Look at the faces/Listen to the bells
January Talking Meme", Day 21: Wednesday Reading meme! (This was supposed to be posted last night but my internet wasn't cooperating. Pretend it's still Wednesday!)
Square one on the bingo card filled!
What I've just finished reading
Horns by Joe Hill. Really really liked this - it's hard not to compare Hill to his dad (going to happen when you write horror and your father's Stephen King) but they both have this kind of visceral, almost earthy feel to their prose that makes everything feel immediate and raw. There are some ugly, ugly parts to this book - I almost stopped reading I'd say a quarter of the way through when the MC does some really repugnant things, worried I'd stumbled into Lord Foul's Bane all over again - but there was also almost a...I want to say sweetness there? A fairy tale touch, especially at the end. At the end it reminded me a lot of Revolutionary Girl Utena in a way, that interlocking repeating themes feel.
Horns begins with a young guy named Ig Perrish wakes up hungover, unable to remember what he'd done the night before and with two horns growing out of his head that make everyone he meets confess their worst secrets. And do the people around him have some bad secrets. Ig's been living the past year under the cloud of suspicion that he murdered his girlfriend Merrin (if sexual assault is a trigger this is not the book for you - there's an on-page rape and we're in the rapist's head when it happens) and when we meet him his life is a complete shambles. Untangling what happened to Merrin and setting things right is the main thread of the plot and it's clear as things progress that the person Ig was died that night with her - the horns are the first visible symptom but he's been losing the fight with his inner demon for a long time now.
Ig's from a family of musicians and he thinks in music, which was a nice touch (and leads to references galore and his father and brother play, of course, the trumpet.) I loved the vividness of the beginning and the last half of the book, especially the way Ig actually becomes a better person the more accepts the horns, but the first flashback is absolutely endless. It's important to the plot and sets up the pieces but feels like that middle section of an ASOIAF book where you feel like you will be reading this book forever. Or at least I do. And I think Hill was a tad heavy handed with Lee's evil - he physically can't stand listening to music! - and I kind of rolled my eyes over his sociopathy being a result of head injury. C'mon, man. (He actually gets the injury falling on a pitchfork, which on one hand is part of the repeating themes fairy tale aspect but on the other: c'mon, man.) But I liked what Hill did with Terry and Glenna, who could have been very stock characters but gained a lot of depth. And I loved the thoughtful take on religion and evil and what that even means.
I do really wish we could have gotten even one scene from Merrin's point of view. She's got a little bit of a Too Good For This Sinful World aura around her (without ever being Too Good To Be True) but I really liked the glimpses of the real girl we got through Ig's still pretty worshipful POV. I'm sure that was intentional, though: Merrin is beyond everyone's reach now, Ig, Lee and us alike.
Four stars out of five. Will definitely read Hill again.
Fave one star review line: In all fairness, if the content were different the story would have been more enjoyable for me. (I love one star reviews. Whenever I finish a book I immediately go read the one star reviews, especially if I really liked it.)
What I'm reading now
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost & Gail Steketee
I like to alternate fiction and non-fiction. I'll be done with this by the weekened, non fiction always goes quicker than novels for some reason.
What I'm reading next
Probably The King In Yellow? Assuming I don't hear about it going off the rails I plan on marathoning True Detective once the season over and this seems like just the thing to prepare for that and it fits the bingo line I'm working on.
Square one on the bingo card filled!
What I've just finished reading
Horns by Joe Hill. Really really liked this - it's hard not to compare Hill to his dad (going to happen when you write horror and your father's Stephen King) but they both have this kind of visceral, almost earthy feel to their prose that makes everything feel immediate and raw. There are some ugly, ugly parts to this book - I almost stopped reading I'd say a quarter of the way through when the MC does some really repugnant things, worried I'd stumbled into Lord Foul's Bane all over again - but there was also almost a...I want to say sweetness there? A fairy tale touch, especially at the end. At the end it reminded me a lot of Revolutionary Girl Utena in a way, that interlocking repeating themes feel.
Horns begins with a young guy named Ig Perrish wakes up hungover, unable to remember what he'd done the night before and with two horns growing out of his head that make everyone he meets confess their worst secrets. And do the people around him have some bad secrets. Ig's been living the past year under the cloud of suspicion that he murdered his girlfriend Merrin (if sexual assault is a trigger this is not the book for you - there's an on-page rape and we're in the rapist's head when it happens) and when we meet him his life is a complete shambles. Untangling what happened to Merrin and setting things right is the main thread of the plot and it's clear as things progress that the person Ig was died that night with her - the horns are the first visible symptom but he's been losing the fight with his inner demon for a long time now.
Ig's from a family of musicians and he thinks in music, which was a nice touch (and leads to references galore and his father and brother play, of course, the trumpet.) I loved the vividness of the beginning and the last half of the book, especially the way Ig actually becomes a better person the more accepts the horns, but the first flashback is absolutely endless. It's important to the plot and sets up the pieces but feels like that middle section of an ASOIAF book where you feel like you will be reading this book forever. Or at least I do. And I think Hill was a tad heavy handed with Lee's evil - he physically can't stand listening to music! - and I kind of rolled my eyes over his sociopathy being a result of head injury. C'mon, man. (He actually gets the injury falling on a pitchfork, which on one hand is part of the repeating themes fairy tale aspect but on the other: c'mon, man.) But I liked what Hill did with Terry and Glenna, who could have been very stock characters but gained a lot of depth. And I loved the thoughtful take on religion and evil and what that even means.
I do really wish we could have gotten even one scene from Merrin's point of view. She's got a little bit of a Too Good For This Sinful World aura around her (without ever being Too Good To Be True) but I really liked the glimpses of the real girl we got through Ig's still pretty worshipful POV. I'm sure that was intentional, though: Merrin is beyond everyone's reach now, Ig, Lee and us alike.
Four stars out of five. Will definitely read Hill again.
Fave one star review line: In all fairness, if the content were different the story would have been more enjoyable for me. (I love one star reviews. Whenever I finish a book I immediately go read the one star reviews, especially if I really liked it.)
What I'm reading now
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost & Gail Steketee
I like to alternate fiction and non-fiction. I'll be done with this by the weekened, non fiction always goes quicker than novels for some reason.
What I'm reading next
Probably The King In Yellow? Assuming I don't hear about it going off the rails I plan on marathoning True Detective once the season over and this seems like just the thing to prepare for that and it fits the bingo line I'm working on.