Horns

A Novel

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache, and 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 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.

©2010 Joe Hill (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Not great but not bad

Overall an average read - nothing remarkable to me about this book. It was tolerable but I probably would not recommend it to others.

Excellent book and narrator!

After listening to Heart Shaped Box, I decided to find out more about the author and listened to Horns. It was really a unique story with well-developed characters. It starts off with the hero waking up with a pair of horns and describes what happens when he starts interacting with people around him, then moves on to detail how he wound up in that predicament for much of the book. I like the way it is laid out, since it keeps you guessing and also becomes a bit of a romance as well as a mystery, fantasy, and horror book. Joe Hill writes very well, and the book kept me involved all the way through. I can see why more conservative Christians might be uncomfortable with it, since it questions a lot of orthodox thought, but really don't understand why someone who might be uncomfortable with a "devil" as a protagonist would purchase a book called Horns with a pitchfork on the front. Before reading this, I'd been making my way back through old Stephen King favorites, and although I didn't realize Hill was his son until listening to Horns, their writing styles are somewhat similar, and it was a good transition. Like much of King's work, the ending left me craving more. It was a decent ending, just missed it when it was gone and am looking forward to Hill's next work. The narrator was perfect for it, and most of the time I didn't notice him in a good way, though yes, one voice was a little "crusty" for a female...overall excellent.

I love Joe Hills "What Ifs"

Joe Hill has some very interesting, "What Ifs". What if a box had a Ghost in it, What if a little boy was born Inflatable, or What if you wake up one morning and have horns? Wrap that up in a really fun mystery and a very sad love story and you have Horns.
The bad guys where very Dean Koontzish in the hole, REALY RALY Evil Bad guy that you want to beat to death with a shovel and take a long time to do it. There is ALOT of flash backs and some are very long to the point you start to think you are reading a different book. I could rally have used a little more of the horn stuff. I would like to have seen him have a little more fun with them before everything got serious and started flashing back to before the horns.
This was a good book. Joe Hill stories are fun reads. I had lots of emotions while reading this. Happy, Sad, Anger, Fun. Read it, you will know what I mean.

Strange but good

I am a Joe Hill fan. Having said that this wasn’t my favorite book of his, still 4 star though so I didn’t hate it! The bones are solid but there were a lot times in the book where I had to think too hard others where I zoned out. Might be a too many words issue. Lots of symbolism, religious, God and the Devil that I don’t hate but I had a lot of “wait, what?” moments trying to keep it all together. Could just be me. I’d say spend the credit, it’s Joe Hill!

pretty gritty but satisfy ending.

hard to get through in some parts, good over all. preformance was on point, reminded me of a fairy tail kinda like start dust

great book

Started off show but then the story became vivid and the person reading the book made an excellent job

Great Story! love this author!

Would you consider the audio edition of Horns to be better than the print version?

I haven't' read the print version but the audio version was great!

What about Fred Berman’s performance did you like?

Did a great job between characters without cheesy phony accents.

Very entertaining good vs. evil story

I love the twist of the "bad guy" is not necessarily the guy with the horns.. It's a captivating story with enough depth in the characters that keep you interested in them. Well done!

awesome

loved it! I never really like audible books but this one was great. I like it more than the movie.

Not sure what I expected

I'm not sure what I expected, but I really enjoyed this book. I can hear the "King" influence in parts of the story, but, predominantly all his own style. The lovable characters were easy to love, the hateful ones, easy to dislike. The story was quite original and I enjoyed the play on good vs evil, (not always so black and white). I've purchased NOS4A2, and I'm a 1/3 of the way through. At this point, I enjoyed Horns much more. I will keep looking for more by Hill, based on my experience with Horns. Now that I know he can create a story like Horns, I'm hooked. Worth the credit or price. Narration was perfect for this!