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Six unlikely but resilient kids fall into the trail of a vast and fearsome paranormal evil that has infiltrated our world from the deepest abyss of shadow. They are compelled to devote their lives fighting it, facing horror after horror in the struggle.

A Familiar Storyline with a Distinctive Spin

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (arguably his finest; undeniable). It is also the plot of King’s son Joe Hill’s latest chilling tome, in which a band of six invoke the age-old, utterly malevolent dragon King Sorrow from the Long Dark to help them defeat some baddies. Unsurprisingly, their otherworldly invocation backfires.

Acknowledging a Family Legacy

Joe Hill launched his profession making great efforts to distance himself from his famous father, publishing under the pen name he maintains to this day and avoiding meeting his agent (he exhibits a strong similarity to his father). However, in his newest work, he embraces it. Certain passages that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene that recalls a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his family connection, and the audience revels alongside.

Introducing the Central Figures

Returning to the group: five of them are students at the fictional the esteemed institution in the New England state. There’s Arthur, studious and intelligent, deciphering historical enigmas in his leisure hours; Colin, rich, astute, and inclined to bulldoze obstacles in his path; twins Donna and Donovan; the attractive the lovely Allie. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but emerges as crucial of their group as they toy, partly convinced, somewhat doubtful, in the occult.

The Critical Ceremony

Arthur is, as a result of external pressures, compelled to pilfer rare books from his treasured institution’s archives by a group of neighborhood thugs. This devastates his scholarly soul, especially when he’s compelled to seize the collection’s foremost and disturbing work: the logbook of practitioner this enigmatic character (executed “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). The intrepid group peruse the diary, learn they can invoke what the occultist details as a “arrogant beast to assist Arthur with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. The dragon will certainly eliminate those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a different victim each year or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As our protagonist states: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”

Genre Dexterity and Creative Range

Covering a generation, the author shifts with effortless ease between genres: as the companions endeavor to address the situation they find themselves in by, in different ways, picking people who are obviously evil to sacrifice, or seeking means to slay the beast themselves, we go from page-turner to dark fantasy, clandestine torment to love story to terror. My favorite genre switch was to a adventure narrative, within the subterranean depths below Cornwall, a segment sprinkled with the Lord of the Rings author that was wonderfully frightening.

An Expansive Canvas of Dread and Hope

The novel features trolls – the classic variety and digital trolls, genuinely frightening and expertly realized. We see enchanted blades and treacheries, breath-taking moments of valor and instances of dreadful evil, both human and supernatural. This is a remarkable achievement: a frightening tale that is chiefly a ode 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 allies sit around the table, making preparations to call forth their dragon into existence with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “Here be dragons”. Ensure you experience it.