King Sorrow by Joe Hill Analysis – A Fiery Supernatural Epic Is a Tour de Force

A group of six unlikely but resilient kids confront the trail of a colossal and terrible paranormal malevolence that has invaded our existence from the farthest reaches of oblivion. They must devote their lives confronting it, experiencing horror after horror in the ordeal.

A Familiar Plot with a New Twist

This outlines the narrative, roughly, of Stephen King’s seminal work It (his best; no arguments). It is also the plot of King’s son Joe Hill’s new massive horror novel, in which six friends call forth the age-old, deeply sinister dragon King Sorrow from the Long Dark to assist them in vanquishing some villains. As one might expect, their arcane ceremony goes awry.

Celebrating a Family Heritage

The author started his career striving diligently to distance himself from his well-known dad, publishing under the pen name he still uses today and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he bears a uncanny likeness to his dad). Yet with this recent release, he leans into it. Certain passages that intentionally mirror some of the senior author’s well-known (that classic opening line); a scene that recalls a King plot point (a game of puzzles). Throughout this massive book, Hill is delighting in his heritage, and readers share in the joy.

Meet the Protagonists

Back to those friends: most are scholars at the made-up the esteemed institution in Maine. There’s Arthur, academic and intelligent, cracking ancient puzzles in his spare time; the character Colin, affluent, astute, and prone to trampling obstacles in his path; the twin siblings; the attractive Allie herself. Then we have Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but assumes a vital role of their circle as they toy, half believing, half not, in the occult.

The Fateful Ceremony

Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, compelled to pilfer valuable volumes from his treasured institution’s archives by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, notably because he’s made to take the collection’s foremost and chilling work: the journal of practitioner this enigmatic character (put to death “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the binding is fashioned from his hide). The intrepid group read the journal, discover they could summon what the author references as a cunning serpent to help Arthur out with his coercion issue – and occupy the subsequent narrative facing the fallout. King Sorrow will undoubtedly remove those annoying regional antagonists, but they’ll have to choose a different victim each year or fall prey to the beast. In the character’s own words: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is more dragons.”

Narrative Versatility and Imaginative Breadth

Covering a generation, the author shifts with natural fluency through various literary forms: as the allies attempt to deal with the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or seeking means to destroy the entity themselves, we transition from thriller to shadowy tale, covert operations to romance to terror. A standout transition was to a quest story, deep in the caves under the English county, a section tinged by JRR Tolkien that was gloriously terrifying.

A Rich Mosaic of Horror and Optimism

The novel features trolls – those living under bridges and online ones, properly scary and expertly realized. There are magical swords and deceptions, heart-stopping scenes of bravery and ones of dreadful evil, both mortal and extraterrestrial. This is a remarkable achievement: a chilling book that is above all a ode to the imagination, and to affection and camaraderie. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the friends assemble around a surface, getting ready to invoke their dragon into being with the strength of their collective will.

In the author’s own words in his epigraph: “Hic sunt dracones”. Do not overlook this.