“Horns” by Joe Hill – A Fortress of Secrets

Joe Hill smashed into the world of literature as a missile would, gaining tremendous amounts of popularity for his rather original horror novel, Heart-Shaped Box. With Horns, Joe Hill returns to us with yet another original premise, though admittedly it is far less dark than the previous one.

In any case, Horns tells the story of a young man named Ignatius who, upon waking up after a night of hard drinking, makes a startling realization: rather big horns seem to have grown on his head overnight. At first, they feel like nothing but a burden as their unsightliness doesn’t really do Ignatius any favors.

However, he soon discovers that these horns also bear a power: by concentrating hard enough, Ignatius can make people admit their deepest and most embarrassing secrets.

And so, with this new power in hand, he sets out to investigate the murder of his childhood sweetheart, a terrifying murder for which the whole town still blames him. Also, a movie based on the book was recently released, starring Juno Temple and Daniel Radcliffe.

As you can see, the premise here is quite an unusual one, and depending on the author it could potentially take a whole array of different directions. Because the author happened to be Joe Hill, we are administered a nice mixture of everything, including comedy, horror, romance and drama.

Most of the humor stems from two sources: how the horns inconvenience Ignatius during his everyday life, and the secrets he ends up making people admit.

Though the quest itself is a rather dark, dangerous and horrific one, the path which it takes our protagonist on is nothing short of hilarious. Make no mistake though, the themes which deserve it are treated with utmost seriousness; Joe Hill knows when the time to stop laughing comes, and he makes sure we get the message.

The hunt for the killer is thrilling to watch at the very least, and the climax probably ensures that you will remember this book as a standout from the countless other ones surrounding it (at least that’s the effect it had on me).

It seems that this book has received its share of criticism, but to me, it seems as if people are going way too rough on it, expecting a masterpiece that is perfect in every dimension and caters to all.

Because works of art are interpreted subjectively and given value by whoever perceives it, there will never be a perfect one in any domain, and that includes literature.

For some reason, it seems as if people were nitpicking and desperate to find something to dislike about the book, whether it’s the narrative structure, a slightly uneven tone, or bad puns and such. If you are the kind of reader who can get past tiny imperfections with ease, this book will feel right at the top in terms of quality.

To finish things off, I’d like to add that beneath it all, there is a decent amount of thinking and commentary involved in Horns, with perhaps the most obvious and apparent theme that jumps to the eyes being “coming of age”.

There are certainly other things to discuss, such as the importance of secrets in our lives, why the truth shouldn’t always be our ultimate objective and the price of vengeance, just to name a few.

If what you are looking for is a novel which doesn’t specifically belong to one category but rather delivers on all fronts, from humor to horror, and even includes some food for thought, then Horns will definitely be right up your alley.

---

Joe Hill Personal site Joe Hill , born under the name Joseph Hillstrom King, is an American writer and comic book author. He is the son of legendary horror writer Stephen King, and so far he has written three novels, Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2, as well as a short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts.