🔗 Share this article

A group of six oddball but brave kids fall into the path of a immense and terrible otherworldly malevolence that has infiltrated our existence from the farthest reaches of darkness. They must wage a lifelong battle fighting it, experiencing horror after horror in the process.

A Familiar Plot with a Fresh Approach

This is the plot, roughly, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (a standout in his career; undeniable). It parallels of the celebrated author’s heir Joseph Hillstrom King’s recent horror doorstopper, in which six friends call forth the age-old, deeply sinister serpent King Sorrow from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some baddies. Needless to say, their otherworldly invocation has unintended consequences.

Acknowledging a Family Lineage

Joseph Hillström King began his writing journey striving diligently to distance himself from his well-known dad, using the pseudonym he still uses today and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he possesses a uncanny likeness to his dad). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges 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 King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his lineage, and the audience revels alongside.

Meet the Protagonists

Focusing on the companions: five of them are students at the imagined Rackham College in Maine. We have Arthur, studious and brilliant, cracking Old English riddles in his free moments; the character Colin, rich, astute, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie. Then we have Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but emerges as crucial of their group as they toy, somewhat credulous, half not, in supernatural practices.

The Fateful Ceremony

Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, forced into stealing prized manuscripts from his beloved college library by a group of neighborhood thugs. This devastates his scholarly soul, particularly as he’s made to take the library’s most valuable and chilling publication: the journal of occultist this enigmatic character (put to death “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the book’s jacket is crafted from his flesh). The intrepid group peruse the diary, discover they could summon what Crane describes as a clever snake to assist Arthur with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. This ancient entity will certainly eliminate those problematic neighborhood criminals, but they are required to pick a fresh offering every twelve months or become his victim themselves. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is more dragons.”

Narrative Fluidity and Creative Scope

Moving through four decades, Hill also moves with effortless ease between genres: as the friends strive to manage the predicament they find themselves in by, variously, choosing undeniably wicked targets to offer up, or hunting down ways to destroy the entity themselves, we move between suspense to grim fantasy, covert operations to love story to horror. A standout transition was to a adventure narrative, deep in the caves below Cornwall, a section sprinkled with JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

A Detailed Canvas of Horror and Courage

We encounter trolls – the classic variety and online ones, genuinely frightening and superbly depicted. We see enchanted blades and treacheries, heart-stopping scenes of valor and scenes of dreadful evil, both human and otherworldly. This is a remarkable achievement: a frightening tale that is chiefly a paean to the imagination, and to love and friendship. “We needed a story to believe and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the allies sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their beast into being with the power of their thoughts.

According to Joe Hill in his introductory quote: “Hic sunt dracones”. Do not overlook this.