In Horns, we find a likable and well-meaning protagonist in Ig, whose life in his small New Hampshire town – a life once cushioned by his family's wealth and status – has been shattered by the rape and murder of his girlfriend Merrin. Ig was never tried for the crime, but he's always been the primary suspect, and just about everyone in town thinks he's guilty … The real horror, Hill seems to suggest, is in the unadorned truth that usually goes unspoken. And although a devil's-eye view onto the world shows Ig the world at its worst, it also gives him the opportunity to peer more deeply into the mystery of Merrin's death … Here is a richly nuanced story that traces the catastrophes of adult lives gone wrong to the complex and fraught relationships of children.
On the day the novel begins, Ig wakes up and finds people can't stop confessing. Coincidentally, that's also the day he discovers he's growing horns. And his skin can change colors. Along the way he even acquires a pitchfork. So is he becoming what the world believes him to be? … Thankfully, Hill is confident enough to commit seriously to this premise but also poke a little fun at his story along the way. There are comic references everywhere, from the devil in a blue dress to an almost mandatory Rolling Stones allusion. Hill has already proved himself a leading light of fantastical writing in the 21st century, but what makes Horns such a pleasure is that he avoids the seriousness that can pervade books meant to be spooky.
The strange thing about Horns is that its opening scenes aren’t all that strange. Its author, Joe Hill, is able to make Ig’s problem seem like the most natural thing in the world … Horns seems to have one or two miscreants too many. But they do allow Mr. Hill to wheel out his full arsenal of demon references, to the point where pitchforks and snakes get to be business as usual … the heart of Horns — and it unmistakably has one — has to do with Ig’s deep love for the woman he has lost. And Mr. Hill is able to equate that love with a quest for goodness.
In scenes sometimes gorgeously sensual, sometimes wrenchingly grotesque, Horns ranges between flashbacks of Ig's childhood and first experience of love to his hate-filled quest for revenge ...Richly allusive, Horns references not only classical mythology, but Biblical texts, pre-Christian folklore, and such rock 'n' roll legends as Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels … Evil and suffering exist, Horns postulates, so whoever created the world can be either all-powerful and given to random cruelties, or good and merciful, but with limited capabilities. And devils, evil's personifications, can be seen in dizzying perspective as servants of good when, like Ig, they punish sinners.
Hill doesn't let us down in this story about a man who has definitely been let down — a lot. Not only has he sprouted horns, but he's also the No. 1 suspect in the rape and murder of his girlfriend, Merrin…Everyone treats him as if he's the devil incarnate. And now he looks like one … Horns isn't a perfect novel, but it's devilishly good.
Horns pits God and Satan against each other through their earthly pawns, though it isn’t quite as direct as that. Neither deity make a literal appearance, but their influence stains Ig’s world like blood or bleach … There are layers secreted behind layers buried beneath layers entombed within layers. It’s a painful and deeply sad book about lost lovers and broken hearts, or a darkly tragicomic tale about a the pleasures and vices of sin and virtue, or a moral about seething sibling rivalries and friendly competition gone sour, or a horrific fable about meddling deities who delight in tormenting their worshippers, or an editorial diatribe railing against heartless conservatism and religious indoctrination, or whatever else you happen to feel at any given moment.
…[a] crafty, pedal-to-the-metal story of love, revenge and the devil in the details of both … Baffled Ig quickly discovers that the horns have peculiar powers. Other people seem to not really see them, yet when he's near they begin talking without inhibition about their dark secrets … Horns is not only scary, it's insightful, often funny and sometimes sweetly romantic.
The devil as depicted in Ig is not so much the perpetrator of evil as its revealer. He is a magnet for human ugliness, and occasionally he retaliates … It is new evidence that shifts the book dramatically into the form of a nicely crafted psychological crime novel. In long, meandering flashbacks, Ig recalls his earliest times with the beloved Merrin and with his friend Lee Tourneau. These segments are lush and evocative, wistfully nostalgic and engineered for the precise timing of each revelation. Once the connections are clear, Horns switches back to the supernatural present and becomes a furious thriller with a novice satanic superhero hellbent on revenge.
In no time, Ig finds out just how much the locals despise him, and what little he had to live for seems to disappear entirely. But devils have always had a knack for finding out secrets, and if Ig can figure out what happened to Merrin, he may have one last shot at getting his due … Horns is...confident and unexpected, taking risks in chronology and perspective for a narrative that starts off as dark comedy before becoming something richer and more affecting.
