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I just finished this book a few days back and really enjoyed it. For those of you that don't know, Joe Hill is the pen name for Stephen King's son. IIRC his debut novel was "Heart-Shaped Box", which I haven't read.
But "Horns" was good and definitely reminiscent of his father's writing style. I don't want to give anything away but a very short direct plot summary is a guy grows horns (like the devil) overnight. Anyway, that premise probably sounds super silly to most. But there is much more to the story. And it goes back and forth in time quite a bit. Entire chapters recall significant events during the protagonist's childhood. These in turn relate back to stuff going on in the present.
Well clearly I have a future in literary review and criticism. But I'll close with this, IMO the strength of Stephen King as a storyteller based on the novels of his that I have read, is the character development and the relationships. He never really has cardboard characters, and you could easily remove the horror, supernatural etc. elements of his books and still be left with solid stories of human drama. I think this is equally true with Joe Hill.
The End.
But "Horns" was good and definitely reminiscent of his father's writing style. I don't want to give anything away but a very short direct plot summary is a guy grows horns (like the devil) overnight. Anyway, that premise probably sounds super silly to most. But there is much more to the story. And it goes back and forth in time quite a bit. Entire chapters recall significant events during the protagonist's childhood. These in turn relate back to stuff going on in the present.
Well clearly I have a future in literary review and criticism. But I'll close with this, IMO the strength of Stephen King as a storyteller based on the novels of his that I have read, is the character development and the relationships. He never really has cardboard characters, and you could easily remove the horror, supernatural etc. elements of his books and still be left with solid stories of human drama. I think this is equally true with Joe Hill.
The End.