I read this book by a recommendation, and I have to be honest: even when this is definitely not my genre, oh well, this book is awesome.
I tried to think about it as a light read, but the more I read, the more I was intrigued by it, and it felt darker and heavier and deeper, at some point I just thought that I could not continue, but the big q in the plot -what happened to Merrin- keep me there and I'm really glad for it.
"The language of sin was universal".
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 in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.
Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.
But Merrin's death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside.
"Maybe all the schemes of the devil were nothing compared to what man could think up".
Opinion: 4/5 point
I always enjoy a good book that gives me new perspectives, and Horns did it in such a good way. The subjects... omg. It has so many truths that may scare you, not because they're terrifying -but because they're so f*cking true. I'm not a Theologian, but I know things, and every statement this book gave to those things... it made my skin crawl. Still. And all that jokes about the Devil? Yeah, I lived for them.
Now talking about characters and story development: Oh God, that story development and writing were a little bit confusing, but I did like it. The person that recommended it to me said that there is a lot of foreshadowing, but I never saw anything coming, which I enjoyed so much!!
Teenage Ig, Pre-Horns Ig and Post-That-Big-Incident Ig are all so amazing (and he's kind of cute too). He's the best reflection of what mean people can do to a good person. And I think that it is one of the most important things in this book, even if it wasn't intended. Even if Horns is not one of my all times favorites book, Ig will have a special place at my heart.
About Merrin... her things (you will know what things) made me cry and scream and feel so much so many times. I just wish I could have seen more about her. At some points I understood her so much and the next one I just wanted to yell at her -but that's just because I'm crazy.
I'M NOT SAYING A SINGLE WORD ABOUT LEE TORNEAU -I'll let the capital letters tell you my thoughts about him 😡 But Terry... I don't really believe that it's fair to say that he deserved better, but I just feel he did deserved better.
Finally, a very very little (and darker) part of me has to admit that I loved this book. We don't really have enough books about sins and devils. Every story has two sides and most of the time we just see one of them, so this book did really felt like some kind of release.
Adamas kisses
Sky Blackthorn
