Today I'm doing a collaboration with Tiffany from Angelized 1st. With the Halloween release of Horns staring Daniel Radcliffe, we decided to both read Horns by Joe Hill and view the movie. Visit Tiffany's blog to follow Daniel Radcliffe’s movie journey from Hogwarts to Horns. Below you'll find my review of Horns the book and my opinion on the movie adaptation.
You can also find Tiffany on Twitter, Tumblr, Goodreads and her YouTube channel! Don't forget to drop if and read Tiffany's post!
Book Review
Release Date: First published January 1, 2010
Format: Kindle
Pages: 466 pages
Source: Amazon
Genre: Horror
Review Date: October 30, 2014
Rating: 4 bookmarks
Synopsis: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 was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.
Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.
But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . .
Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. 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. . . .
This book is dark, it's screwed up, and it's hard to put down. Characters have tons of depth and they all evolve. Some for the worst and some for the better. Ig is a good guy, for the most part all of these characters are good people in their teen years. They get good grades, they get accepted into Ivy league colleges, have internships in amazing and high places. They all seem like the quintessential New England middle upper class teens. But there's always one rotten egg that spoils the bunch. You'll have to read the book to find out who and why!
I liked how everything was wrapped up at the end of the story and the revelations were compelling. We find out why Ig and Merrin's relationship crumbled at the end, and it's sad. We find out who murdered, how and why.
This was my first time reading Joe Hill, and it was a good experience. I'll be reading more from him. I recently found out that Hill's father is Stephen King, go figure. I had no clue, but once I knew that, I could see where the ability to weave a twisted story comes from. If you're up to reading something in this genre, I recommend giving Horns a try.
Continue on to find out my thoughts of the movie adaptation of Horns.