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Six oddball but doughty children confront the way of a vast and dreadful paranormal malevolence that has infiltrated our realm from the farthest reaches of shadow. They are compelled to wage a lifelong battle battling it, experiencing terror upon terror in the ordeal.

A Resonant Plot with a New Spin

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (a standout in his career; undeniable). It parallels of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s latest horror doorstopper, in which six friends invoke the ancient, utterly malevolent beast King Sorrow from the Long Dark to assist them in vanquishing some baddies. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation has unintended consequences.

Celebrating a Family Legacy

Joseph Hillström King started his career making great efforts to distance himself from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he continues to employ and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he possesses a uncanny likeness to his parent). Yet with this recent release, he leans into it. Certain passages that deliberately echo some of his father’s iconic (that classic opening line); a scene that recalls a King plot point (a battle of wits). In this whopper of a novel, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his lineage, and readers share in the joy.

Meet the Main Characters

Returning to the group: the majority are scholars at the fictional this academic setting in Maine. First is Arthur, studious and brilliant, deciphering Old English riddles in his leisure hours; another key figure, rich, clever, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who doesn’t study with them, but assumes a vital role of their band as they experiment, partly convinced, half not, in the occult.

The Fateful Summoning

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 group of neighborhood thugs. This devastates his scholarly soul, notably because he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and chilling work: the journal of occultist this enigmatic character (condemned “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is crafted from his flesh). The intrepid group read the journal, learn they can invoke what Crane describes as a cunning serpent to aid our hero with his coercion issue – and devote the remaining story reaping the consequences. This ancient entity will undoubtedly remove those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they must select a different victim each year or fall prey to the beast. In the character’s own words: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is more dragons.”

Narrative Dexterity and Imaginative Range

Moving through four decades, the author shifts with effortless ease across narrative styles: as the companions strive to manage the predicament they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to offer up, or searching for methods to kill the dragon themselves, we move between suspense to grim fantasy, covert operations to affectionate subplot to fright. One particularly memorable shift was to a heroic journey, deep in the caves beneath this UK region, a part tinged by the Lord of the Rings author that was wonderfully frightening.

An Expansive Tapestry of Fear and Optimism

We encounter trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, properly scary and perfectly brought to life. We see enchanted blades and deceptions, pulse-pounding sequences of bravery and scenes of appalling malevolence, both earthly and supernatural. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is chiefly a tribute to the human inventiveness, 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 Colin as the friends sit around the table, making preparations to call forth their dragon to life with the force of their minds.

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