Joe Hill’s latest horror, ‘Horns,’ doesn’t disappoint

  It’s been three years since the publication of “Heart-Shaped Box” by Joe Hill, but the author definitely has delivered a royal flush in hearts with his newest novel, “Horns.” In other words, it was worth the long wait.
  As everybody probably knows by now, Hill is the son of Stephen King, but don’t hold that against him. Hill has proven with his first two novels that he’s his own man and has his own unique way of creating dark suspense fiction. In fact, his creativity hasn’t even been tapped yet. What we’ve seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. When this author finally gets up to speed and starts turning out a book a year, he’s going to blow us out of the water with his fiction.  Now, I will admit up front that “Horns” has a premise which seemed somewhat hokey to me when I first read a synopsis of the novel. The first page, however, gave me goose bumps, and that isn’t easy to do at this stage of the game. I’ve read a couple of hundred horror novels over the past 40 years, and it’s difficult to excite me at my present age, yet Hill did it with the first page of “Horns.” Once I got into the book, I was hooked, proving this author knows exactly what he’s doing as a writer. 
  So what is “Horns” about? Well, it deals with a young guy, Ig Perrish, who wakes up one day to discover horns are growing out of his head. Along with the disfigurement comes an uncanny ability that causes most people who get close to him to speak their mind, no matter how cruel or mean their words might be. This gives Ig a whole new outlook on the people around him, even his parents and brother, Terry, as he discovers their true feelings for him.  You see, the year before, Ig’s girlfriend, Merrin, was raped and murdered right after they’d had a heated argument one night in a small restaurant called the Pit. Merrin wanted to break up with Ig so she could date other people, and for Ig, this seemed to come from out of nowhere. He loved and needed Merrin in his life to feel complete and to have a best friend. He wasn’t prepared for what she wanted and it devastated him. Leaving her behind in a drunken rage, he later pulled his car over to sleep off his drunken stupor. The next morning Merrin’s beaten body was found, and Ig was the only suspect. Though never convicted of the crime, he also was never cleared.  Everyone in his hometown thought Ig was guilty as sin and that the only reason he got off was because of rich parents — parents who also thought he’d murdered his girlfriend. It wasn’t until his brother, Terry, told him who the real killer was that Ig was able to focus and to finally plan his next action. He would kill the person who killed the woman he loved. And, since God won’t help him, maybe the devil will. 
  If this novel teaches the reader anything, it’s that you never really know people or what they’re thinking, even those closest to you. That in itself is scary as the devil. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Hill gives us a hard look at the way many relationships are today and how the people who were once your friends (if they ever truly were) change as they grow older and gradually pull away, until all you see of them is a false mask of pretension. Even parents and grandparents often hide their true feelings, as is the case with Ig and his family.
  One of the wonderful things about the novel is that the story is written on multiple levels, leaving the reader unsure of whom to root for. Though Ig is the lead character, he’s not always the most likable, especially as the author reveals more about Merrin and Terry and especially Lee, the perfect example of a modern-day sociopath. All the main characters in this story have good and bad points, which is the way of people in real life. Nothing is ever black and white. Hill gives us an inside look at his creations, allowing the reader to see the main event from different angles and how everything came to be. Though “Horns” starts out as a horror novel, I think it deals more with the tragedy of life and how all things eventually end, even love and friendships. The horns, in many ways, are just a sidebar. The real story here is about close relationships that end badly and the need for revenge when something precious is taken away.
  So, with his second novel, Hill has shown himself to be a very gifted storyteller. He knows how to create an intricate plot, plus strong, involved characters who don’t always know what to do in a given situation. Hill also adds little twists and turns that keep the reader guessing until the last page.  “Horns” is a definitely a winner in every sense of the word, as well as a novel you’ll want to keep on your bookshelf for years to come. I can only hope it won’t be three long years until Hill’s next novel comes out.