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A group of six quirky but brave children fall into the path of a immense and dreadful supernatural malevolence that has infiltrated our world from the deepest abyss of shadow. They must spend their lifetimes confronting it, enduring terror upon terror in the struggle.

A Familiar Plot with a Fresh Approach

This outlines the narrative, roughly, of the master of horror’s seminal work It (arguably his finest; no debate). It similarly frames of the celebrated author’s heir Joe Hill’s latest chilling tome, in which a band of six invoke the age-old, deeply sinister serpent the Sorrowful Monarch from the Long Dark to assist them in vanquishing some villains. Needless to say, their supernatural ritual goes awry.

Acknowledging a Literary Lineage

Joseph Hillström King launched his profession going to great lengths to distance himself from his famous father, adopting the nom de plume he still uses today and avoiding meeting his agent (he bears a strong similarity to his dad). But in this latest novel, he leans into it. Certain passages that deliberately echo some of the senior author’s well-known (that classic opening line); a scene that recalls a recurring theme in King’s works (a game of puzzles). In this epic story, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

Introducing the Protagonists

Back to those friends: most are students at the imagined Rackham College in Maine. There’s Arthur, academic and brilliant, deciphering ancient puzzles in his free moments; the character Colin, rich, astute, and inclined to bulldoze obstacles in his path; twins Donna and Donovan; the stunning the lovely Allie. Then we have Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but emerges as crucial of their band as they dabble, partly convinced, partly skeptical, in arcane arts.

The Fateful Ritual

The protagonist finds himself, for reasons we don’t need to go into, compelled to pilfer valuable volumes from his treasured institution’s archives by a group of neighborhood thugs. This wounds his academic spirit, particularly as he’s compelled to seize the library’s most valuable and unsettling publication: the diary of practitioner Enoch Crane (executed “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). These young investigators read the journal, learn they can invoke what the author references as a “arrogant beast to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative reaping the consequences. This ancient entity will indeed rid them of those annoying regional antagonists, but they are required to pick a new sacrifice annually or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. In the character’s own words: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is additional horrors.”

Narrative Dexterity and Imaginative Scope

Covering a generation, Joe Hill transitions with seamless grace across narrative styles: as the allies strive to manage the circumstances they find themselves in by, through diverse methods, picking people who are obviously evil to sacrifice, or seeking means to kill the dragon themselves, we transition from page-turner to dark fantasy, covert operations to love story to fright. One particularly memorable shift was to a adventure narrative, deep in the caves beneath this UK region, a segment infused with the Lord of the Rings author that was magnificently horrifying.

A Rich Tapestry of Horror and Courage

The novel features trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, truly terrifying and expertly realized. There are magical swords and treacheries, pulse-pounding sequences of bravery and ones of dreadful evil, both mortal and extraterrestrial. It’s a tour de force: a frightening tale that is primarily a tribute to the human inventiveness, and to devotion and companionship. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says this character as the friends assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their serpent into being with the power of their thoughts.

According to Joe Hill in his opening statement: “This is dragon territory”. Don’t miss them.