Hey friends,
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!
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
Publisher: William Morrow | HarperCollins e-books
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. . . .
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. . . .
What I can say with absolute certainty is that this book is memorable. Every chapter, every page, things just got more and more shocking. Ig and Merrin were a true idealistic love story that crash and burned in the worst way possible. We watch Ig and Merrin fall in love and we watch the relationship crumble. Merrin is murdered and while not put to trail or convinced, Ig is the number one suspect in everyone's eyes. After a night of drinking that he can't remember Ig wakes up with horns and his whole world shifts. With these horns people blurt out to him every bad thought and secret that they would never normally speak aloud. Ig can also touch them and see everything that that they've ever done, the horrible things anyway.
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.
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.
BTMA Review
What's BTMA? It stands for "book to movie adaptation". If you're a regular reader of my blog, I'm sure that you know that I usually do my movie reviews separately. Today in honor of this collaboration I've combined them, so you get a 2 for 1 special.
Movie Release Date: October 31, 2014
MPAA Rating: R
Watch Date: October 31, 2014
Rating: 2/5
I seriously has so may issues with this movie, I don't even know where to start. The fact that I really enjoyed the book, and I had just finished reading it probably didn't help me like the movie any better. All of the book details were fresh in my mind so during the movie, I was noting all of the obvious changes. I had high hopes, but I found that I didn't really enjoy it. Thinking back to past adaptations that had lots of changes, I found that I'm able to watch the movie for the movie without being so critical when the book details are a little foggy.
While there are always changes to the adaptations, I felt that this movie had so many, it might as well have been telling a different story all together. The changes made weren't necessarily beneficial to the plot. First, I'll start with the obvious. The movie comes across as a black comedy. The book was not comedic at all in my opinion. The book had a much more serious tone and that seriousness made the story all the more gripping for me.
Movie Release Date: October 31, 2014
MPAA Rating: R
Watch Date: October 31, 2014
Rating: 2/5
I seriously has so may issues with this movie, I don't even know where to start. The fact that I really enjoyed the book, and I had just finished reading it probably didn't help me like the movie any better. All of the book details were fresh in my mind so during the movie, I was noting all of the obvious changes. I had high hopes, but I found that I didn't really enjoy it. Thinking back to past adaptations that had lots of changes, I found that I'm able to watch the movie for the movie without being so critical when the book details are a little foggy.
While there are always changes to the adaptations, I felt that this movie had so many, it might as well have been telling a different story all together. The changes made weren't necessarily beneficial to the plot. First, I'll start with the obvious. The movie comes across as a black comedy. The book was not comedic at all in my opinion. The book had a much more serious tone and that seriousness made the story all the more gripping for me.
 | |
The movie didn't grab and I found myself rolling my eyes here and there. Huffing when things were our of order or just all together different. The town itself was night and day from what I envisioned from the book. The movie seemed to take place in a logging town, but in the book it was much more middle class suburban and less working class. The characters and the town were all a bit more dingy than I expected. The villain wasn't even as evil as he should have been. The movie doesn't do a good job showing the audience the depth of the deceit and betrayal of Ig's brother Terry and friend Lee. There were other major inconsistencies as well, for example, they left out important things that would have made the villain, seem as bad as he should have been. Another example is that they drastically changed Terry's character. In the movie Terry is the nastiest, most dirty looking guy ever, in the book it's a TV celebrity. The dynamic between these three characters was completely lost and not substantial enough in the movie. Unfortunately, the emotional impact of this story was lost in translation.
On the upside, I did find that the acting enjoyable. Some of the graphics were fun also. The movie was a tad gory at times, and those scenes were interesting to watch.
Was Hill involved with the production of this movie? I hope not, because if he was, he let them ruin the story. Not unlike some of his father's book to movie adaptation fails, ie. Needful Things, the movie missed the mark. All in all this was a run of the mill supernatural murder mystery. The saying, "Never Judge A Book By Its Movie" wholeheartedly applies to this adaptation. Needless to say, while I recommend reading the book, I recommend avoiding the movie.
Happy Reading & Watching,
~Tamara
On the upside, I did find that the acting enjoyable. Some of the graphics were fun also. The movie was a tad gory at times, and those scenes were interesting to watch.
Was Hill involved with the production of this movie? I hope not, because if he was, he let them ruin the story. Not unlike some of his father's book to movie adaptation fails, ie. Needful Things, the movie missed the mark. All in all this was a run of the mill supernatural murder mystery. The saying, "Never Judge A Book By Its Movie" wholeheartedly applies to this adaptation. Needless to say, while I recommend reading the book, I recommend avoiding the movie.
Happy Reading & Watching,
~Tamara
