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Six oddball but brave children fall into the way of a immense and terrible otherworldly darkness that has entered our world from the deepest abyss of darkness. They must spend their lifetimes confronting it, enduring one nightmare after another in the struggle.

A Familiar Storyline with a Fresh Spin

This describes the premise, in essence, of the master of horror’s seminal work It (his best; no arguments). It parallels of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s latest massive horror novel, in which six friends invoke the age-old, utterly malevolent dragon the Sorrowful Monarch from the Endless Night to help them defeat some villains. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation has unintended consequences.

Celebrating a Authorial Legacy

Joseph Hillström King began his writing journey going to great lengths 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 dad). However, in his newest work, he leans into it. Several quotes that intentionally mirror some of King’s most famous (that classic opening line); a moment that recalls a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his heritage, and readers share in the joy.

Introducing the Central Figures

Back to those friends: five of them are scholars at the imagined Rackham College in the New England state. We have Arthur, academic and gifted, cracking historical enigmas in his leisure hours; another key figure, rich, astute, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; twins Donna and Donovan; the stunning Allie. Additionally, Gwen appears, who doesn’t study with them, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they dabble, partly convinced, somewhat doubtful, in arcane arts.

The Critical Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, as a result of external pressures, forced into stealing prized manuscripts from his beloved college library by a bunch of local criminals. This wounds his academic spirit, notably because he’s compelled to seize the institution’s prized and chilling work: the diary of occultist the historical figure (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group read the journal, realize they are able to call forth what the occultist details as a “arrogant beast to assist Arthur with his blackmail problem – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. The dragon will certainly eliminate those annoying regional antagonists, but they are required to pick a different victim each year or fall prey to the beast. As our protagonist states: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is additional horrors.”

Genre Fluidity and Inventive Range

Covering a generation, Hill also moves with natural fluency between genres: as the friends attempt to deal with the predicament they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to sacrifice, or hunting down ways to slay the beast themselves, we move between thriller to shadowy tale, clandestine torment to romance to terror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, within the subterranean depths below Cornwall, a section infused with JRR Tolkien that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Canvas of Fear and Courage

There are trolls – those living under bridges and digital trolls, truly terrifying and superbly depicted. There are magical swords and treacheries, breath-taking moments of courage and instances of terrible wickedness, both mortal and extraterrestrial. This is a remarkable achievement: a horror novel that is primarily a ode to the human inventiveness, and to devotion and companionship. “We required a narrative to trust 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, getting ready to invoke their beast into existence with the power of their thoughts.

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