This sprawling tale of college kids who summon evil with lifelong consequences is a fantastic read
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ix oddball but doughty kids fall into the path of a vast and terrible supernatural evil which has come into our world from the outer limits of darkness. They must spend their lifetimes battling it, facing horror after horror in the process.
This is the plot, roughly, of Stephen King’s novel It (his best; no arguments). It is also the plot, roughly, of King’s son Joe Hill’s new horror doorstopper, in which six friends summon the ancient, infinitely malicious dragon King Sorrow from the Long Dark to help them defeat some baddies. Needless to say, their supernatural ritual backfires.
Joseph Hillström King started his career making great efforts to avoid any connection with his famous father, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and avoiding meeting his agent in person (he bears a striking resemblance to his dad). But in this latest novel, he leans into it. There are lines that deliberately echo some of King’s most famous (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a moment that brings to mind a King plot point (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his family connection, and we delight along with him. King Sorrow is huge, sprawling – and absolutely fantastic.
