Stephen King really messed up his son, Joe. It’s not surprising. The children of famous people generally end up as tabloid fodder, and with King as a dad, I’m shocked that one of his brood hasn’t gone on an extended murder spree.King spends all day thinking of the most horrific shit possible to try and scare the collective pants off the reading public, and he had huge substance abuse problems when his kids were young. So you gotta assume that the conversations went something like this:“Joe, get

Hands down my favorite book from Joe Hill! Well, so far. Some of his books can be a little too long and winding (for me) but this one I actually enjoyed from start to finish. Everything fit and there wasn't a lot of extra nonsense to it. Plus, I liked all of the characters. I was rooting for Iggy. He wasn't perfect but he wasn't gross, either. I wanted him to somehow be happy, even though it looked pretty much impossible from the get-go. If you don't already know, the gist is that this guy named...

Joe Hill writes from a dark and mysterious place. When I read this book, I was enthralled and uncomfortable at the same time. With every Hill novel I have read, the evil is unconventional and twisted. In this novel, the protagonist connects with the dark forces through mysterious horns growing out of his head . . . and it only gets stranger from there. My guess is that 9 out of 10 readers will have no idea exactly what happened, but there is a good chance that most of them will have enjoyed it (...

4.0 StarsThis is an incredibly vulgar and disgusting book…. Yet, I liked it. The main character is completely unlikable and the rest of the people in the story are somehow worse. I really enjoyed the sinful confessions which made for a fun, voyeuristic reading experience. This book is definitely not for everyone. It's honestly quite offensive at times. However, it's so smart in how it's written that I mostly enjoyed the indulgently inappropriate story. 

In order to enjoy this book for the disappointment it is, I suggest the following for the over 21 crowd:Take one sip every time...: Someone exclaims any one of: "No!"; "Oh my God!” “What ARE you?”A character or location from a Stephen King novel is mentioned. You want to slap the main character and tell him to man up. Merrin’s hair is described. The pace becomes inert. The word devil appears. (*Warning* you may get intoxicated from this action alone) The setting is either at the evil knieval tra...

Remember, way back at the beginning of the year, when I said that I wanted to hump Hugh Laurie's leg for writing The Gun Seller? After reading Horns, and just the ARC - not even the finished, shiny and perfect masterpiece - I want to hump Joe Hill's leg for writing it. Not too long ago, I read Hill's short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and in the intro, Christopher Golden says that Hill is subtle writer, that his stories are "promises fulfilled". I think that Golden's words about Joe Hi...

It's hard for me to rate this book. On one hand I was hooked within the first 20 pages. On the other hand though I found it emotionally draining and painful to read. There's a quote that Ig reads to himself that I think sums up my feelings as well:"It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life."I often read fantasy and paranormal books to escape the harsh realities of life. It's the same reason I don't w...

Ignatius Perrish's longtime girlfriend was murdered and the whole town thinks he did it but he's walking free because the evidence was destroyed. After an all night bender, he wakes up with horns sticking out of his head that allow him to hear the thoughts of others. When he learns the identity of Merrin's killer, things start spiraling out of control...First off, the good points. Joe Hill's writing is a throwback to his father's early days, back when people had the guts to edit him and his stil...

Actual rating: 2.5 🌟I had no idea where the story would go and how it would end, which led to me only be able to make a judgement at the very end. This is one of those books you really have to look at as a whole.However, I still can't say if I enjoyed it or if I didn't...The biggest problem I had were the characters. I felt no connection to any of them. In fact, all of them seemed kind of "unreal" and "untouchable". I felt no emotion whenever something bad happened to them, either. I just didn't...

I'll start by saying that I loved both the book and the movie. Daniel Radcliffe did an amazing job at portraying Ig even if the actor looked a lot better than the book-Ignatius. 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 i...

Surprisingly good. A clever premise that was executed really brilliantly. I hated the characters, each more loathsome than the next but I loved our MC Ig. But what I loved even more was the non-linear narrative style. Time jumps, POV changes, misleading narratives - all to finally wrap up so nicely in the end.

Joe Hill has the story-telling gift and his terrific sophomore effort catapults him onto my “authors-to-watch” list. I had some heated internal debates regarding what final rating to tag this with as I vacillated between 5, 4 and 3 stars depending on where I was in the book, eventually settling on a very strong 4. I don’t think this ratings quandary necessarily reflects uneven levels of quality in Hill’s execution. Rather, I think the back and forth resulted from the subtlety and complexity

I need three things to make the hurt go away:and

I had high expectations for this book.It completely blew those expectations out of the water!This review might end up as a bunch of disjointed thoughts, because I'm having trouble organizing exactly how I felt. Warning: The beginning of this story is slightly soul-crushing. This book doesn't put a lot of faith in humanity, at least not in the beginning (I won't disclose anything about the end). As long as you don't take that aspect of it too seriously, it can be so good.The setting was superbly

This is a fantastic example of book perfection, I have never read anything quite like this one before. It was unputdownable and the quickest I've ever read a book.Iggy Perrish wakes up with a terrible hangover and also finds he has protruding horns. Along with the horns, Iggy has gained powers of dubious value, including the ability to induce those around him to give voice and in some cases action to their darkest thoughts and desires. By touching them, Iggy can also see what dark deeds they hav...

“It bewildered Ig, the idea that a person could not be interested in music. It was like not being interested in happiness.”A solid 5 stars for the flashback portions of the book... but a meagre 2 stars for the present day sections.My feelings for this one are a bit all over the place. The premise is that Ig Perrish wakes up after a heavy night on the drink, but he seems to have sprouted horns on his forehead. With this comes the side-effect of those around him telling him exactly what they are t...

“The best way to get even with anyone is to put them in the rear-view mirror on your way to something better.” Update: Just watched the movie I would give it a 6/10 the book is still way better This book rapidly broke into one of the best books I have ever read. In my small reading life, I have never come across a book that has such a bizarre concept with its own unique premise and an amazing story line that just leaves you…   “I guess Satan was t

4.5 StarsWhen people saw me reading this they would ask if it was "any good." To say that this was good would be a massive understatement. It was supremely good. It was deliciously good. It was piss-your-pants good. It was leave-the-lights-on-all-night good. Yeah, it rocked! I was haunted, I was chilled, I was tingled, I was addicted. Putting the book down, even for a moment, was a hardship. Hill wrote about a psychopath that was so real, so disturbing, so terrifying, that I just wanted to peel

This book was psychotic, sad, humorous, mysterious, and did I say psychotic? Imagine waking up with a pair of horns growing out of your head and every person you encounter suddenly has a compulsion to tell you their darkest thoughts and actions. Twilight Zone is a kid's show compared to this!After pissing his pants, the main character: Ig decides to make the best of this unbelievable situation. The love of his life was murdered and he didn't do it. But lucky for him, he can find out who did. Pro...

This is one hell of a fun novel. Let me get rid of all the side stuff first... I'm reading this because I respect Joe Hill on his own merits and it's far from the first novel I've read of his. That being said, EVEN IF it wasn't Joe Hill, I had a fantastic time reading this!Let's take the whole devil trope and turn it into a body/psychological horror novel, shall we? But let's turn away from the outside agency angle. :) Add a bit of the Lucifer tv show angle, add a few horns on Ig's head and the