Want to know a secret about Joe Hill's Horns? 
 At its heart, Horns is a love story. A tragic one, to be sure, but lovely enough in its own way to bring tears to my eyes. Not what I expected when I picked this horror novel to enjoy during the spooky month of October. 
 In Horns, Ig Perrish lost the love of his life when his one-and-only Merrin was savagely raped and murdered a year earlier. Ig is widely believed to be guilty of the crime, but the case was dismissed without ever clearing his name. Ig is now a pariah, despised by all, wandering aimlessly through the shambles of his life... until the day he wakes up semi-drunk and quite hungover, and finds horns growing out of his head. 
 The horns are quite real, and seem to give Ig the power of persuasion: People who encounter Ig tell him their deepest, darkest secrets, and with just a nudge, Ig can get them to act on their impulses. Oh, and he seems to attract snakes as well. Meanwhile, with the ability to see inside people's minds simply by touching them, he's now privy to new information about Merrin's murder, and is well on his way to tracking down her killer and making him pay. 
 Is Ig the devil? Is he evil? How can we explain the horns, Ig's fondness for pitchforks, his imperviousness from fire? 
 The symbolism here is rich. Ig and Merrin are presented as true soul mates. When Ig loses Merrin, has he also lost his soul? 
 Horns is dark and scary -- although the scariest element isn't the supernatural side, but rather, the look inside the very disturbed brain of the murderer. Meanwhile, Ig and Merrin's love story is pure tragedy -- the story of a true and selfless love that is cruelly destroyed by forces outside the lovers' control. 
 Written by Joe Hill, son of the legendary Stephen King, Horns feels very much like a King family novel. As in many King books, there are thematic repetitions throughout, a slow reveal of the major event with many hints and glimpses, hidden meanings in everyday objects, and the familiar (yet always scary) concept of people giving into their own worst impulses and letting their ids guide their behaviors. 
 For more, see my review and Q&A post at Bookshelf Fantasies.