Book Review: Horns by Joe Hill

A solid 5 stars for the flashback portions of the book... but a meagre 2 stars for the present day sections.

“It bewildered Ig, the idea that a person could not be interested in music. It was like not being interested in happiness.”

My feelings for this one are a bit all over the place. The premise is that Ig Perrish wakes up after a heavy night on the drink, but he seems to have sprouted horns on his forehead. With this comes the side-effect of those around him telling him exactly what they are thinking.

I oddly felt like I would have enjoyed it more if the supernatural aspect was removed? Which doesn’t make much sense as the horns obviously help with the progression of the story. This would help explain why I liked the flashbacks more - pre-horns, if you will. I loved learning about Ig and his relationship with Merrin, the girlfriend everyone thinks he killed, as well as getting more of an insight into the character of Lee.

I just felt like the horns were kinda stupid? I don’t know, I just couldn’t get into all the imagery and symbolism, and ultimately I felt quite disappointed with this one. So much is just left unexplained and that was frustrating too.

But being a Joe Hill novel, it has its merits. He’s a great writer, there’s no doubt about that. This plot just didn’t work for me and although I wanted to feel an emotional attachment to the characters, I just couldn’t connect.

Overall, just a big fat meh for me. 3 stars.

Johann

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