Horns! I’m so glad I liked you!
Before I get started, ya’ll should go read Kayleigh’s review, because she’s better at saying things and her review is what led me to seek this book out.
Alright, so Iggy Perrish is a good rich kid and living a relatively happy life, until one day is girlfriend Merrin is brutally murdered and Iggy is the prime suspect. He’s never actually arrested or charged, but it’s one of those “you know he did it” kind of situations. Everyone in his small town assumes that his parents pulled strings to get him off the hook. But he really didn’t murder her, and has spent the last year in misery. On the anniversary of Merrin’s death, he gets wasted and does bad things and wakes up – with horns growing out of his head. And all of the sudden, people are telling him things – their darkest thoughts and urges come spilling out of their mouths just at the sight of him. He thinks he’s going crazy, until he realizes that the horns and their power are real, and he might be able to use it to find Merrin’s real killer.
You guys, this book. Initially, it was really the shock factor that sucked me in. People just blabbing all of their horrible thoughts to Iggy, all of their most terrible secrets. That shit was crazy. And then the story progresses and you learn more about Iggy and Merrin’s epic romance and the gruesome details about her murder, and you see how tortured Iggy is over losing her. It’s all very tragic, with the tiniest hint of dark comedy to it. As far as supernatural thrillers / dark fantasty novels go, this one was superb. It was hard to put down. I liked that it was a story of revenge, more than redemption, but also a story about blurred lines. Sometimes the devil works in mysterious ways too, and the end result isn’t always terrible. I’m not being a spokesperson for Satan here – I’m an atheist. I just liked that there were so many gray ethical areas.
Also, Joe Hill has a famous author father*, and not to compare the two… but so far I prefer Joe Hill. I’ve read slightly more of his dad’s books, but this one book was more interesting and engaging and just better than those. And I think their work is different enough that you wouldn’t necessarily connect the two unless you knew about it ahead of time, which I did. I’ll continue to read both of them though. I’m REALLY looking forward to reading NOS4A2. I’m finally finding my dark thriller / horror groove, I guess.
Sarah Says: 4 stars
* I’m not going to name his father here, in case you don’t want to know. You could easily google Joe Hill and find out for yourself if you wanna.
