Horns by Joe Hill

Title:  Horns
Author:  Joe Hill
Pages:  370
Genre:  Horror
Publisher:  William Morrow, 2010

Synopsis:  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. . ."

Review:  I can't remember the last time I had such a hard time keeping interested in a book.  There were parts that were really pretty good, but they were then followed by parts that nearly put me to sleep.  Several times, I thought about just quitting and reading something else.  But, I kept at it, thinking it might get better.  Unfortunately it didn't, not really.  I just didn't care for this one, even though I really wanted to.

The ending was fine and tied the story up neatly, but it wasn't very much better than the rest of the book.  This is the second novel by this author that I've read and while I liked Heart-Shaped Box better than this one, it still wasn't absolutely fabulous and, like this book, the ending was just too neat and pat for my tastes.  I won't be going out of my way to read another of his books any time soon.

Rating:  2 / 10