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A group of six oddball but resilient children fall into the trail of a vast and terrible supernatural evil that has infiltrated our world from the outer limits of shadow. They are compelled to devote their lives fighting it, facing horror after horror in the ordeal.

An Echoing Plot with a New Spin

This describes the premise, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s novel It (a standout in his career; no arguments). It is also the plot of King’s son Joe Hill’s new chilling tome, in which six friends invoke the primordial, utterly malevolent serpent the Sorrowful Monarch from the Abyssal Void to assist them in vanquishing some antagonists. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Celebrating a Literary Legacy

The author started his career going to great lengths to remain separate from his famous father, using the pseudonym he maintains to this day and eschewing in-person meetings with his agent (he possesses a striking resemblance to his dad). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges it. There are lines that consciously reflect some of King’s most famous (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a scene 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.

The Cast of the Protagonists

Returning to the group: most are students at the fictional Rackham College in the New England state. First is Arthur, bookish and intelligent, solving ancient puzzles in his free moments; another key figure, affluent, astute, and inclined to bulldoze anyone who stands in his way; twins Donna and Donovan; the stunning Allie. Then we have Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but becomes a key part of their circle as they toy, half believing, partly skeptical, in the occult.

The Fateful Ritual

Arthur is, due to circumstances beyond his control, compelled to pilfer rare books from his treasured institution’s archives by a group of neighborhood thugs. This tears at his bookish heart, particularly as he’s compelled to seize the library’s most valuable and disturbing publication: the journal of practitioner Enoch Crane (put to death “for dealing with infernal entities in 1703”; the binding is crafted from his flesh). These young investigators peruse the diary, realize they are able to call forth what Crane describes as a armoured devil” to help Arthur out with his blackmail problem – and devote the remaining story reaping the consequences. This ancient entity will undoubtedly remove those troublesome local drug dealers, but they must select a different victim every twelve months or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As our protagonist states: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is additional horrors.”

Genre Fluidity and Creative Breadth

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with effortless ease across narrative styles: as the companions attempt to deal with the situation they find themselves in by, variously, picking people who are obviously evil to offer up, or seeking means to destroy the entity themselves, we move between thriller to shadowy tale, clandestine torment to romance to horror. One particularly memorable shift was to a quest story, deep in the caves under the English county, a segment sprinkled with the Lord of the Rings author that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Canvas of Fear and Hope

The novel features trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and online ones, truly terrifying and expertly realized. There are magical swords and treacheries, breath-taking moments of courage and ones of terrible wickedness, both human and otherworldly. This is a remarkable achievement: a frightening tale that is primarily a tribute to the imagination, and to affection and camaraderie. “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 allies gather at the table, getting ready to invoke their beast to life with the power of their thoughts.

As Hill puts it in his opening statement: “This is dragon territory”. Ensure you experience it.