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Six unlikely but brave youngsters encounter the trail of a vast and dreadful supernatural darkness that has entered our realm from the deepest abyss of darkness. They are compelled to devote their lives fighting it, experiencing horror after horror in the process.

An Echoing Plot with a Fresh Twist

This is the plot, roughly, of the master of horror’s iconic book It (his best; undeniable). It similarly frames of King’s son Joe Hill’s new horror doorstopper, in which a band of six invoke the primordial, deeply sinister dragon the Dragon King from the Endless Night to aid them in overcoming some villains. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual goes awry.

Celebrating a Family Heritage

The author began his writing journey going to great lengths to distance himself from his famous father, publishing under the pen name he continues to employ and avoiding meeting his agent (he possesses a striking resemblance to his dad). But in this latest novel, he embraces it. There are lines that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a moment that brings to mind a recurring theme in King’s works (a riddling contest). In this whopper of a novel, Hill is delighting in his lineage, and readers share in the joy.

Introducing the Protagonists

Focusing on the companions: most are students at the fictional this academic setting in this northeastern locale. First is Arthur, studious and brilliant, solving Old English riddles in his leisure hours; another key figure, wealthy, sharp, and inclined to bulldoze those who oppose him; twins Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie. And there’s Gwen, who remains outside their academic circle, but assumes a vital role of their band as they toy, somewhat credulous, somewhat doubtful, in supernatural practices.

The Pivotal Ritual

Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take prized manuscripts from his treasured institution’s archives by a bunch of local criminals. This tears at his bookish heart, especially when he’s made to take the library’s most valuable and unsettling title: the journal of occultist the historical figure (put to death “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is crafted from his flesh). Our Scooby gang peruse the diary, discover they could summon what the author references as a cunning serpent to aid our hero with his blackmail problem – and spend the rest of the novel enduring the repercussions. The dragon will undoubtedly remove those annoying regional antagonists, but they’ll have to choose a different victim annually or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is further monstrosities.”

Narrative Versatility and Inventive Breadth

Covering a generation, Joe Hill transitions with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the allies attempt to deal with the predicament they find themselves in by, variously, picking people who are obviously evil to sacrifice, or searching for methods to slay the beast themselves, we transition from thriller to grim fantasy, black-ops torture to love story to horror. One particularly memorable shift was to a heroic journey, far beneath the surface under the English county, a segment tinged by JRR Tolkien that was magnificently horrifying.

A Detailed Tapestry of Dread and Optimism

There are trolls – those living under bridges and internet antagonists, properly scary and expertly realized. We see enchanted blades and deceptions, heart-stopping scenes of bravery and scenes of appalling malevolence, both earthly and supernatural. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is primarily a tribute to the imagination, and to devotion and companionship. “We needed a story to believe and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says Colin as the companions assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their beast into being with the force of their minds.

As Hill puts it in his introductory quote: “Here be dragons”. Don’t miss them.