Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Horns

2021, I finally finished this book. It only took me three tries to finally do it. And, this isn't my favorite Hill book. It's not horrible, but I feel it needs more polishing to the story. That's all. I enjoy the core but the execution needs more shine to it.

Edit: July 2016

So... I just watched the movie. Actually finished it while I failed to finish this book. Now I know the movie ending for it, and still don't care to find out the actual book ending. Don't really know why I'm updating this. Maybe I was hoping the movie would make me finish this, but... nope.

Original review - November 2015

DNF at 59%

The sad thing about this book is that it has a four star premise so I want to keep reading, but a two star carry-out so I just want to sit it down and never see it again.

This isn’t my first Joe Hill book. The first I tried was [b:Heart-Shaped Box|153025|Heart-Shaped Box|Joe Hill|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328043955s/153025.jpg|1412280]. Another one that had a great premise, but I hated the carry out. And, it was another one that I didn’t finish. That one, I think I lasted a few chapters before putting it down for good and selling it back to Half Price Bookstore. Even with [b:Horns|6587879|Horns|Joe Hill|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402958805s/6587879.jpg|6781405] this isn’t my first time trying it. A while ago I heard that Daniel Radcliffe (!!!) was going to be in the movie of this, so I decided to try it since I’ve never been disappointed in a DanRad movie to this day. With that one, I barely read a few pages before skipping around and setting it aside. This try, I lasted a while longer than that.

But, ugh. I really wanted to like this book.

I mean, a guy grows horns and people start telling him the truth about what their darkest desires are. What could you possibly want more than that? Then, this guy may have murdered and raped his girlfriend. This book, from the first forty pages started bringing up things that were very hard to read. Rape culture, homophobia, and racism. I mean, those are things prevalent in our society, especially in what seems to be a small town in the Bible belt. (It’s never said where this takes place -- at least, not that I remember -- so I’m just making an assumption based on a few clues.)

Again, the carry out. That damned, pesky thing.

First off, the characters. Hated them all. And, I could care less about any of them. I really by halfway figured out that I didn’t care what the hell Ig found out, or even what Merrin was or wasn’t or what happened to her. Honestly, I still have a gut feeling that Ig had something to do with her death. Fucked if I know why, but that’s what my gut tells me.

Second, holy shit can we cut it out with the heavy-handed allusions? I get it. Ig is supposed to be the devil or something like it. I get it. Talking to snakes and shit. I mean, there’s really no other way to suppose it, especially with how he acts. However, my favorite parts were when he was encouraging people to do awful things. It was hilarious! I mean, what these people were saying and thinking -- my favorite was his family’s thoughts on him -- was awful, but it was so funny to see someone encouraging them to do it. I figured out pretty early on that Merrin is supposed to be like the Virgin Mary. Ig’s... the Devil? I don’t care to find out since it was so heavy handed and just plain annoying to read.

Third... do I have to have a third reason? Because I don’t. The writing was so-so. The characters didn’t have even a spark of something I could like about them. Joe Hill is not his dad, and each time I read his stuff, I think to myself about how hard he’s trying to be his dad and live up to that legacy.

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