HORNS (Joe Hill) - June 10/10

Another frustratingly uneven book from Hill. Horns opens well, though, as Hill offers up an irresistible 70 pages or so in which the main character discovers his horns and the power that they contain. But then Hill does this weird thing in which he cuts to a flashback story about said protagonist and an adventure atop a very tall hill, which is interesting in its own way, I suppose, but basically kills the momentum of the story. The remainder of the book is like that; story followed by flashbacks, and it gets awfully frustrating. There's still plenty here to like, however (including the grisly manner by which Eric, who chokes on a snake, meets his maker), and Hill is certainly a talented writer. He just needs to streamline his stories. **1/2 out of ****