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Six oddball but resilient children confront the trail of a immense and terrible paranormal malevolence that has invaded our realm from the outer limits of oblivion. They have no choice but to spend their lifetimes fighting it, facing one nightmare after another in the process.

A Familiar Storyline with a New Approach

This is the plot, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s novel It (his best; undeniable). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s recent chilling tome, in which a close-knit group invoke the age-old, infinitely malicious serpent King Sorrow from the Abyssal Void to assist them in vanquishing some antagonists. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation backfires.

Embracing a Authorial Lineage

Joe Hill launched his profession striving diligently to remain separate from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and avoiding meeting his agent (he possesses a uncanny likeness to his dad). Yet with this recent release, he embraces it. There are lines that intentionally mirror some of King’s most famous (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a incident that evokes a signature King element (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his family connection, and readers share in the joy.

Meet the Main Characters

Returning to the group: five of them are pupils at the fictional Rackham College in Maine. We have Arthur, bookish and intelligent, cracking ancient puzzles in his leisure hours; the character Colin, affluent, astute, and prone to trampling those who oppose him; twins Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie herself. Then we have Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but becomes a key part of their circle as they experiment, partly convinced, somewhat doubtful, in the occult.

The Pivotal Summoning

Our hero becomes, as a result of external pressures, obliged to take rare books from his treasured institution’s archives by a bunch of local criminals. This tears at his bookish heart, particularly as he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and unsettling work: the journal of adept this enigmatic character (condemned “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group read the journal, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a clever snake to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. The dragon will undoubtedly remove those troublesome local drug dealers, but they are required to pick a new sacrifice every twelve months or become his victim themselves. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Stylistic Dexterity and Inventive Scope

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with effortless ease between genres: as the allies strive to manage the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or seeking means to kill the dragon themselves, we go from page-turner to shadowy tale, black-ops torture to love story to fright. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, deep in the caves beneath this UK region, a part sprinkled with the fantasy maestro that was gloriously terrifying.

A Rich Mosaic of Fear and Optimism

The novel features trolls – the classic variety and online ones, properly scary and expertly realized. The story includes mystic weapons and betrayals, pulse-pounding sequences of courage and scenes of appalling malevolence, both mortal and otherworldly. This is a remarkable achievement: a frightening tale that is above all a ode to the imagination, 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 the wealthy student as the companions sit around the table, making preparations to call forth their beast to life with the strength of their collective will.

In the author’s own words in his epigraph: “Here be dragons”. Ensure you experience it.