John Hill: Horns
John Hill’s Horns is a standalone novel. This dark urban fantasy has many focuses, but centers around Ignatius Perrish. One year prior to the story, his girlfriend, Merrin Williams was raped and killed. Instead of helping cope with the loss of someone dear to him, the community in his small town attacked him and accused him of murdering her. On the first anniversary of Merrin’s death, Ig spends the night drunk and doing terrible things. He wakes up the next morning with a pounding horns growing out of his head. With these horns comes a terrifying new power, one he uses to seek out Merrin’s killer and exact revenge.
Ignatius Perrish is a hard character to define. His roots are clean and pure. He was a kind kid who fell in love with a beautiful girl. He wasn’t without faults, but this church-going teenager was as clean as a kid can be. The death of Merrin changed him for the worse. He gave up on everything and spent most of his time getting drunk and moping around. The horns didn’t make is situation any better. The power they gave him drew him to do dark things and spread blasphemous ideals. Despite this, it is hard to label him as a bad person. It’s more accurate to label him as the lesser of two evils. He did awful things, yet the reader could care for or sympathize with him.
Horns is a difficult book to label. It was extremely well written. The book was well paced and never slowed down. The book had very little action, but was constantly building tension as the protagonist fell further and further from grace. It made unexpected trips to the past and occasionally changed narrator to allow for a better perspective of the characters and the story. With this added perspective, it is hard to label Ignatius as a villain despite his deeds, especially when opposing a villain that is so evil. Many of the characters were well developed and added to the story.
This book also toys with your emotions. It is easy to become emotionally invested in these characters and their narratives. Because this book switches time periods, you know the tragic outcome while watching all the mistakes unfold. While the book was well written, I personally did not like the book. It questioned religion and gave us a story of a kind character falling from grace. It revealed the evil sides of people and only showed their awful and sinful thoughts without considering their kindness. No character was a good character, but this may be a feature some people like. Knowing his story, it is not easy to like or hate Ig, only to feel sorry for him. This book is morally gray and contains some graphic content. As to be expected with a book dealing with the sins of others, topics can range from adultery to child abuse. Expect lots of profanity and heavy emphasis on sex as this book stars many characters that are barely old enough to be considered adults. Although I don’t like the book, I have to respect how well written the book was. I give this 368 page book 4 stars.
Ignatius Perrish is a hard character to define. His roots are clean and pure. He was a kind kid who fell in love with a beautiful girl. He wasn’t without faults, but this church-going teenager was as clean as a kid can be. The death of Merrin changed him for the worse. He gave up on everything and spent most of his time getting drunk and moping around. The horns didn’t make is situation any better. The power they gave him drew him to do dark things and spread blasphemous ideals. Despite this, it is hard to label him as a bad person. It’s more accurate to label him as the lesser of two evils. He did awful things, yet the reader could care for or sympathize with him.
Horns is a difficult book to label. It was extremely well written. The book was well paced and never slowed down. The book had very little action, but was constantly building tension as the protagonist fell further and further from grace. It made unexpected trips to the past and occasionally changed narrator to allow for a better perspective of the characters and the story. With this added perspective, it is hard to label Ignatius as a villain despite his deeds, especially when opposing a villain that is so evil. Many of the characters were well developed and added to the story.
This book also toys with your emotions. It is easy to become emotionally invested in these characters and their narratives. Because this book switches time periods, you know the tragic outcome while watching all the mistakes unfold. While the book was well written, I personally did not like the book. It questioned religion and gave us a story of a kind character falling from grace. It revealed the evil sides of people and only showed their awful and sinful thoughts without considering their kindness. No character was a good character, but this may be a feature some people like. Knowing his story, it is not easy to like or hate Ig, only to feel sorry for him. This book is morally gray and contains some graphic content. As to be expected with a book dealing with the sins of others, topics can range from adultery to child abuse. Expect lots of profanity and heavy emphasis on sex as this book stars many characters that are barely old enough to be considered adults. Although I don’t like the book, I have to respect how well written the book was. I give this 368 page book 4 stars.