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Six quirky but resilient children encounter the path of a immense and terrible otherworldly evil that has invaded our world from the outer limits of shadow. They must devote their lives fighting it, enduring horror after horror in the ordeal.

A Familiar Storyline with a New Twist

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (his best; no debate). It similarly frames of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s latest chilling tome, in which a band of six summon the ancient, infinitely malicious serpent King Sorrow from the Endless Night to help them defeat some antagonists. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Embracing a Family Legacy

The author launched his profession making great efforts to distance himself from his well-known dad, adopting the nom de plume he maintains to this day and avoiding meeting his agent (he exhibits a strong similarity to his father). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges it. Certain passages that consciously reflect some of the senior author’s well-known (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a moment that brings to mind a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this epic story, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his heritage, and we delight along with him.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Focusing on the companions: the majority are scholars at the made-up this academic setting in the New England state. First is Arthur, academic and gifted, cracking historical enigmas in his leisure hours; another key figure, rich, astute, and prone to trampling those who oppose him; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie herself. Then we have Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but emerges as crucial of their band as they experiment, half believing, half not, in arcane arts.

The Fateful Ceremony

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take rare books from his cherished academic collection by a bunch of local criminals. This devastates his scholarly soul, especially when he’s forced to acquire the institution’s prized and disturbing work: the journal of practitioner the historical figure (executed “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, realize they are able to call forth what the author references as a cunning serpent to assist Arthur with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative reaping the consequences. The dragon will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they are required to pick a new sacrifice every twelve months or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Stylistic Dexterity and Creative Scope

Moving through four decades, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the companions endeavor to address the predicament they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to offer up, or seeking means to destroy the entity themselves, we go from thriller to grim fantasy, covert operations to love story to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a adventure narrative, within the subterranean depths under the English county, a segment tinged by JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

A Rich Canvas of Fear and Courage

We encounter trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, properly scary and superbly depicted. We see enchanted blades and treacheries, pulse-pounding sequences of courage and instances of dreadful evil, both earthly and otherworldly. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is primarily 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 the wealthy student as the friends assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their serpent to life with the power of their thoughts.

As Hill puts it in his epigraph: “This is dragon territory”. Do not overlook this.