🔗 Share this article

Six oddball but doughty kids encounter the way of a vast and fearsome paranormal malevolence that has entered our world from the outer limits of darkness. They are compelled to spend their lifetimes confronting it, facing terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Familiar Plot with a New Twist

This outlines the narrative, roughly, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (a standout in his career; no debate). It similarly frames of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s latest horror doorstopper, in which a band of six call forth the primordial, utterly malevolent serpent King Sorrow from the Long Dark to help them defeat some antagonists. Unsurprisingly, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Acknowledging a Literary Lineage

The author began his writing journey going to great lengths to avoid any connection from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he maintains to this day and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he bears a striking resemblance to his dad). However, in his newest work, he leans into it. Certain passages that consciously reflect some of King’s most famous (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene that recalls a recurring theme in King’s works (a riddling contest). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Back to those friends: five of them are scholars at the made-up Rackham College in Maine. There’s Arthur, bookish and brilliant, cracking historical enigmas in his leisure hours; another key figure, affluent, sharp, and inclined to bulldoze anyone who stands in his way; Donna and Donovan; the stunning the lovely Allie. Then we have Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but becomes a key part of their band as they experiment, half believing, somewhat doubtful, in supernatural practices.

The Fateful Ritual

Arthur is, due to circumstances beyond his control, obliged to take valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, notably because he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and unsettling publication: the diary of occultist the historical figure (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is fashioned from his hide). These young investigators examine the log, realize they are able to call forth what Crane describes as a armored demon” to assist Arthur with his blackmail problem – and occupy the subsequent narrative reaping the consequences. This ancient entity will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a new sacrifice annually or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is more dragons.”

Genre Dexterity and Imaginative Breadth

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with effortless ease across narrative styles: as the allies strive to manage the predicament they find themselves in by, variously, choosing undeniably wicked targets to immolate, or searching for methods to slay the beast themselves, we transition from page-turner to grim fantasy, clandestine torment to affectionate subplot to horror. One particularly memorable shift was to a heroic journey, far beneath the surface beneath this UK region, a segment infused with JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

An Expansive Tapestry of Fear and Optimism

There are trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, genuinely frightening and expertly realized. There are magical swords and deceptions, pulse-pounding sequences of courage and instances of terrible wickedness, both mortal and extraterrestrial. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is primarily a tribute to the imagination, and to devotion and companionship. “We needed a story to believe and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the friends assemble around a surface, making preparations to call forth their dragon to life with the power of their thoughts.

According to Joe Hill in his epigraph: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.