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Horns

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 16,076 ratings · 2,160 reviews

Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a pair of horns growing from his temples.

At first, Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who had been raped an...more

Audio, 14 pages

Published February 16th 2010 by HarperAudio

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Feb 20, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, signed-first-or-limited-edition, audiobook, fantasy, 2006-2010, horror, angels-demons-heaven-hell

Joe Hill has the story-telling gift and his terrific sophomore effort catapults him onto my “authors-to-watch” list. I had some heated internal debates regarding what final rating to tag this with as I vacillated between 5, 4 and 3 stars depending on where I was in the book, eventually settling on a very strong 4. I don’t think this ratings quandary necessarily reflects uneven levels of quality in Hill’s execution. Rather, I think the back and forth resulted from the subtlety and complexity of...more

86 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2010 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Stephen King really messed up his son, Joe. It’s not surprising. The children of famous people generally end up as tabloid fodder, and with King as a dad, I’m shocked that one of his brood hasn’t gone on an extended murder spree.

King spends all day thinking of the most horrific shit possible to try and scare the collective pants off the reading public, and he had huge substance abuse problems when his kids were young. So you gotta assume that the conversations went something like this:

“Joe, get...more Stephen King really messed up his son, Joe. It’s not surprising. The children of famous people generally end up as tabloid fodder, and with King as a dad, I’m shocked that one of his brood hasn’t gone on an extended murder spree.

King spends all day thinking of the most horrific shit possible to try and scare the collective pants off the reading public, and he had huge substance abuse problems when his kids were young. So you gotta assume that the conversations went something like this:

“Joe, get Daddy another beer. And a mirror and a razor blade. First, tell me something. Would you be scared if I told you there was a clown in the storm drain waiting to lure you close and pull your arm off?”

No surprise then that King’s son has grown up to write a couple of very disturbing horror novels. (And I also like that Joe uses an alias to avoid cashing in on the family name even if the secret is out.)

Ignatius Perrish’s girlfriend, Merrin, was raped and murdered, and he was the prime suspect. An accident destroyed most of the evidence against him so he was never tried. The entire New England town he lives in thinks he did it, and so does most of his family except for his brother, a famous talk-show host. Grief has completely derailed Ig’s life, and he spends most of his time drunk.

One night, Ig goes out and gets more wasted than usual. When he wakes, he doesn’t just have a hangover. He’s got a pair of horns coming out of his forehead and some surprising new abilities to go with them.

I loved the early chapters of this and thought that it was going to be a book laced with dark humor about the nature of people and the hypocrisies of small towns. But the book shifts into outright tragedy and zeroes in on Ig’s past with Merrin and how her death has destroyed his life.

While it’s always interesting, the book can’t really decide what it wants to be. Maybe Joe Hill should have written one book about the tragic aftermath of a murder and another about a guy who wakes up with horns. Because the two tones really don’t sync up well.

There’s still a lot to like here, but I don’t think it delivered on the promise I saw in the early chapters. (less)

49 likes · like · see review

Mar 04, 2010 The Holy Terror rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: color-red, horror, borrowed, mystery, good-but-will-never-reread, disturbing, male-protagonist, 2010

It's hard for me to rate this book. On one hand I was hooked within the first 20 pages. On the other hand though I found it emotionally draining and painful to read. There's a quote that Ig reads to himself that I think sums up my feelings as well:

"It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life."

I often read fantasy and paranormal books to escape the harsh realities of life. It's the same reason I don't w...more It's hard for me to rate this book. On one hand I was hooked within the first 20 pages. On the other hand though I found it emotionally draining and painful to read. There's a quote that Ig reads to himself that I think sums up my feelings as well:

"It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life."

I often read fantasy and paranormal books to escape the harsh realities of life. It's the same reason I don't watch the news or read it often on the internet. The most I normally expose myself to is the Daily Show and the Colbert Report because most of the time the news is full of death and horrible things. That's not to say that I'm completely ignorant of what's going on in the world, but seriously, turn on your local news and I bet most of the stories are about rape, death, and murder.

I think this is sort of the reason I tend to steer away from horror novels and movies. I saw the first Saw movie and thought to myself, who would find something like this enjoyable? I just can't see the appeal of watching people suffer.

