Horns by Joe Hill

An original concept that starts in a rather comic way - a hungover man wakes up to find horns growing out of his head - and then the story develops into something much darker.

Besides growing horns, people develop the strange habit of speaking their honest thoughts. From the desire to make themselves sick by eating doughnuts to confessing to murder, this is quite a consequence to growing horns.

After this section the story goes back to when the protagonist met the other central characters and how this resulted in one of their deaths. At the half-way point I was wondering where the story would go as it all seemed to be covered...

This fast paced book has an easy style that allowed me to zoom through it. It has many elements including romance, horror supernatural and suspense as well as some dark humour. The characters are well fleshed out and original, the imagery and descriptions of the action are vivid so a clear picture emerges. Not always desirable, but that's the role of a good writer.

The theme is good versus evil and there are some theologian aspects, which serve to give the story more depth without being too preachy. Overall, a gripping read. Joe Hill is a master storyteller and I look forward to reading more of his work. Definitely an author to add to the dark fiction bag.​

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Published by Gollanscz on 16 February 2010.

Also by Joe Hill - Heart Shaped Box