Fiction Reviews
King Sorrow
(2025) Joe Hill, Headline, £25, hrdbk, 881pp, ISBN 978-1-035-43429-9
Hang onto this dragon’s tale for a non-stop joyride of pop-horror fun.
They tell you what kind of novel this is on the back cover. My copy warns “be careful what you wish for”, signalling this story is the newest member of a tradition that includes Faustus, the Greek myth of King Midas or any number of djinn-in-a-bottle tales.
In this particular variation of the story the deal is not with the devil per se, but with a dragon of the imagination that tricks its way into our protagonists lives. The story starts with Arthur Oakes, a studious young man who finds himself in trouble with some local ne’er-do-wells, but within a few chapters it zooms out to cover his group of six friends. The book tracks the story of these six as they deal with the lifelong consequences of one night of half-serious occult dabbling.
At nearly 900 pages this novel is undeniably a tome. If you buy a physical copy, you will find it daunting and certainly inconvenient to lug around. But that should not put you off. This story is so finely crafted and well balanced, and the prose so seamless, that you will be sucked in from the very first chapter to the last. It’s a page turner.
Why does this novel work so well? For one thing, it straddles the zone between horror and urban fantasy, without leaning far enough in any direction to harm mass appeal or alienate genre readers. When Joe Hill is in horror mode, he commits to the bit, and the scenes are genuinely chilling. While this book does meet the dictionary definition of urban fantasy, with its premise of a dragon summoned to Maine (New England), it is somehow less goofy than the premise would suggest and feels more grounded in the real world than other examples of the genre.
There is a moral core to this story about, literally, battling one’s dragons – but it wears the theme lightly and never detracts from the entertainment value of the book. The group-of-childhood-friends-confronting-evil-in-adulthood is familiar and works very well in Joe Hill’s hands. You will want to spend more time with this group, and when complications develop it makes for compelling reading. There are echoes of Steven King’s IT here… a lazy comparison for sure, but there are undeniable parallels.
Is there anything that doesn’t work so well? The character development is excellent, but as much as I enjoyed the ride there are no fully textured three-dimensional character studies in this novel. This is no character study. Instead, you can expect to find a collection of two-dimensional characters, perfectly constructed for the roles they need to play in a popular title. They are characters that feel familiar, you will understand quickly and will empathise with as the plot develops at runaway speed.
Another small conversation point is that, as the story takes time jumps of several years, starting in 1989 and ending in 2016, Joe Hill makes a point of orienting the reader with reference to current events and technologies. We see Blackberries make a cameo appearance around 2000 for example. Some readers may enjoy these references, particularly if you are GenX, but I found them very slightly detrimental to the timelessness of the story.
Joe Hill is an established creator having brought us Locke & Key, NOS4A2, Heart-Shaped Box, Horns and short story collections 20th Century Ghosts, Full Throttle, etc. But this novel might be his best reviewed yet – it will cement him in the public mind as a blockbuster horror writer. Early in his career Joe Hill wrote anonymously and kept the fact that he is Stephen King’s son quiet. Now, he is a writer so accomplished and confident in his craft, that he is comfortable enough to riff off his father’s work. If you are a Stephen King fan wondering whether Joe Hill is an author for you, it should be enough to say that what King does well, Joe Hill does well too. And some things, Joe does much better.
In summary… two scaly thumbs up. A perfect read whether you are looking for some inspiration to battle-your-dragons or just some escapist reading for the holidays. Highly recommended.
Nic Pietersma
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