We’ve all been there. After a long, hard night of drinking and “doing terrible things,” the next morning is bound to be a tough one. However, Ig Perrish, the protagonist of Joe Hill’s new novel, HORNS, is about to go places where the rest of us cannot possibly imagine.
You see, Ig’s hangover is just the tip of the iceberg. Overnight, he has grown horns about the size of fingers out of his temples, and he has the sudden ability to touch people and know their deepest, darkest secrets. That’s not all: when in his presence, people confess their darkest immediate urges to him.
Not a bad power to have, provided that one is not a person of interest in a sex-murder case, like Ig just happens to be. He was accused (but not charged) with the rape and murder of his beloved high-school sweetheart, Merrin Williams. After the evidence gets destroyed in a lab fire, the authorities have no choice but to let him go. But everyone in town still believes he did it, although he remembers being passed out in his car in the parking lot of a Dunkin Donuts at the time.
Thanks to his new powers, everyone he runs across, even his own parents, confess to him that they think he did it. Ig is inundated with some of the darkest, heinous shit people believe about him, and it is absolutely heartbreaking. Because here’s the thing: he didn’t really do it. And early on in the book, he is gutted when someone close to him has something to admit to him . . . .
Human beings have a lot of vicious things in them, and HORNS showcases this grim reality in a rather horrifying way. As Ig, who is generally a good guy, hears more and more of the secrets those around him would rather keep secret, he grows more and more demoniac, twisted by the grotesque things he is told until he comes down to a decision: should he give in to the devil within? As the cover copy says, “Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge . . . it’s time the devil had his due.”
There are no real weaknesses to this book; there are only strengths. This darkly comedic look at God versus the devil (and whether or not God even exists) is not content with this mere theological quandary. Also at stake are the nature of relationships, boyfriend-girlfriend, brother-brother, friend-friend, and even fuckbuddy-fuckbuddy. Not to be overlooked are the peeks into the past, where we get to see the characters as children. Hill is one of the few people who have not forgotten what it was REALLY like to be a kid. There were magical moments, but most of it was, well, criminal. Who among us, when we were finally out of view from our parents, did not commit questionable acts? Illicit fireworks, maybe a little thievery, and death-defying dares, things that would have made our parents age prematurely had they known we were doing them.
It’s all here. One of the funniest scenes is when a teenaged Ig is talking with his best friend about pornography. Ig finally admits to having some, and his hiding place is in an old Candyland box. When his friend sees the quality of this “porn,” he can’t help but laugh: the VANITY FAIR with a pregnant Demi Moore on the cover, a Victoria’s Secret catalogue, those kinds of things. Nothing a true connoisseur could get off on. Kid’s stuff.
For such a thoughtful treatise on the nature of good and evil, it is a very visceral book. From Ig’s reaction to the real killer’s identity to the scene where Merrin is dumping Ig, mere hours before she is murdered, the raw human emotion is splattered all over the page, captured by Hill and carefully disseminated to his readers.
Hill has a metric-ton of talent, and he’s only getting better. 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS was an impressive beginning, showing off his talent with short stories, and HEART-SHAPED BOX only turned up the heat. His semi-regular comic book series, LOCKE AND KEY is an absolute masterpiece, and now we have HORNS, one of the best horror novels to come out in a long time.
Joe Hill’s going to be around for a long time, and the best news is this: he keeps getting better. Keep your eyes out for him, folks, and you won’t be disappointed.
(P.S. On the inside of the front cover, you will find a Morse code message. It would behoove you to translate it. You’ll get three words in before you realize what it is, and you’ll at least get a chuckle out of it.)
HORNS by Joe Hill
Publisher: William Morrow
370 pages
$25.99
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