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Six unlikely but resilient children encounter the way of a vast and dreadful supernatural evil that has invaded our world from the outer limits of oblivion. They are compelled to wage a lifelong battle confronting it, facing one nightmare after another in the ordeal.

A Familiar Storyline with a Distinctive Spin

This outlines the narrative, broadly speaking, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (a standout in his career; no arguments). It is also the plot of Stephen King’s offspring Joe Hill’s latest massive horror novel, in which six friends call forth the primordial, infinitely malicious beast the Sorrowful Monarch from the Long Dark to aid them in overcoming some baddies. As one might expect, their supernatural ritual backfires.

Acknowledging a Authorial Heritage

The author started his career striving diligently to distance himself from his famous father, using the pseudonym he continues to employ and avoiding meeting his agent (he bears a striking resemblance to his father). Yet with this recent release, he leans into it. Several quotes that consciously reflect some of his father’s iconic (“The man in black fled across the desert …”); a moment that evokes a King plot point (a game of puzzles). In this epic story, Joe Hill takes pleasure in his heritage, and we delight along with him.

Meet the Protagonists

Focusing on the companions: most are students at the made-up this academic setting in Maine. We have Arthur, bookish and gifted, cracking Old English riddles in his free moments; another key figure, affluent, clever, and known for crushing obstacles in his path; Donna and Donovan; the attractive Allie herself. Additionally, Gwen appears, who isn’t their classmate, but becomes a key part of their group as they experiment, half believing, half not, in supernatural practices.

The Critical Ceremony

Arthur is, for reasons we don’t need to go into, obliged to take valuable volumes from his beloved college library by a bunch of local criminals. This devastates his scholarly soul, notably because he’s compelled to seize the collection’s foremost and unsettling title: the diary of adept Enoch Crane (condemned “for conspiring with dark forces in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). Our Scooby gang read the journal, discover they could summon what Crane describes as a “proud worm to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and occupy the subsequent narrative enduring the repercussions. The dragon will undoubtedly remove those annoying regional antagonists, but they must select a fresh offering every twelve months or fall prey to the beast. As Arthur later puts it: “You invoke terrible forces, all you get is more dragons.”

Stylistic Fluidity and Creative Scope

Covering a generation, Hill also moves with effortless ease across narrative styles: as the companions attempt to deal with the circumstances they find themselves in by, variously, picking people who are obviously evil to immolate, or hunting down ways to slay the beast themselves, we go from page-turner to shadowy tale, black-ops torture to affectionate subplot to horror. My favorite genre switch was to a heroic journey, far beneath the surface below Cornwall, a section tinged by JRR Tolkien that was magnificently horrifying.

An Expansive Mosaic of Dread and Hope

We encounter trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and internet antagonists, truly terrifying and perfectly brought to life. The story includes mystic weapons and deceptions, breath-taking moments of bravery and instances of dreadful evil, both earthly and extraterrestrial. It’s a tour de force: a horror novel that is above all a tribute to the human inventiveness, 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 the wealthy student as the companions assemble around a surface, preparing to summon their serpent into being with the force of their minds.

In the author’s own words in his introductory quote: “Hic sunt dracones”. Don’t miss them.