Book Review: Horns by Joe Hill

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“Maybe all the schemes of the devil were nothing compared to what men could think up.”

📚

Following a malfeasance-filled night, 26-year-old Ignatius “Ig” Perrish wakes up with a monumental hangover, a horrendous headache, and a pair of horns sprouting from his temples. Trapped in a year-long purgatory of the loneliest kind after the horrific, unsolved rape and murder of his girlfriend, Merrin Williams, Ig initially suspects the horns to be an extension of his own personal hell: a hallucinatory product of a psyche on the brink, devastated by grief and fury. The reality? The horns are real, and they come equipped with strange power and influence.

The second son of a prominent musician and former Vegas showgirl and the younger brother of a distinguished TV/music star, Ig lived a prosperous, secure life bolstered by his relationship with Merrin: a deep and magical love rooted in shared values and dauntless dreams, an idyllic bubble detonated by Merrin’s demise and his family’s interference in the investigation. Fallen from grace and forever guilty in the eyes of his Gideon, New Hampshire, community despite never being charged with or tried for the crime, Ig must learn to navigate an altered reality: one where everyone has forsaken him except for the devil he holds inside.

Horns is an engrossing, heartrending dark fantasy/horror novel that’s at once brutal and appalling, transcendent and moving, tragic and heartbreaking. Joe Hill is a master at weaving captivating stories and vivid settings readers can sink into, deftly speckled with humor, imbued with nostalgia, and infused with complex characters, including the villain, whose origin story sheds light on the vileness within. Every character is multifaceted, with protagonist Ig serving as a fascinating nucleus: the black sheep of his renowned family and, eventually, the local pariah. His subconscious exudes shame and self-loathing, while the storyline is riddled with unfiltered honesty, shattered hopes, wasted potential, and the scalding, ruinous pain of unvarnished truth.

The narrative structure is unique, opening in the present with Ig’s burgeoning horns, proceeding through his discovery of their capability, leading up to a big reveal, then traveling back in time to lay the backstory and groundwork — an utterly brilliant and incredibly satisfying odyssey where past foreshadows, mirrors, and ultimately intersects with future. Relationships are a central focus, ranging from youthful friendships and familial connections to romantic attachments, as are appearances: outward presentations versus inward thoughts, feelings, motivations, and truths. Also vital are the eternal debate of good versus evil and the fragile, fleeting nature of existence. It’s an intricate and unflinching account of grief and loss, circumstance and choice, betrayal and secrets, malevolence and tragedy, love and innocence, obsession and lies.

Filled with devastating twists, delightful Easter eggs, and savage repercussions, Horns is a riveting supernatural journey where the sacred space of the mind serves as both sanctuary and trap, the line between heaven and hell is blurry at best, and humans are more monstrous than the demons they deride.

Favorite Quotes:

“. . . he had always thought of himself as the good guy in his own story, the clear hero. But the good guy wouldn’t do this. Maybe some things were more important than being the good guy, though.”

“It went to show that no one knew, when they abandoned a thing, what misuses it would be put to later by others.”

“. . . the soul is an irrational, indivisible equation that perfectly expresses one thing: you. The soul would be no good to the devil if it could be destroyed. And it is not lost when placed in Satan’s care, as is so often said. He always knows exactly how to put his finger on it.”

“The devil is always there to help those who are ready to sin, which is another word for ‘live’.”

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you really need something, you usually find it.”

“It was, perhaps, the devil’s oldest precept, that sin could always be trusted to reveal what was most human in a person, as often for good as for ill.”

“The golden cross looped about Ig’s throat was his own humanity, burning brightly in the morning light. . . . a symbol of that most human condition: suffering.”

“[Satan] and God are supposed to be at war with each other. But if God hates sin and Satan punishes the sinners, aren’t they working on the same side of the street?”

“The devil had nothing but time.”

“The people you love should be allowed to keep the worst to themselves.”

“If you were going to live in hell on earth, there was something to be said for being one of the devils.”

“The best way to get even with anyone is to put them in the rearview mirror on your way to something better.”

“Hell is being forced to smile and laugh and play party songs when you want to scream.”

“People make lousy decisions when they’re afraid.”

“. . . the man and the demon lay side by side — although which was which would perhaps have been a matter for theological debate.”

“There is only room for one hero in this story — and everyone knows the devil doesn’t get to be the good guy.”

“When you think about it . . . most of the good ideas came along to make sin a whole lot easier.”

🖤Amanda

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