But now, back to this book. I picked it up because of a recommendation from a friend at work. She enjoyed it and it sounded like it had just enough of a paranormal bent for me to be intrigued. I was literally hooked within the first few chapters but then when the story started taking place in the past things moved a little bit slower and I wasn't as enthralled as I initially was. Once the mystery starts to unravel though it quickly resembles a gruesome car crash; one you have to slowly drive past and gawk at.

Ig Perrish wakes up the day after the one year anniversary of his girlfriend's death. He drank way too much the night before, did something he can't remember, and woke up with horns growing out of the middle of his forehead. When he's around people they tell him all kinds of dirty secrets, the stuff they want to do and how they really think, as if he's their own personal demon that they can confess to. And with this new ability, Ig finds out what his friends and family really think about him and the mystery of who really raped and killed his girlfriend slowly unfolds.

Like I said, this was tough to read. Ig was blamed for the death of his girlfriend even though there wasn't any evidence to link him to the crime. He was a permanent person of interest though and he and his family suffered because of it. The things that Ig learns made me flinch as I read them. They're heartbreaking and terribly sad and they make you hate just about every character. As you learn more and more and realize the truth of what happened the night his girlfriend was killed you really just feel sorry for Ig. It's really a sad ending for a sad tale. I also thought the villain should have suffered more, but do they ever suffer enough for their crimes?

I guess I can say I liked this book but I didn't like the way it made me feel. I want to read Hill's other books though because I think he's a good writer. I'm just hoping his other stories aren't as tragic.(less)

27 likes · like · see review

Apr 03, 2010 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, owned, 2010, fantasy, highly-recommended, religion-related, reviewed, romance, tear-jerkers, favorites, blog_etb, review-copies, leg-hump_worthy, joe-hill, challenge-1010, signed-by-author

Remember, way back at the beginning of the year, when I said that I wanted to hump Hugh Laurie's leg for writing The Gun Seller? After reading Horns, and just the ARC - not even the finished, shiny and perfect masterpiece - I want to hump Joe Hill's leg for writing it.

Not too long ago, I read Hill's short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and in the intro, Christopher Golden says that Hill is subtle writer, that his stories are "promises fulfilled". I think that Golden's words about Joe Hi...more

51 likes · like · see review

Feb 21, 2012 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, january-list-next

This is a creative story of the Urban Legends sort of stuff. I liked his debut novel was more frightening and ghostly here he writes in a different style and mixes the plot around switching from past to the present. Take care because no dark secret is safe when the Devils around he can see back into all you're Buggery!
The story develops with great momentum it picks up and takes off in tension, a hell-bound tale. I would give it 5 stars but i don't want to please the little DEviL.

Review alsohere ...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Charity rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Scaredy Cats and Evil Folk

Shelves: first-reads, skepticism, wtf

4.5 Stars

When people saw me reading this they would ask if it was "any good." To stay that this was good would be a massive understatement. It was supremely good. It was deliciously good. It was piss-your-pants good. It was leave-the-lights-on-all-night good. Yeah, it rocked! I was haunted, I was chilled, I was tingled, I was addicted. Putting the book down, even for a moment, was a hardship. Hill wrote about a psychopath that was so real, so disturbing, so terrifying, that I just wanted to peel...more

11 likes · like · see review

Mar 01, 2010 BarkLessWagMore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Ignatius (Ig) wakes up from a drunken stupor to discover he has horns growing out of his head. At first he believes he’s losing his mind but quickly discovers that they are indeed real and come with a terrifying power that compel others to spill what they’re really thinking and it’s never all hearts and flowers either.

Poor Ig learns things about those closest to him that would destroy most people and soon realizes he is completely alone. A year earlier the love of his life, Merrill, was brutally...more

18 likes · like · see review

Mar 23, 2010 Allison (The Allure of Books) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: other-adult-fantasy, 2010

I'm really glad I picked this up. Horror isn't really my thing, or at least it hasn't been. I've tried several times to read King, but so far he and I haven't clicked very well. I've been hearing a lot about Joe Hill lately because a few of my very good GR friends recently formed a group to talk about his books. They invited me to it and I just though "eh. thanks but no thanks." Then one day I clicked the link to read the summary of Horns and thought "hey, cool cover!" Which, of course, being of...more

12 likes · like · see review

Oct 21, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Well, I see a lot of reviewers liked this one... I may not be the first, but if I am, please let me be the first to disagree. Maybe it wasn't totally crap, but I found it a major disappointment.

