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Six unlikely but resilient kids fall into the trail of a immense and fearsome supernatural evil that has entered our world from the farthest reaches of shadow. They must devote their lives fighting it, facing terror upon terror in the process.

A Familiar Plot with a Distinctive Twist

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (arguably his finest; no debate). It similarly frames of the celebrated author’s heir Joseph Hillstrom King’s new massive horror novel, in which a band of six invoke the ancient, infinitely malicious dragon King Sorrow from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some antagonists. Unsurprisingly, their otherworldly invocation backfires.

Acknowledging a Authorial Legacy

Joseph Hillström King started his career making great efforts to avoid any connection from his famous father, using the pseudonym he continues to employ and avoiding meeting his agent (he exhibits a striking resemblance to his dad). However, in his newest work, he fully acknowledges it. Certain passages that intentionally mirror some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a moment that brings to mind a recurring theme in King’s works (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his family connection, and we delight along with him.

Introducing the Central Figures

Returning to the group: the majority are students at the made-up this academic setting in the New England state. We have Arthur, bookish and brilliant, deciphering historical enigmas in his free moments; Colin, rich, clever, and inclined to bulldoze obstacles in his path; Donna and Donovan; the stunning the lovely Allie. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they experiment, somewhat credulous, somewhat doubtful, in the occult.

The Critical Ritual

Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, compelled to pilfer rare books from his cherished academic collection by a group of neighborhood thugs. This tears at his bookish heart, especially when he’s made to take the library’s most valuable and disturbing work: the journal of practitioner Enoch Crane (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is made from his skin). These young investigators read the journal, realize they are able to call forth what the occultist details as a clever snake to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and spend the rest of the novel facing the fallout. King Sorrow will certainly eliminate those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they must select a fresh offering each year or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As our protagonist states: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”

Narrative Dexterity and Inventive Scope

Covering a generation, Hill also moves with natural fluency between genres: as the friends strive to manage the situation they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or searching for methods to slay the beast themselves, we transition from thriller to shadowy tale, covert operations to romance to fright. My favorite genre switch was to a adventure narrative, deep in the caves below Cornwall, a part infused with the fantasy maestro that was gloriously terrifying.

A Rich Mosaic of Dread and Optimism

We encounter trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and online ones, genuinely frightening and superbly depicted. There are magical swords and treacheries, heart-stopping scenes of bravery and instances of appalling malevolence, both earthly and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is above all a paean to the human inventiveness, and to love and friendship. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the companions assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their beast into existence with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.