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A group of six unlikely but doughty youngsters encounter the way of a vast and fearsome supernatural evil that has infiltrated our realm from the farthest reaches of darkness. They must spend their lifetimes confronting it, enduring terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Resonant Plot with a Distinctive Approach

This is the plot, roughly, of the master of horror’s iconic book It (arguably his finest; no debate). It parallels of Stephen King’s offspring Joseph Hillstrom King’s recent horror doorstopper, in which a close-knit group invoke the age-old, infinitely malicious dragon the Sorrowful Monarch from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some baddies. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation goes awry.

Celebrating a Family Legacy

Joseph Hillström King began his writing journey striving diligently to distance himself from his renowned parent, publishing under the pen name he maintains to this day and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he bears a strong similarity to his parent). However, in his newest work, he embraces it. There are lines that intentionally mirror some of his father’s iconic (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that evokes a recurring theme in King’s works (a game of puzzles). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his family connection, and readers share in the joy.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Back to those friends: the majority are students at the fictional the esteemed institution in this northeastern locale. We have Arthur, studious and gifted, deciphering Old English riddles in his spare time; the character Colin, wealthy, clever, and prone to trampling those who oppose him; twins Donna and Donovan; the stunning the lovely Allie. And there’s Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they experiment, half believing, somewhat doubtful, in supernatural practices.

The Pivotal Ritual

The protagonist finds himself, as a result of external pressures, compelled to pilfer rare books from his beloved college library by a set of regional villains. This devastates his scholarly soul, especially when he’s made to take the institution’s prized and unsettling work: the diary of adept Enoch Crane (put to death “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the book’s jacket is crafted from his flesh). The intrepid group read the journal, learn they can invoke what the occultist details as a “arrogant beast to aid our hero with his extortion dilemma – and spend the rest of the novel enduring the repercussions. King Sorrow will certainly eliminate those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they’ll have to choose a new sacrifice every twelve months or become his victim themselves. As Arthur later puts it: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is more dragons.”

Stylistic Fluidity and Imaginative Scope

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the friends attempt to deal with the predicament they find themselves in by, in different ways, choosing undeniably wicked targets to sacrifice, or searching for methods to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from page-turner to grim fantasy, covert operations to love story to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a adventure narrative, deep in the caves below Cornwall, a section sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was magnificently horrifying.

A Rich Tapestry of Horror and Optimism

The novel features trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, truly terrifying and superbly depicted. There are magical swords and treacheries, pulse-pounding sequences of valor and scenes of dreadful evil, both human and supernatural. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is above all a tribute 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 this character as the companions gather at the table, getting ready to invoke their beast to life with the force of their minds.

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