Ignatius Perrish wakes up one morning with a hangover to discover he has horns growing from his forehead.  He can remember doing some terrible things, like taking a leak on a Virgin Mary figurine, but the booze has muddled and fuzzed his mind.  He is pretty sure that to wake up with the Devil’s horns growing from your forehead, one would have to do something pretty damned bad.  Don’t we all know it.

Ig had been out the previous night with his live-in girlfriend, Glenna, whom he has no real love for; she is just a person to keep him from being alone.  Ig’s real love was Merrin Williams.  She was brutally raped and murdered nearly a year ago, and, though there was no evidence to prove his guilt, it is widely believed that Ig killed Merrin, and because his parents are rich and connected, he got off scott free.  So close to the anniversary of Merrin’s murder, Ig ditched Glenna and went to the old foundry and the tree where Merrin’s body was found that now serves as a memorial.  There, in a fit of drunkenness, Ig trashed the place.  That’s the last he remembers.

Reeling from his own reflection, Ig discovers the horns come with some special powers.  People can see the horns, yes, but forget about them (and Ig in some cases) once they look away.  And the horns not only compel people to tell Ig their darkest desires and secrets, but upon the merest brush of skin, Ig can see their sins.  These nifty little powers are an eye-opened for Ig.  In addition to discovering how kindly Father Mould really spends his free time and Dr. Renald’s favorite recreational drug, Ig learns his parents really think him guilty of murder, his grandmother hates him, and his brother, Terry, knows who really killed Merrin.  Armed with the true killer’s identity, Ig is hellbent for revenge.


I was a fan of Joe Hill’s debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, but not as big a fan as some in the horror community.  This sophomore novel is much better.  There is a heart to Horns that pulls the reader in and carries them along, a tenderness to Ig’s hurt that makes us want to drive a pitchfork through the murderer as much as Ig does.  Our eyes open as Ig’s open, we learn as he learns, and we are as shocked as him at some of the secrets revealed about people he thought he knew.  Hill draws these characters with fine detail, filling in the blanks with flashbacks of Ig and his friends in childhood, showing how people change, for better or worse.  My hat’s off to Joe Hill for making the flashbacks (and there are many) work so well; they could have been distracting and irritating, but only enrich this heartbreaking revenge tale. It rocks.

4.5 out of 5
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