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Six unlikely but resilient kids fall into the trail of a vast and dreadful paranormal malevolence that has entered our realm from the farthest reaches of darkness. They must wage a lifelong battle confronting it, facing terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Familiar Plot with a Distinctive Spin

This is the plot, roughly, of Stephen King’s novel It (his best; no debate). It similarly frames of King’s son Joseph Hillstrom King’s recent horror doorstopper, in which six friends call forth the age-old, deeply sinister serpent the Dragon King from the Endless Night to assist them in vanquishing some antagonists. Needless to say, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Embracing a Authorial Heritage

Joe Hill began his writing journey striving diligently to distance himself from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he bears a uncanny likeness to his parent). However, in his newest work, he leans into it. Several quotes that consciously reflect some of the senior author’s well-known (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene that evokes a King plot point (a battle of wits). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his family connection, and we delight along with him.

Meet the Main Characters

Returning to the group: most are scholars at the made-up this academic setting in Maine. First is Arthur, studious and gifted, cracking Old English riddles in his leisure hours; Colin, rich, clever, and inclined to bulldoze anyone who stands in his way; Donna and Donovan; the stunning the lovely Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who doesn’t study with them, but assumes a vital role of their band as they toy, somewhat credulous, half not, in supernatural practices.

The Pivotal Ceremony

Our hero becomes, for reasons we don’t need to go into, forced into stealing valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a bunch of local criminals. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s made to take the library’s most valuable and unsettling publication: the logbook of occultist this enigmatic character (condemned “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). Our Scooby gang examine the log, discover they could summon what Crane describes as a “arrogant beast to aid our hero with his blackmail problem – and spend the rest of the novel reaping the consequences. King Sorrow will certainly eliminate those troublesome local drug dealers, but they are required to pick a different victim each year or become his victim themselves. As Arthur later puts it: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Narrative Fluidity and Imaginative Breadth

Covering a generation, Joe Hill transitions with seamless grace between genres: as the allies attempt to deal with the circumstances they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, picking people who are obviously evil to sacrifice, or searching for methods to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from thriller to grim fantasy, black-ops torture to affectionate subplot to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a adventure narrative, deep in the caves under the English county, a section sprinkled with the Lord of the Rings author that was wonderfully frightening.

An Expansive Canvas of Horror and Optimism

We encounter trolls – those living under bridges and online ones, properly scary and perfectly brought to life. We see enchanted blades and treacheries, breath-taking moments of valor and instances of terrible wickedness, both earthly and otherworldly. It stands as a masterpiece: a horror novel that is above all a ode to the human inventiveness, and to affection and camaraderie. “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, getting ready to invoke their beast into existence with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.