter’s best-friend. But the real shocker comes for Ig when his friends and family begin sharing details about the night of his fiancé’s murder. As the confessions mount, an unholy conversion begins in Ig, until he stands at the brink of losing either his humanity or his soul, or both.
Let me leave my own confession in the shadow of Ig’s horns – Horns was a difficult book to read and an even more difficult book to enjoy. I’ve seen my fair share of criticism for books that offended the critic’s personal sensibilities. I’ve chaffed at the loss of objectivity or the gall at a critic’s refusal to place a book in its proper cultural context. But the truth is that a book can reach too deep into the soul of a reader or cross too far into the protected regions of belief and value. Sometimes those books offer a stiff challenge, an opportunity to expand perspective and thought; other times the book is too much of a stretch, too far out of the comfort zone.
Horns, for me, was outside the comfort zone. Ig was too susceptible to evil, reveled too easily in the practice of it. The characters who confessed their darkest thoughts seemed altogether devoid of any redeeming quality, and Ig’s world seemed altogether devoid of any trace of goodness. Not until the final pages does anyone finally dare to choose selflessness over self-indulgence, good over evil. By the time I was done with the book I felt exhausted and battered.
To be fair, I am a Joe Hill fan. While Horns may not be my favorite book, Hill is a consummate story teller and character builder. Hill brings a rare subtlety and comprehensiveness to every character’s life and choices. And the hint of melancholy sentiment that Hill manages to evoke as Ig looks back over his life is Bradburyesque.
Bottom Line: Horns may not be for everyone; depending on your perspective, it will either exhilarate or revolt you. On balance, I’d say Joe Hill would probably be happy either way.
Rating: 3/5
The first 1000 people to preorder Joe’s latest novel and then email joehill@harpercollins.com with proof of purchase will receive a specialized bookplate from Joe – he’s been signing and doodling all sorts of creations on bookplates for days now!
For more information on this giveaway and the rest of Joe’s books, visit www.joehillfiction.com and follow Joe on Twitter @joe_hill.
Mac M., aka blackdogbooks on Librarything, lives in the American Southwest and works in law enforcement.
Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Harper Paperbacks. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Genre Fiction, Horror, Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers
[...] March 8th: Raging Bibliomania Wednesday, March 9th: I’m Booking It Thursday, March 10th: Luxury Reading Thursday, March 17th: Sara’s Organized Chaos Monday, March 21st: Jenn’s Bookshelves Wednesday, [...]
I’m sorry that this wasn’t a favorite for you but I’m glad you know that your still a Joe Hill fan. Thanks for being a part of the tour!
[...] Thursday, March 10th: Luxury Reading [...]
Gee, I was all psyched up for this book just last week! I listed to promo for the book by Joe Hill and it sounds so daring, maybe even more than usual for him. I wondered why his subject matter seemed a little familiar and then noticed that he is Stephen King’s son. I don’t usually care for this genre but I still may want to give it a try. To play it safe, I may want to do a little skimming before I try it.
I was interested that Colleen Turner liked the child molester book, I haven’t read it but I did check to see where there are on map on the Internet. It was strange, they seemed to be clustered together in two areas. Must be that both areas weren’t close to a school-hope that was it!
Carol Wong
I have also never read one of Hill’s books but have plenty of good things. Thank you for your honest review. I can see both the review and the book were tough to do.
Jennygirl recently posted..Review- The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Wonderful review! I personally kind of enjoy a book that makes me fell a little uncomfortable (maybe that is my little secret revealed
). I will never dislike a book based on its content, message or opinion on hard topics. I might not agree with them, but some of the best stories have dealt openly and honestly will really hard topics (Little Children by Tom Perrotta comes to mind, which deals with, among other things, a convicted child molester moving into a suburban community and an affair between a mother and a father of two young children in the community). What makes me like or dislike a book is the way the author approaches the topics and the quality of the writing. I am not a huge fan of science fiction or bizarre topics, though, so I am not sure if I would be interested in a man growing horns and illiciting confessions from people. I would have to look into this book a little further.
Wow that was a heck of a review. It told me everything I needed to know to know for sure that I have to read this book. I’ve never read a Joe Hill book before but it sounds like one that I would really enjoy reading.
With all the horror and Science fiction movies out there where things sorta like this happens and people have to choose either good or evil, it never surprises me when for a short period of time they choose evil over good…but in the end they see the light so to speak and choose good.
I think anyone who had the ability to get people to open up to them about their inner most sins would proabably do it for a while. But I can see where it would get to be a bad thing when your friends or family started confessing sins they made against a loved one and never told you, or tried to hide the fact that they knew something about what happened to someone you loved and had died.
This really sounds like a book I want to read. I enjoy books that make me think and give me something I’m not expecting.
I’ve never read a Joe Hill book before but as with a lot of books I’d love to. Just need to find another 24 hours in the day to read all the books I want.
Not sure how I would feel myself but what I do love as I read your review is the extreme emotion that he gets the reader to feel be it good or bad the fact that you get such a strong reaction says a lot. I’ll for sure hurry and read his work.
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