27. Horns by Joe Hill
What can happen to a man when the woman he loves is brutally raped and murdered and everyone -- including his own parents -- thinks he did it despite there being no evidence to justify the theory? What does happen one year later when that man wakes up after a bender and discovers he has horns growing out of his temples?
These questions are the basis of Joe Hill's (the pseudonym adopted by Stephen King's son) newest novel. When Ignatius Perrish wakes up with a horrendous headache after he gets his drunk on at the one year anniversary of his girlfriend Merrin Williams's murder, he thinks it's a simple hangover until he sees the horns growing from his temples. Just as disturbing is that not only are people not terribly bothered by the horns but that they start confessing their darkest secrets to him. Then he learns his brother's worst secret -- he knows who really killed Merrin -- and sets out for revenge.
The format of the book is a bit disconcerting and almost put me off. It seemed strange for Ig to learn who killed Merrin within the first 50 pages of a 300+ page novel. This is because much of the book is flashback. At first, this format was annoying, but I got used to it. The flashbacks turned out to be illuminating -- about Ig, about the murderer, and about how each of them viewed Merrin and their respective relationships with her. I was all set to give it four stars out of five until I read the climax. My reaction put simply = BOO! My reaction put more intelligently = it was not nearly as climactic as it could have been. The level of betrayal Merrin and Ig experience deserves a much stronger resolution than it got. The denoument, however, was very good.
For his sophomore novel, Hill didn't do too badly, but I was not as impressed with Horns as I was with his debut, Heart-Shaped Box. Still, I won't cut him from my "To Read" list when his next novel comes out.
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