Helpful Score: 1
I am a fan of Joe Hill, but I wasn't sure about the subject matter of this book. However, I was pleasantly surprised with this cleverly written tale. I enjoyed it completely. The main character, Ig, which I expected to be a bad guy turns out to be a pretty likable fellow. You learn alot about the characters in this town as a side-effect of the horns is people tell their ugly secrets and when Ig touches someone, he can see the sins of their past. It is a tragic love story with many subplots. You come to love or loathe the residents of this town, but they are all interesting. There is mystery, magic, good and evil in this tale. An entertaining read.
I thought that nobody could write weirder stuff than Stephen King and then along comes his son.....
This book is really good and Joe Hill is one of my new favorite authors. If you enjoy weird, his books are for you!!!!
This book is really good and Joe Hill is one of my new favorite authors. If you enjoy weird, his books are for you!!!!
This is my first delve into the world of Joe Hill. I found this book original and I really did not know what was going to happen next. Our main character, Ignatius Ig Parrish, has been living a life of hell after his girlfriend was murdered a year ago. Most of the small town blames Ig. Strange things start to happen when these horns began grow from his head and people began spouting every truthful thing they are thinking about Iggy and more.
I read this before I saw the movie with Daniel Radcliffe. There is more going on in the book then they fit in the movie. Some metaphysical parts of the story was taken out of the movie possibly because it was hard to understand in the film format but easier picturing mentally.
I liked the book because of the questions it brings up about religious beliefs. It brings up ideas about the fight between good and bad, inside all of us or in this case inside Ig Parrish. All the characters really felt unique and really standout. Even after reading the book they still stick with me, making me wondering what the people in Igs town is up to now.
In the book I was a little confused about the snakes that followed Ig. I think they were able to talk or he was able to understand them somehow. It is something that was cut out of the movie, that and a few minor things.
There is a dark and bittersweet feeling over the story from beginning to end. My mind is really attached to the characters, and that is unusual for me. My mind will blank out after I finish if it is not a good book. This one I probably read over six months ago and yet I still remember the fictional people in this book. It is a good October read.
I read this before I saw the movie with Daniel Radcliffe. There is more going on in the book then they fit in the movie. Some metaphysical parts of the story was taken out of the movie possibly because it was hard to understand in the film format but easier picturing mentally.
I liked the book because of the questions it brings up about religious beliefs. It brings up ideas about the fight between good and bad, inside all of us or in this case inside Ig Parrish. All the characters really felt unique and really standout. Even after reading the book they still stick with me, making me wondering what the people in Igs town is up to now.
In the book I was a little confused about the snakes that followed Ig. I think they were able to talk or he was able to understand them somehow. It is something that was cut out of the movie, that and a few minor things.
There is a dark and bittersweet feeling over the story from beginning to end. My mind is really attached to the characters, and that is unusual for me. My mind will blank out after I finish if it is not a good book. This one I probably read over six months ago and yet I still remember the fictional people in this book. It is a good October read.
"The language of sin was universal: the original Esperanto... pick a sin we can both live with."
This modern-day fantasy novel gets full marks for creativity, but it's much more than just a fairy tale. It explores the nature of the deep secrets and desires we all conceal, and questions whether morality as we know it, truly exists, or whether it is simply a facade concealing what lies beneath. The premise of this capable novel is that rich kid Ignatius Perrish, who has always played second fiddle, almost literally, to his older brother, famous musician Terry, had a public breakup with his girlfriend, who mysteriously turns up dead. Now, the whole town thinks he did it, which is compounded by the fact that Iggy inexplicably starts to sprout horns (!), which seemingly have mysterious powers that compel others to reveal to him their most egregious sins and darkest desires, which results in Iggy finding the identity of the real killer... who happens to be a jealous childhood friend.
The horns also confer another power: when he makes physical contact with a person, Iggy has visions of their darkest deeds... including those of his brother, who was present the night his girlfriend was murdered. If you think these are desirable abilities, think again: Iggy soon finds that, in the wake of Merrin's murder, his parents actually hate him, have resented him since childhood, and want him to disappear forever, and that most other people in town are actually despicable, selfish, scheming caricatures of human beings, secretly desiring to steal, kill, and to commit every other perverted misdeed imaginable. Iggy apparently isn't immune himself: he may not have murdered his own girlfriend, but he's not above killing his despised grandmother, by releasing the brake on her wheelchair, sending her careening down a slope and crashing into a fence.
His good friend, or, at least, the person he thought was his childhood friend, is even more despicable than the other town folk. Iggy knew that in childhood, he committed many depraved acts, including lying to and cheating Iggy, but Iggy idolizes him because he believes that he once saved his life. It turns out that the friend had fallen from a fence and was impaled on a pitchfork, unbeknownst even to his own mother, incurring severe brain damage, which resulted in a type of mechanical psychopathy, a phenomenon known to have resulted on occasion from severe brain damage, which may explain his actions in childhood... and Merrin's murder when he realized that she never lusted after him, as he had believed.
Oh, and, also: like a true Slytherin, the horns seem to act like a radio transmitter which attract snakes, which mass to Iggy like devoted disciples. That may in part explain the casting of the movie version, which some people may be more familiar with than the novel: the 2012 celluloid version featured none other than "Harry Potter" himself, Dan Radcliffe, in the leading role.
Don't want to give away too much more, but this is an engaging and interesting read, with vivid imagery and (sometimes excessively graphic) descriptions. In an interview, Joe Hill said that the book was about a "decent enough young man... a guy who has always tried to do the right thing, only to see his whole life abruptly torn from him." Hill states that he made a concerted effort to ground his fantasy in real life, which shows, in his exquisite description of his scenes, which are replete with sights, sounds and emotions. As it turns out, "Horns" is the conflation of a couple of other novels, which he describes as less than good, at least nowhere near as much as the finished product. Although he may not make a direct appearance, Hill describes his conception of the devil as less historic as opposed to "a famous fictional depiction of a man who wakes up one morning as a cockroach."
