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Six oddball but doughty kids encounter the way of a immense and fearsome otherworldly darkness that has infiltrated our existence from the farthest reaches of shadow. They must wage a lifelong battle fighting it, experiencing one nightmare after another in the process.

A Familiar Plot with a New Spin

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s novel It (arguably his finest; no arguments). It parallels of King’s son Joe Hill’s recent massive horror novel, in which a band of six summon the primordial, utterly malevolent beast King Sorrow from the Long Dark to help them defeat some baddies. As one might expect, their arcane ceremony has unintended consequences.

Embracing a Authorial Heritage

Joe Hill launched his profession going to great lengths to avoid any connection from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he maintains to this day and avoiding meeting his agent (he bears a uncanny likeness to his dad). But in this latest novel, he embraces it. Several quotes that deliberately echo some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a moment that recalls a signature King element (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his family connection, and we delight along with him.

Introducing the Main Characters

Focusing on the companions: five of them are pupils at the made-up this academic setting in the New England state. There’s Arthur, bookish and brilliant, cracking ancient puzzles in his leisure hours; another key figure, rich, astute, and inclined to bulldoze anyone who stands in his way; twins Donna and Donovan; the beautiful Allie. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but emerges as crucial of their group as they dabble, somewhat credulous, partly skeptical, in arcane arts.

The Pivotal Ritual

Our hero becomes, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take rare books from his beloved college library by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, especially when he’s forced to acquire the collection’s foremost and disturbing work: the diary of occultist this enigmatic character (condemned “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the book’s jacket is fashioned from his hide). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, discover they could summon what the occultist details as a “arrogant beast to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. The dragon will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they are required to pick a fresh offering every twelve months or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Narrative Fluidity and Imaginative Range

Spanning forty years, Joe Hill transitions with natural fluency through various literary forms: as the allies strive to manage the situation they find themselves in by, in different ways, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to offer up, or hunting down ways to kill the dragon themselves, we move between suspense to shadowy tale, black-ops torture to romance to fright. A standout transition was to a quest story, deep in the caves under the English county, a segment sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was wonderfully frightening.

A Detailed Mosaic of Dread and Hope

The novel features trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, truly terrifying and perfectly brought to life. There are magical swords and treacheries, breath-taking moments of valor and scenes of dreadful evil, both mortal and supernatural. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is primarily a ode to the imagination, and to affection and camaraderie. “We required a narrative to trust and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says this character as the allies gather at the table, preparing to summon their dragon into existence with the power of their thoughts.

In the author’s own words in his opening statement: “Here be dragons”. Do not overlook this.