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A group of six quirky but doughty kids encounter the trail of a colossal and dreadful paranormal darkness that has infiltrated our world from the farthest reaches of oblivion. They have no choice but to spend their lifetimes battling it, experiencing one nightmare after another in the process.

A Resonant Premise with a Fresh Twist

This outlines the narrative, roughly, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (arguably his finest; no arguments). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s recent horror doorstopper, in which a close-knit group invoke the primordial, utterly malevolent dragon King Sorrow from the Endless Night to assist them in vanquishing some antagonists. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual goes awry.

Embracing a Authorial Lineage

Joseph Hillström King launched his profession striving diligently to remain separate from his famous father, using the pseudonym he maintains to this day and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he exhibits a uncanny likeness to his parent). Yet with this recent release, he embraces it. Several quotes that deliberately echo some of his father’s iconic (that classic opening line); a incident that recalls a recurring theme in King’s works (a battle of wits). Throughout this massive book, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his heritage, and the audience revels alongside.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Returning to the group: the majority are pupils at the imagined Rackham College in Maine. First is Arthur, academic and intelligent, solving ancient puzzles in his leisure hours; another key figure, wealthy, astute, and inclined to bulldoze those who oppose him; twins Donna and Donovan; the attractive the lovely Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who doesn’t study with them, but becomes a key part of their group as they dabble, half believing, half not, in arcane arts.

The Critical Ritual

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a set of regional villains. This tears at his bookish heart, especially when he’s made to take the collection’s foremost and chilling work: the journal of adept this enigmatic character (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group examine the log, discover they could summon what the author references as a “arrogant beast to assist Arthur with his blackmail problem – and spend the rest of the novel facing the fallout. King Sorrow will undoubtedly remove those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they must select a new sacrifice annually or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Narrative Fluidity and Inventive Range

Moving through four decades, Hill also moves with natural fluency between genres: as the friends attempt to deal with the circumstances they find themselves in by, in different ways, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or hunting down ways to slay the beast themselves, we go from thriller to shadowy tale, covert operations to love story to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, within the subterranean depths beneath this UK region, a part sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

A Detailed Tapestry of Fear and Courage

We encounter trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, truly terrifying and expertly realized. There are magical swords and deceptions, breath-taking moments of bravery and scenes of terrible wickedness, both human and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is primarily a ode to the human inventiveness, and to affection and camaraderie. “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 sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their dragon into being with the strength of their collective will.

In the author’s own words in his introductory quote: “Here be dragons”. Don’t miss them.