What Amazon says: “Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples. Once, Ig lived the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned American musician, and the younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, Ig had security and wealth and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more – he had the love of Merrin Williams, a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic. Then beautiful, vivacious Merrin was gone – raped and murdered, under inexplicable circumstances – with Ig the only suspect. He was never tried for the crime, but in the court of public opinion, Ig was and always would be guilty. Now Ig is possessed with a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look, and he means to use it to find the man who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge; it’s time the devil had his due. HORNS: It’s moving, sad, often funny, redemptive, and filled with hope.”

What I thought:  Imagine that: waking up one morning with the hangover from hell, having no recollection of what you did or where you went the night before and catching sight of yourself in the mirror (as you stumble into the bathroom) to the image of yourself staring back at you – complete with horns sprouting from the top of your head. Well that’s what happened to Ig Perrish. Not only that, but along with the horns came some pretty hellish powers in the form of being able to know all the bad things anyone has ever done just by touching them:  The local preist having trists with the cleaning lady in the belfry, his own parents wishing he would disappear and that his mother used to be a whore. Nice. And people tell him things; things that they are really thinking or want to do but would never normally say out loud; they are actually asking his permission to sin. Iggy tries to get away and but finds himself reliving the whole nightmare of his girlfriend’s murder a year ago. Ig and Merrin had been childhood sweethearts from the age of 15 until she was raped and murdered in a brutal attack that Ig was arrested for (and still blamed for despite the lack of evidence).

Horns flits between the present and the past and takes us through Ig and Merrin’s relationship and growing up together and what lead to the night of the murder. The human emotions were powerful and real and you find yourself rooting for….the devil. But one thing is for sure in this book – expect the unexpected. Don’t get too comfortable because that rug will be whipped out from under you just when you think you’ve got it sussed. Also, watch out for snakes! Lots of them!

This book is many things. It’s quirky, it’s harsh, it’s strange but ultimately it is a love story and a story of human emotions in their rawest forms. It spotlights the difference (or perhaps nearness) of good and evil. Do you really know those closest to you? It seems we may not.

Highly recommended.

Horns is out in the USA in Febuary 2010 and in the UK on 16th March 2010.