Horns: A Novel
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- ISBN13: 9780061147951
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Joe Hill has been hailed as “a major player in 21st-century fantastic fiction” (Washington Post); “a new master in the meadow of suspense” (James Rollins); “one of the most confident and assured new voices in horror and dark fantasy to emerge in recent years (Publishers Weekly); a writer who “builds character invitingly and plants an otherworldly surprise around every confront” (New York Times).
This gifted and brilliantly imaginative leader catapulted to bestsellerdom with the chilling Heart-Shaped Box and cemented his reputation with the prizewinning volume of fleeting fiction 20th Century Ghosts. At last, the New York Times bestselling leader returns with a relentless supernatural thriller that runs like Hell on wheels. . . .
Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a rolling hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.
At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind hurt by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.
Once the righteous Ig had loved the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a like founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.
But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and permanently will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . .
Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and ruined his life. Being excellent and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a small revenge. . . . It’s time the devil had his due. . . .
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: Best known for his terrifying (really) debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and his legendary dad, Joe Hill continues to make a name for himself with Horns, a dark, amusing exploration of like, grief, and the scenery of excellent and evil. Ignatius William Perrish wakes up bleary and confused after a night of drinking and “doing terrible things” to find he has grown horns. In addition to being horribly hideous, these inflamed protuberances give Ig an equally hideous power–if he thinks hard enough, he can make people admit things (intimate, embarrassing, I-can’t-judge-you-just-said-that details). This bizarre affliction is of particular use to Ig, who is still grieving over the murder of his childhood sweetheart (a grisly act the entire town, including his family tree, believes he committed). Horns is a wickedly fun read, and reveals Hill’s mysterious knack for making alluring characters and a riveting plot. Ig’s attempts to track down the killer result in hilariously inappropriate admissions from the community, heartbreaking confessions from his own family tree, and of course, one hell of a showdown. –Daphne Durham
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I selected up this novel at the bookstore after reading the review thinking this was going to be a fantastic book; you know this tale, person wakes up cursed with something dark, struggles to come to grips with the suffering, and then eventually either leans to live with the curse and does something excellent with it, like Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider, cursed by the devil, but retains a excellent soul, or the additional side, the person takes the curse and embraces it to be evil and has to eventually be ruined or contained in someway, but still a excellent ending either way.
Nope! Nada! Absolutely NOT! “Horns” doesn’t do any of this, and barely talks or describes why the guy got demon horns to start with, plus if that wasn’t terrible enough, but the character seems to accept too easily that he has awoken with horns, lacking an apparent reason, and none of the questions like why or what happened to him in the end are ever really clarified.
And this is not even the worst of why this book is so terrible; not only is it terribly written, and the romance is dry and uninspiring, but the book is clearly, and I mean utterly and clearly satanic in scenery. After I bought this book and ongoing reading it, I quickly saw how corrupt and hideous this book is, and how offensive it is to Christanity. The thought of parady God in the light that this book protrays is truly offensive and after I was done skipping and scanning through this book, I drove to the nearest dumpster and place this sorry excuse for a `novel’ in the trash where it belongs.
Do not buy this book, it is a waste, a perfect waste of time, and I feel that the leader should be banned or boycotted for writing not only such terrible literature and not only for wasting this reader’s time and money, but for being so offensive to Christians everywhere.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This was such a poor plot for a novel, I was really disappointed. I loved “Heart Shaped Box”, but after reading “Horns” I’ll never read Joe Hill again. Really dumb book.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I really dislike books which only redeem themselves a bit within the last 50 pages. I kept reading this book on my spouse’s assurances that it got better. It really never did for me. Lame characters I just could never renovate any affinity for and a protagonist who never really does much until the end. Too small, too late and forgettable.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Like others here, I have loved Joe Hill’s previous works. His novel, fleeting tale collection and graphic novels (Locke & Key). But I just could not get into this book. It left me with the feeling that it was a self-parody with the self being the horror/scifi genre. It is just hard for me to take a book seriously that does not seem to take itself seriously.
But many others seem to delight in it so judge for yourself. I’ll just hope the next Joe Hill is more like his additional works.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Joe Hill wanders into his celebrated father’s wheelhouse and dares to be fantastic – or at least, since his is a honestly young career, dares to be pretty damn promising. HORNS, Hill’s second novel, runs at 368 pages and yet manages to be spare and lean, and a very mean horror thriller. Ironically, considering the tale content, I stayed home and tore thru the thing as a replacement for of attending the traditional Christmas eve mass with the fam. Salvation’s permanently around the confront, but Joe Hill’s prose can’t wait.
The tale’s excellent guy – if you want to call him that – is 26-year-ancient Ignatius (Ig) Perrish who one evening had one of persons legendary drunk-ons, can’t recall much of it, and now wakes up to learn that he has sprouted horns on his head. This odd turn of events launches Ig on the path to dark vengeance against the killer who ruined his life the year before. Ig Perrish, as you’ll soon realize, is one of persons tragic characters you sympathize with, even if you don’t really end up liking him.
Ig is the lesser son skulking in the shadow of his older, more accomplished brother. But Ig had it wonderful in one thing – he had Merrin Williams, the gorgeous like of his life. Until a year ago when Merrin died horribly and Ig was framed for her murder. Ig walked away, but not scot-free, what with everyone now seeing him as a perverted killer. So around the one year anniversary of Merrin’s death, Ig got wasted and did some wicked things. And woke up with the horns.
I’m down with Joe Hill. I’ve read his Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel, his anthology 20th Century Ghosts, and his occasional comic book LOCKE & KEY (starting with Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft), and so I’m down with Joe Hill. HORNS, already optioned for film adaptation, continues to pad his rep as a writer of stark horror fiction that creeps up on you and sucker punches you in the kidney. Surprisingly, there’s a tender like tale buried somewhere beneath the brimstone vibe and the infernal shenanigans. Hill devotes chapters to flashbacks, but these passages peel off the layers, each peek into the past crucial to developing and advancing the plot and to fleshing out the characters.
His horns grant Ig an alarming ability, as persons in his immediate vicinity can’t help but confess their every unsavory thought and intent to him. And this has an eroding effect on the reader; the sense of disillusionment becomes palpable in the face of all the vile scuzz churning in the minds of each person Ig runs into. Waking up with the horns, one of the first things Ig does is turn to his family tree for comfort but this as a replacement for ends with him shook to the core. Sometimes, it’s best not to be privy to what goes on in your loved one’s head.
Ig is not a likable guy. He’s really a bit of a prat. And yet his plight is so dreadful, his back tale so heartbreaking, the characters he meets so loathsome, that his ensuing actions are nearly justified. Joe Hill writes a tough like sort of horror. His pleased endings come with grave baggage. Somewhere along the way, Ignatius Perrish gets a chance to step away from his infernal path. Do you really reflect Joe Hill will make it that simple?
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5