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A group of six oddball but resilient kids fall into the trail of a immense and terrible paranormal evil that has infiltrated our realm from the deepest abyss of oblivion. They are compelled to wage a lifelong battle battling it, experiencing terror upon terror in the process.

A Resonant Storyline with a Fresh Approach

This is the plot, roughly, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (a standout in his career; no arguments). It is also the plot of King’s son Joe Hill’s recent horror doorstopper, in which a band of six invoke the primordial, infinitely malicious serpent the Dragon King from the Endless Night to help them defeat some baddies. Needless to say, their supernatural ritual has unintended consequences.

Acknowledging a Authorial Lineage

Joe Hill began his writing journey striving diligently to avoid any connection from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he maintains to this day and steering clear of encounters with his agent (he bears a striking resemblance to his parent). However, in his newest work, he leans into it. There are lines that consciously reflect some of King’s most famous (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that recalls a signature King element (a battle of wits). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his heritage, and the audience revels alongside.

Introducing the Main Characters

Returning to the group: five of them are students at the imagined Rackham College in Maine. We have Arthur, studious and brilliant, cracking Old English riddles in his spare time; Colin, wealthy, clever, and prone to trampling those who oppose him; the twin siblings; the attractive Allie. Then we have Gwen, who isn’t their classmate, but emerges as crucial of their circle as they toy, half believing, somewhat doubtful, in arcane arts.

The Fateful Summoning

The protagonist finds himself, due to circumstances beyond his control, forced into stealing prized manuscripts from his treasured institution’s archives by a bunch of local criminals. This tears at his bookish heart, notably because he’s compelled to seize the library’s most valuable and unsettling title: the logbook of practitioner this enigmatic character (condemned “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the binding is crafted from his flesh). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, realize they are able to call forth what the occultist details as a cunning serpent 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 must select a different victim each year or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. In the character’s own words: “You sow dragon’s teeth, all you get is additional horrors.”

Genre Fluidity and Imaginative Range

Spanning forty years, the author shifts with natural fluency through various literary forms: as the friends endeavor to address the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, choosing undeniably wicked targets to offer up, or seeking means to destroy the entity themselves, we move between suspense to dark fantasy, covert operations to affectionate subplot to terror. One particularly memorable shift was to a adventure narrative, within the subterranean depths below Cornwall, a section tinged by JRR Tolkien that was magnificently horrifying.

A Rich Tapestry of Horror and Courage

The novel features trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, properly scary and expertly realized. There are magical swords and betrayals, heart-stopping scenes of courage and scenes of terrible wickedness, both earthly and otherworldly. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is above all a ode to the creative spirit, 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 companions gather at the table, getting ready to invoke their serpent into existence with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his epigraph: “Here be dragons”. Do not overlook this.