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[books 2011] Joe HIll
Jul. 17th, 2011 04:07 pm39. Horns by Joe Hill
Hill's first book, Heart Shaped Box, is one of my favourite horror novels of recent years. So it's kinda embarrassing that it's taken me this long to get around to reading the follow up.
I absolutely adored the first 90% of it - Ignatius (Ig) Perrish, dorky Christian do-gooder and town loser (despite having a famous father and brother) has been accused of raping & murdering his girlfriend. The case never went to trial, but the whole town (including his parents) think he did it. One day, a year after her death, he wakes up with horns, breathing smoke, able to hear people's thoughts, and everyone tells him things they would never tell anyone else.
It's not a straight-up horror story, though. The book also goes into the past to show how all the characters got to be where they are. It's about love, and loss, and finding out your best friend is a psychopath, and finding out who the good people really are.
As I said, I charged through the first 90% of it. I did not, however, love the end. The explanation of how Ig becomes the devil is lame, and one of the twists was just unecessary and also lame. Which is hard to balance against just how compelling and well-written the rest of the book is.
Hill's first book, Heart Shaped Box, is one of my favourite horror novels of recent years. So it's kinda embarrassing that it's taken me this long to get around to reading the follow up.
I absolutely adored the first 90% of it - Ignatius (Ig) Perrish, dorky Christian do-gooder and town loser (despite having a famous father and brother) has been accused of raping & murdering his girlfriend. The case never went to trial, but the whole town (including his parents) think he did it. One day, a year after her death, he wakes up with horns, breathing smoke, able to hear people's thoughts, and everyone tells him things they would never tell anyone else.
It's not a straight-up horror story, though. The book also goes into the past to show how all the characters got to be where they are. It's about love, and loss, and finding out your best friend is a psychopath, and finding out who the good people really are.
As I said, I charged through the first 90% of it. I did not, however, love the end. The explanation of how Ig becomes the devil is lame, and one of the twists was just unecessary and also lame. Which is hard to balance against just how compelling and well-written the rest of the book is.