Let me say I liked Heart Shaped Box a lot. It was a genuinely scary book that while it might not have broken totally "new" ground proved that the writer could do good psychological terror/horror without resorting to cheap cop out. This book, while not being terrible, was full of cop outs, stereotypes, (an...more

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 05, 2010 Rusty rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: joe-hill, 2000, fiction, goal, new-england, mystery, read-in-2010, supernatural

As you probably know by now, the main character, Ig, wakes up one morning to discover that he has grown horns. This after a long night of drinking, and mourning his murdered girlfriend. He also quickly discovers that anyone he encounters feels an overwhelming compulsion to tell him their deepest desires. This is a very interesting premise and I consider myself a big Joe Hill fan, but this book did not do it for me. I probably missed some subtleties, but at page 65 or so, the protagonist still se...more

7 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2010 Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, horror, want-those-hours-back, goodreads-giveaway

In order to enjoy this book for the disappointment it is, I suggest the following for the over 21 crowd:

Take one sip every time...:
Someone exclaims any one of: "No!"; "Oh my God!” “What ARE you?”
A character or location from a Stephen King novel is mentioned.
You want to slap the main character and tell him to man up.
Merrin’s hair is described.
The pace becomes inert.
The word devil appears. (*Warning* you may get intoxicated from this action alone)
The setting is either at the evil knieval tra...more

18 likes · like · see review

Feb 21, 2010 notyourmonkey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: amazon, horror, kindle, 2010-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Oh, Joe Hill, how ridiculously I enjoy your books.

Ig wakes up one morning a year after his girlfriend was raped and murdered (for which Ig himself was blamed but of which he was innocent), and Ig now has horns that make people confess their worst impulses to him. Things unfold from there. YAY.

The book is divided into five main chunks - 1) Ig Wakes Up With Horns And People Tell Him Horrible Things; 2) Flashback to Ig Meeting Merrin His Girl And Lee His Not-So-Best Friend; 3) Ig Confronts Lee Th...more Oh, Joe Hill, how ridiculously I enjoy your books.

Ig wakes up one morning a year after his girlfriend was raped and murdered (for which Ig himself was blamed but of which he was innocent), and Ig now has horns that make people confess their worst impulses to him. Things unfold from there. YAY.

The book is divided into five main chunks - 1) Ig Wakes Up With Horns And People Tell Him Horrible Things; 2) Flashback to Ig Meeting Merrin His Girl And Lee His Not-So-Best Friend; 3) Ig Confronts Lee The First Time; 4) Inside The Really Rather Reprehinsible Psyche of Lee, and 5) Everyone Shows Up At The Same Place At The Same Time For The Final Confrontation.

There is something creepily compelling about the first section, with Ig fumbling along trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the backdrop of everyone telling him all these horrible, horrible things. Plus, of course, there's the ending cliffhanger that makes part two initially enraging, because all you want is to know more Right Now about the main plot line, forget the damn flashback!

But then part two wins you over, and it is also by far the most Stephen Kingian thing I have ever read from Joe Hill. Hill manages to capture that same thing King does, particularly in It, with the creation of the separate world and hierarchy kids live in, and it rings really true. (Older kids than King usually writes, with the special added fillip of puberty, but they feel the same. And I mean that in a good way.)

Part three is back to the main plot threat with some really excellent flashbacks, and I really like how Hill draws things together and starts laying the pins down to knock them over without entirely revealing the path all his characters are going to walk.

Part four left me feeling really gross. It was exceptionally well-done, but I'm really, really tired of reading stuff from the perspective of men who view women as lesser life forms, there for their amusement, manipulation, and abuse. Yes, it's an excellent shorthand to depict how vile a character is (which is what I know was being done here, to excellent effect), but that's still a fifth of the novel firmly in the frontal lobes of a character who views women as wretched trash. That's not fun in the slightest, and that's what knocks this down from a five-five: it's really well-written, but my enjoyment of this chunk of the book was drastically reduced.

