Review: "Horns"

I don't know how to explain what type of book "Horns" by Joe Hill is - I can't really think of any other books quite like this one. It is really different from most other books that I have read and I had no real expectations when I started to read it. I had read a decent review of it, thought the plot sounded interesting and wanted to give it a go and so I did. Joe Hill, the author, has a bit of a parental heritage to live up to as he is the son of no other than Stephen King and I have to say that probably that is where my only real expectation came from. I somehow expected the book to remind me of Stephen King and I am happy to report that it didn't though I know that some readers disagree with me on that one. Joe Hill has his own voice, his own language and style so even though the plot sounds like something that King could have thought up, it is treated in a way that is all Hill. Love it.

The main character of "Horns" is Ignatius William Perrish, Ig, is a normal guy at least in his own eyes and at least until the day he wakes up with... horns! Out of nowhere he has grown a pair of horns that doesn't only make people stare but also makes them divulge all of their secrets. From the embarrassing to the downright evil and cruel ones. Suddenly Ig finds that the people he thought he knew are very different from the way he perceived them and that the people he thought he loved maybe don't love him. It is a rough awakening. Especially because the horns reveal what Ig really doesn't want to know - they everybody think he killed his ex-girlfriend, the only girl he has ever love and the only real good thing in his life.

I won't say much more about the plot here because I don't want to create spoilers or reveal too much. What is so great about this book is that it manages to combine the serious and the humorous in a very elegant way. Ig, who is already shut more or less out of society due to the suspicions that everyone have about him, become completely shut out yet gets a much better understanding when he grows the horns. Suddenly he is able to see the most vile sides of humans and this means that he gets completely new perspective on everything that happens around him. The love story part is touching and the ending was amazing - I feared that the ending wouldn't live up to the plot but it did, it more than did. However, the book is so funny. There are a lot of scenes that made me smile and laugh - Ig's family is horrible, really horrible. Especially his grandmother! Ig himself is great as a main character because even though he is flawed and even unkind at times, especially when it comes to girls, he is very easy to feel sympathy for and to like.

Read it if: You liked Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" or loves the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil".

Back again!

Wild monkeys playing

I'm back again :-) Having spent the last two weeks in Thailand enjoying the food, the culture, the weather and the company I am now back on the blog and ready to review the books that I have spent my days reading in the Hilton's hotel garden underneath palm trees and flowery trees with beautiful white blossoms.


The beach

I was quite ambitious about my reading and brought several books:

"Tiger, Tiger" by Margaux Fragoso
"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov
"The Last Samurai" by Helen Dewitt
"A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin
"The Russian Debutante's Handbook" by Gary Shteyngart


Bangkok seen from the river

However, I only made it through the first three and half way through Shteyngart's novel but then I also spent a lot of time listening to "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. As you can tell from the list, it was quite an eclectic bunch of books I brought with me and I was quite surprised by some of what I read - more will follow in the reviews in the next couple of days. For now I will sign out and enjoy a lovely relaxed Sunday but first I will share a few holidays snaps with you. Have a great day :-)


Hilton garden - perfect from reading!

Top Ten Tuesday: All the books I want for Christmas

It's Tuesday and that means that it is time for a Top Ten list!
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week the theme is the books that we would like Santa to put under our Christmas tree this Christmas. I have been doing a bit of this already in the All I Want for Christmas... posts but doing a top ten is an opportunity not to be missed!
Here we go - in no particular order:

10) "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren
A Pulitzer Prize winner which has been turned into a film twice. It is a political drama set in Louisiana and it sounds like a one of those books that you can't put down once you've picked it up!

9) "Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish" by Tom Shachtman
An account of the Rumspringa tradition in the Amish society. I am curious to know more about how teenagers live in the Amish society and this would be a great book to start off with.

8) "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen
Need I explain? With all the hype this book has received - the great American novel of our generation and so on - I just have to read it!

7) "Mystics, Mavericks and Merrymakers" by Stephanie Levine
This book unveils some of the traditions of the Hasidic Jews in New York and it sounds really intriguing. Definitely a book I will have to read.

6) "Wait for Me" by Deborah Devonshire
The memoir of Deborah Devonshire - youngest Mitford sister and Duchess of Devonshire. Being a bit of a Mitford Maniac of course I must read this one!

5) "Youth in Revolt" by Payden
The title and the fact that it has been adapted to a movie starring Michael Cera is enough for me. I have to read it.

4) "A Good School" by Richard Yates
By the author of "Revolutionary Road", this book about boarding school boys promises to be a good read.

3) "The Leopard" by Guiseppe di Lampedusa
A classic and a must read!

2) "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov
This book has been praised on many of the blogs out there and I am really hoping to get my hands on it soon.

1) "Undoing Gender" by Judith Butler
Butles is a bit of a hero of mine and I really want to spend a lot of time reading and studying this work about gender structures.

Which books are you asking Santa to bring you this year?

All I want for Christmas is... "The Master and Margarita"

Firstly, I love the title "The Master and Margarita". Secondly, the reviews that I have read out there in bloggo-land has made me really want this book. You, my fellow bloggers, are praising it, calling this novel by Mikhail Bulgakov a masterpiece. So naturally I need to read it.

Here are some words from the review on Amazon.com:
"Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than The Master and Margarita. Written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov's works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil. Or would that be the other way around? The book's chief character is Satan, who appears in the guise of a foreigner and self-proclaimed black magician named Woland. Accompanied by a talking black tomcat and a "translator" wearing a jockey's cap and cracked pince-nez, Woland wreaks havoc throughout literary Moscow."

What do you want for Christmas?