Book Post #7

Horns

By Joe Hill

Having read Heart-Shaped Box many years ago and loving it, I have been waiting to get round to more of his books. I honestly don’t know why it has taken me so long to get round to it. But I finally have. And my initial impression was that this book was going to be just as good as Heart-Shaped box.

We start the story with Ignatius Perrish waking up after a heavy night of drinking, he can’t remember everything he did but he knows it wasn’t good. He looks in the mirror and to his horror he sees he has gone horns. It quickly becomes apparent that these horns have given him a special power/presence which causes the people around him to divulge their deep and definitely darkness thoughts. Which considering everyone believes he has raped and killed his girlfriend Merrin, leads too many dark and twisted conversations.

Joe Hill writes in a way that portrays many levels of dark themes. He has a way of dealing with dark issues, not in a light-hearted way but in raw and wrenching sort of way. In my opinion his writing is far superior to that of his farther Stephen King, but if you like King’s style of writing you will probably enjoy Joe’s take on this genre. Upon completion of this book I was as satisfied as a reader could ever be. This book was one that had been on my ‘to read list’ for years. I always put it off as I really enjoyed Heart-Shaped Box and was really worried this one wouldn’t live up to how much I enjoyed his previous book. All I can think now is I wish I had got around to it sooner. After a few of the books I have read recently (from my preferred genre that is) I had noticed many editing errors and just felt like fantasy/horror genre was losing it’s credibility. Not in this book though. Like Joe Hill’s previous book the writing was beautifully used at times I felt emotionally drained with the characters due to the darker themes. I would say don’t read this book if you can’t deal with issues related to the darkest parts of human nature as this book would probably offend you to your very core. But I loved it. I love that I was taken on a journey I feel that other authors would be reluctant to take me on. And I can only help that he produces more books that continue to take me to unexpected places.

This book is being made into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe as Ignatius Perrish, it hasn’t received good reviews from critics so far who didn’t seem like the way the story deals with these darker themes and they couldn’t work out it there was meant to be satirical humour or not. I obviously haven’t seen the film yet but it may be that these critics haven’t read the story and do not understand to way the story deals with its themes. It could also be that the casting didn’t help, I will, as always hold off on judgment until I have seen it myself, as I don’t always agree with initial critics reviews. This is a book I would highly recommend, but believe me when I say it isn’t light reading.