Part five, with the final confrontations happening left and right, was kind of awesome. Completely over the top in the way a novel about a guy sprouting horns should be, but it also had Hill revealing his characters' tender underbellies that made them that much more compelling. He makes Ig into a guy, not the greatest or worst guy who ever lived, but a guy who had something beautiful in his life (the love he shared with Merrin) ripped away, a guy trying to move on from that. A guy who does dumbass things but it ultimately a pretty decent human being, horns and all. I love reading books with protagonists who are not necessarily Heroes-with-a-capital-H but who are fundamentally decent, no matter what the surface bullshit might be sometimes.

Highly recommended. (less)

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 07, 2010 Dwayne Kavanagh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Horns is one of those books that grips you with blood drenched nails and then quietly whispers to you and forces you to finish it. I've been waiting to read this book since its release, it was worth the wait, I loved it! I started reading Horns last Sunday and finshed it a day later. I couldn't put this book down. The author's voice is a perfect fit for the story and there's no intrusion. The characters he created lept from the page and walked around with me. Good stuff! It's in the author's blo...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Trevor Mcpherson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What did I like about this book? Lots. That being said, If I held the red pen, the book would've come in a few pages lighter.

One year ago, Ignatious Perrish was the prime suspect in the unsolved murder of his girlfriend, Merrin. The story starts with him waking up hungover, depressed, and though he doesn't know it just yet, about to solve the mystery of Merrin's murder.

Joe Hill has created some strong characters, and presents them to the reader with clarity, detail, and well defined relationships. The book starts with a bang, as our protagonist, Ig, wakes up after a night of drinking and discovers he has horns. He also discovers that the horns encourage an uncomfortable honesty in others. This is a clever exposition device, as it allows us to get the low down dirty truth on most of the characters in the story as Ig interacts with, his current girlfriend, family members, and local law enforcement. This is as good a time as any to point out the humour that runs through this novel. You'll understand when you get to the scene with the police.

In the present tense of the book, the characters are mostly in their mid twenties. The back story reaches back into the teenage years, and I have to say that the author does a great job capturing the language, interactions, and through musical reference, the cultural attributes of the group. If you are a music fan there are plenty of references, some more subtle than others, throughout the book. I count those as spoilers, and won't mention them here.

So, the back story.
This is where I got frustrated a bit. Frankly, I think there is more back story than is necessary. The core characters are well defined off the bat, and while it is important to know the events and interactions that lead up to Merrin's murder, there is much that is over-explained and rehashed via the story being told from multiple points of view. There's about 50 pages of the antagonist's mommy issues I would've turfed altogether. It's crystal clear within the first hundred pages this individual is a bonafide dickhead, we don't need the Dr Phil details as to how he got that way to slow the story down.

Have I created the impression this is a supernatural murder mystery? Sorry, my bad. It is a bit of a murder mystery, but it also has a strong strain of philosophical rambling woven through it. I mean, Horns. The Devil, Satan, Beelzebub, and what have you. The ol' Good vs Evil argument and inevitable INXS reference was bound to happen (ok, so one musical spoiler. sue me). To Mr. Hills credit, the book doesn't get preachy or too intellectual. He simply raise some issues and gives the reader something to think about, all subtle like.

The book had more of an emotional impact on me than I expected. I'd like to talk about the ending a bit and tell you why, but it is difficult to do without spoiling a couple significant things. So, you'll have to settle for this: What needs to happen, happens. There is satisfaction and a couple surprises. As always, you mileage may vary. If you like character driven novels with vapire-free supernatural elements, you'll probably enjoy this book.(less)

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Dec 18, 2012 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another entertaining offering from Joe Hill.

If all that I had read from Joe Hill to this point had been Heart-Shaped Box, I would have been a little surprised with this one. However, since I read 20th Century Ghosts, I know that there is a lot more to Hill's repertoire than just straight horror. Horns is more of a black comedy than an actual horror novel although it does contain some horror elements.

The novel centers on a young man named Ig who wakes up one morning with horns growing out of his...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 16, 2011 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Donna S.

