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A group of six quirky but doughty youngsters confront the way of a vast and terrible otherworldly evil that has entered our realm from the deepest abyss of darkness. They must wage a lifelong battle confronting it, facing horror after horror in the process.

A Resonant Plot with a New Approach

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (arguably his finest; undeniable). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s recent horror doorstopper, in which six friends invoke the age-old, infinitely malicious serpent King Sorrow from the Endless Night to assist them in vanquishing some baddies. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation goes awry.

Embracing a Authorial Heritage

Joseph Hillström King started his career striving diligently to avoid any connection from his famous father, adopting the nom de plume he continues to employ and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he exhibits a uncanny likeness to his dad). But in this latest novel, he leans into it. There are lines that deliberately echo some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a incident that recalls a signature King element (a battle of wits). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his heritage, and we delight along with him.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Back to those friends: the majority are students at the imagined the esteemed institution in Maine. First is Arthur, bookish and brilliant, solving ancient puzzles in his leisure hours; another key figure, wealthy, sharp, and inclined to bulldoze those who oppose him; the twin siblings; the beautiful the lovely Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who isn’t their classmate, but becomes a key part of their group as they toy, half believing, partly skeptical, in the occult.

The Fateful Ritual

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take rare books from his treasured institution’s archives by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, especially when he’s made to take the institution’s prized and chilling work: the journal of occultist the historical figure (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group examine the log, learn they can invoke what Crane describes as a clever snake to assist Arthur with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative reaping the consequences. The dragon will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they are required to pick a different victim each year or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. In the character’s own words: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Genre Versatility and Imaginative Breadth

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the allies attempt to deal with the situation they find themselves in by, in different ways, choosing undeniably wicked targets to sacrifice, or searching for methods to kill the dragon themselves, we transition from suspense to shadowy tale, covert operations to romance to fright. One particularly memorable shift was to a quest story, deep in the caves below Cornwall, a part sprinkled with the Lord of the Rings author that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Mosaic of Fear and Optimism

We encounter trolls – the classic variety and digital trolls, genuinely frightening and superbly depicted. We see enchanted blades and betrayals, breath-taking moments of courage and scenes of appalling malevolence, both mortal and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a chilling book that is chiefly a tribute to the imagination, and to devotion and companionship. “We required a narrative to trust and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says Colin as the friends assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their serpent to life with the force of their minds.

According to Joe Hill in his introductory quote: “This is dragon territory”. Do not overlook this.