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A group of six quirky but doughty children fall into the trail of a vast and terrible otherworldly malevolence that has entered our world from the deepest abyss of oblivion. They have no choice but to devote their lives fighting it, facing one nightmare after another in the ordeal.

A Resonant Storyline with a Distinctive Spin

This is the plot, in essence, of the master of horror’s novel It (arguably his finest; no arguments). It parallels of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s recent horror doorstopper, in which a close-knit group invoke the age-old, deeply sinister serpent the Sorrowful Monarch from the Endless Night to aid them in overcoming some villains. Needless to say, their arcane ceremony backfires.

Embracing a Family Lineage

Joe Hill began his writing journey striving diligently to distance himself from his renowned parent, using the pseudonym he continues to employ and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he possesses a strong similarity to his dad). However, in his newest work, he leans into it. Several quotes that deliberately echo some of King’s most famous (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that evokes a recurring theme in King’s works (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his heritage, and we delight along with him.

Introducing the Main Characters

Back to those friends: five of them are scholars at the made-up the esteemed institution in this northeastern locale. We have Arthur, bookish and intelligent, cracking ancient puzzles in his leisure hours; another key figure, rich, sharp, and inclined to bulldoze obstacles in his path; the twin siblings; the beautiful Allie herself. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they dabble, partly convinced, partly skeptical, in the occult.

The Fateful Ritual

Arthur is, due to circumstances beyond his control, obliged to take prized manuscripts from his cherished academic collection by a set of regional villains. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s made to take the institution’s prized and disturbing work: the journal of occultist Enoch Crane (condemned “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group read the journal, learn they can invoke what the occultist details as a cunning serpent to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. King Sorrow will indeed rid them of those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they’ll have to choose a fresh offering every twelve months or become his victim themselves. As Arthur later puts it: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”

Stylistic Fluidity and Inventive Range

Covering a generation, Joe Hill transitions with effortless ease between genres: as the friends strive to manage the predicament they find themselves in by, in different ways, picking people who are obviously evil to immolate, or searching for methods to kill the dragon themselves, we go from page-turner to dark fantasy, clandestine torment to love story to horror. One particularly memorable shift was to a adventure narrative, far beneath the surface under the English county, a section sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

An Expansive Tapestry of Dread and Optimism

The novel features trolls – those living under bridges and online ones, truly terrifying and perfectly brought to life. There are magical swords and treacheries, pulse-pounding sequences of valor and instances of dreadful evil, both mortal and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a horror novel that is chiefly a paean to the creative spirit, and to love and friendship. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says Colin as the allies sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their serpent to life with the strength of their collective will.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “Here be dragons”. Don’t miss them.