Shelves: fiction, 4_stars, author_american, horror, read_in_2011, reviewed, setting_us

Ignatius Perrish wakes up after a drunken night with honest-to-goodness horns growing out of his head. At first, he thinks he's just going crazy. But as he ventures out into the day, he finds that other people can see them too; they're just too busy telling him their deepest, darkest secrets to really comment on them. Oh, and if they know him, they're telling him exactly what they think of him. That would be bad enough for anyone, but when you've been (falsely) accused of raping and murdering yo...more

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2010 Brett rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

2 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2011 Colleen McGlashen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, horror, supernatural, joe-hill

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 12, 2010 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, creepy-spooky-scary

I could perhaps go up to 3 1/2 stars, but not 4. I liked the initial theme about Ig's horns and how he discovers their powers. When people are in his presence, the horns make them tell him their deepest secrets, after which they forget having seen him or talked to him. It bugged me, though, that almost everyone's secrets were related to depraved sexual behavior or fantasies. C'mon, Joe, you've got a better imagination than that! Not a ONE of my deepest, darkest secrets is related to sex. The hor...more

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Feb 11, 2010 Felice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There's a novel that is doing all kinds of damage to me. It's making me lose what little courage I have in the dark or to be home alone. That novel is Horns.

When Ignatis Perrish wakes up after a night of bad behavior he's got regrets, a hangover and devil horns. Quite the triple threat. Ig soon realizes that the horns are no hallucination and in fact they have come with a gift. The initial discovery of the gift is a sarcastic crack up but that doesn't last long. Ig discovers there is a very dark...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ok before Kandice starts bleeding, here I go....Horns is one of those books that starts out catching your interest right away, grabs on and doesn't let go until it gets you to the end. It's entertaining, exciting but also rather deep and thoughtful. When I was a teenager, for whatever reason, I tried to read Why Bad Things Happen to Good People and thought it was too philisophical and boring (I was a teenager). Horns examines the same topic but makes it fun. The story starts out more bizarro tha...more Ok before Kandice starts bleeding, here I go....Horns is one of those books that starts out catching your interest right away, grabs on and doesn't let go until it gets you to the end. It's entertaining, exciting but also rather deep and thoughtful. When I was a teenager, for whatever reason, I tried to read Why Bad Things Happen to Good People and thought it was too philisophical and boring (I was a teenager). Horns examines the same topic but makes it fun. The story starts out more bizarro than horror, with Ig Perrish waking up after a crazy night of drinking to realize that he has grown devil horns. More serious side effect: People want to randomly tell him their darkest secrets. These secrets start out as a running gag with a receptionist at a clinic expressing her want to scream at an a mother with an unruly child and Ig's roommate/friend with benefits confession that she really wants to eat a whole box of donuts and that she "went down on" a mutual friend, Lee drunkenly and publicly in a parking lot. The secrets get darker as the story barrels along. Ig's girfriend, whom, he loved more than anything in the world, was raped and murdered a year before an everyone, including many members of his family think he is responsible. The most heartbreaking scene in this book is when he goes to visit his family and they all dump on him. It would make me run and hide too.
I thought the pacing of this book, especially when Hill jumps into flashbacks of Ig meeting Merrin (his girlfriend) was a little uneven but the characters are fully developed and I felt like no character is truly good or evil but lots of varying shades of gray. Even the villian of the story, you feel kinda sorry for as a child but that empathy is manipulated. I love the way Hill can turn a phrase and make me laugh out loud and then a few pages later freak me out by building tension. This is a really awesome second novel from an author that is incredibly talented and worth following just to see what he might do next.(less)

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Apr 06, 2010 Jason (FNORDinc) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, reviewed-on-fnordinc

it is the day after the 1st anniversary of your girlfriends rape and murder, both of which you have been blamed for.

you wake up with a horrible headache, the hangover tied to your previous nights drinking binge. you look in the mirror and find your forehead has sprouted two devilish horns.

you find that every person who sees your horns want to tell you all of their worst thoughts, compelled to seek your advice about acting on them.

and this is just the beginning.

Horns is all about Ignatius (Ig), h...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Mike rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: devils, explicit, fantasy, first-person-narrator, horror, moral-issues, murder, twisted

I knew a few kids in high school who could've written this novel in the time it takes to listen to the Diabolus in Musica album. The whole time I read this, I just kept thinking, "is this supposed to be a send up of corny horror stories or did Stephen King get his 13 year old son's English paper published for him?"