A last point: I was unaware when I started reading that Joe Hill is actually Joseph King, the son of Stephen King, to whose writings the former's bear a striking resemblance. Hill is the recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship and the William L. Crawford award for best new fantasy writer in 2006. His first book, 20th Century Ghosts, which consists of fourteen short stories, won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection, so the author is, not surprisingly, a rather accomplished one.
This modern-day fantasy novel gets full marks for creativity, but it's much more than just a fairy tale. It explores the nature of the deep secrets and desires we all conceal, and questions whether morality as we know it, truly exists, or whether it is simply a facade concealing what lies beneath. The premise of this capable novel is that rich kid Ignatius Perrish, who has always played second fiddle, almost literally, to his older brother, famous musician Terry, had a public breakup with his girlfriend, who mysteriously turns up dead. Now, the whole town thinks he did it, which is compounded by the fact that Iggy inexplicably starts to sprout horns (!), which seemingly have mysterious powers that compel others to reveal to him their most egregious sins and darkest desires, which results in Iggy finding the identity of the real killer... who happens to be a jealous childhood friend.
The horns also confer another power: when he makes physical contact with a person, Iggy has visions of their darkest deeds... including those of his brother, who was present the night his girlfriend was murdered. If you think these are desirable abilities, think again: Iggy soon finds that, in the wake of Merrin's murder, his parents actually hate him, have resented him since childhood, and want him to disappear forever, and that most other people in town are actually despicable, selfish, scheming caricatures of human beings, secretly desiring to steal, kill, and to commit every other perverted misdeed imaginable. Iggy apparently isn't immune himself: he may not have murdered his own girlfriend, but he's not above killing his despised grandmother, by releasing the brake on her wheelchair, sending her careening down a slope and crashing into a fence.
His good friend, or, at least, the person he thought was his childhood friend, is even more despicable than the other town folk. Iggy knew that in childhood, he committed many depraved acts, including lying to and cheating Iggy, but Iggy idolizes him because he believes that he once saved his life. It turns out that the friend had fallen from a fence and was impaled on a pitchfork, unbeknownst even to his own mother, incurring severe brain damage, which resulted in a type of mechanical psychopathy, a phenomenon known to have resulted on occasion from severe brain damage, which may explain his actions in childhood... and Merrin's murder when he realized that she never lusted after him, as he had believed.
Oh, and, also: like a true Slytherin, the horns seem to act like a radio transmitter which attract snakes, which mass to Iggy like devoted disciples. That may in part explain the casting of the movie version, which some people may be more familiar with than the novel: the 2012 celluloid version featured none other than "Harry Potter" himself, Dan Radcliffe, in the leading role.
Don't want to give away too much more, but this is an engaging and interesting read, with vivid imagery and (sometimes excessively graphic) descriptions. In an interview, Joe Hill said that the book was about a "decent enough young man... a guy who has always tried to do the right thing, only to see his whole life abruptly torn from him." Hill states that he made a concerted effort to ground his fantasy in real life, which shows, in his exquisite description of his scenes, which are replete with sights, sounds and emotions. As it turns out, "Horns" is the conflation of a couple of other novels, which he describes as less than good, at least nowhere near as much as the finished product. Although he may not make a direct appearance, Hill describes his conception of the devil as less historic as opposed to "a famous fictional depiction of a man who wakes up one morning as a cockroach."
A last point: I was unaware when I started reading that Joe Hill is actually Joseph King, the son of Stephen King, to whose writings the former's bear a striking resemblance. Hill is the recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship and the William L. Crawford award for best new fantasy writer in 2006. His first book, 20th Century Ghosts, which consists of fourteen short stories, won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection, so the author is, not surprisingly, a rather accomplished one.
Ignatius (Ig) wakes up from a drunken stupor to discover he has horns growing out of his head. At first he believes hes losing his mind but quickly discovers that they are indeed real and come with a terrifying power that compel others to spill what theyre really thinking and its never all hearts and flowers either.
Poor Ig learns things about those closest to him that would destroy most people and soon realizes he is completely alone. A year earlier the love of his life, Merrill, was brutally raped and murdered and though Ig was never formally charged his small town has convicted him in their minds believing his well to-do parents pulled strings that allowed him to get away with murder. Hes been unable to find any sort of peace -- thus the drunken stupor of the previous night. With his devilish new powers, Ig is a man on a mission determined to find a killer . . .
The book then switches off going back to the past and present and becomes a unique mystery, love story, coming of age tale that brings all the characters to vivid life. Its horrible, beautiful, emotional, darkly humorous and one of the best books Ive read. I am going to track down a copy of this book on audio to keep on my Ipod.
Poor Ig learns things about those closest to him that would destroy most people and soon realizes he is completely alone. A year earlier the love of his life, Merrill, was brutally raped and murdered and though Ig was never formally charged his small town has convicted him in their minds believing his well to-do parents pulled strings that allowed him to get away with murder. Hes been unable to find any sort of peace -- thus the drunken stupor of the previous night. With his devilish new powers, Ig is a man on a mission determined to find a killer . . .
The book then switches off going back to the past and present and becomes a unique mystery, love story, coming of age tale that brings all the characters to vivid life. Its horrible, beautiful, emotional, darkly humorous and one of the best books Ive read. I am going to track down a copy of this book on audio to keep on my Ipod.
Certainly not a light read -- but, a great read!
Just started this. On page 15, hooked from page 1! Joe Hill rocks!