Between the laughable dialogue, the forced plot points, the ridiculous music references, the loving snake (and trench coat scene?!?), the repetitiveness of scenes, the fact the book is...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Crystal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those that like Good vs Evil, disturbing characters, great writing

Shelves: favourites

Man, what a cool book! I had no idea what to expect and I am very happy with how it all came together. Joe Hill has an amazing imagination. This book is disturbing, thoughtful, and playful. It really shows how everyone has a deep dark secret they are desperately trying to hide, and that is totally ok. The beginning felt slow but once it got rolling I just couldn't put it down. I read over half of it in one day. I am a huge fan of Joe Hill's writing because it can be both raw and poetic. It is re...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this book - it grabbed me early and continued to pull me along all the way to the end.

The story is more f-ed up faerie tale than "horror" concerning the supernatural elements, and more "urban horrors of life" than drama in its very real depiction of people at their worst in the murder/crime elements. "Twin Peaks" meets the film "Insomnia" comes to mind.

Having said all of that, the supernatural elements are a little too whimsical at times and the roots of Ig's transfromation come t...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Desmond rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Joe Hill is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. Hill has a talent, enviable by any writer, of being eminently readable. By saying Hill is eminently readable what I mean to say is that he manages to write in a way that is effortless to read. Stylistically he gets our his own way and doesn't try to hard to show you how clever he is. In this regard Hill exceeds even his more famous father Stephen King.

In "Horns" Hill spins a tale that I can not honestly call horror, though there are eleme...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Vanessa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, so I HAVE CRITIQUES, y'all. But, for me, five stars means I found this super smart and loveable and impossible to put down and would read again. Also, I know it's whatever to talk about how this is Stephen King's son, but it's Stephen King's son! I haven't read any of his other books (yet--definitely will), but he seems to do a pretty amazing job of invoking a famous, talented, distant father figure, and, also, writing in his dad's genre, without making that remotely distracting or the foc...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me start by saying that this is a very good book. Definitely worth your time. That said, it was hard for me to read. I sort of forget what horror books feel when you read them, and that they usually don't feel good. In plain old literary fiction, when awful things happen to the characters, the book usually moves on quickly to another portion of the story or puts us in the mind of the protagonist who's reacting to the awful things, or gives us a passive observer who doesn't have a stake in th...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Cameron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is so much potential in what Joe Hill is trying to do with Horns. To make someone who literally becomes the Devil to be the hero of a novel is a pretty great idea. The solid small handful of characters that each have a deep backstory is very craftily done. The horror both in a fantasy-realm and in the all-too-realistic realm is some powerful stuff. But, there is a lot going on in the book to drive that potential off course. I am thinking of the soliloquy tirades that Ig offers at an insign...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Derek Reeves rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. How else can you say it? The only other thing that comes to mind is "fucked up". But on that note, it was such a twisted story that i couldn't put it down. Joe's uncanny ability to draw a snicker out of you while he's laying out the details or walking you through the thoughts of this main character keeps you pulling page after page. It has been (much to my surprise) one of my favorites to date. My only real concern is that a movie is being adapted from this. Fans of Joe Hill and his writing...more

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Ig drove himself the 60 miles to Logan in 45 minutes	3	42	May 03, 2013 06:53pm
Horns, Locke & Key, and N0S4A2	3	102	Apr 26, 2013 01:06pm
Stephen King Fans: Horns by Joe Hill	23	61	Mar 05, 2013 03:47pm
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About Joe Hill

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Joseph Hillstrom King (born 1972) is an American writer of fiction, writing under the pen name of Joe Hill.

Hill is the the second child of authors Stephen King and Tabitha King. His younger brother Owen King is also a writer. He has three children.

Hill's first book, the lim...more

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Books by Joe Hill

Locke and Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft

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Trivia About Horns

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Quotes from Horns

“The best way to get even with anyone is to put them in the rearview mirror on your way to something better.” — 149 people liked it

“You think you know someone. But mostly you just know what you want to know.” — 94 people liked it

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avg rating	preview: Horns Goodreads rating: 3.90 (16076 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9828412-horns?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349001237l/9828412.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9828412-horns?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Horns by Joe Hill[/url]

Horns

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