This is a nearly 900-page book written by Joe Hill, the son of famed horror writer Stephen king. At such a length, this is longest book yet in his ever-growing body of work.
In past readings, it was not hard to see some resemblances and obvious influences in writing styles with his father. That seemed especially true in this book. It feels like a mixture of a number of different things. Indeed, the young people we meet right at the beginning of the book do bear some resemblance to the fictional cast of the "Friends" sitcom. That much is true. Yet, this also reminded me of other things, including Stephen King. It felt a bit like a mixture almost of Firestarter mixed with the vampires who feed on sorrow and suffering and, ultimately, death in Doctor Sleep. Also, just a touch of a more recent King book, Fairy Tale.
Hill compared the six young people we meet and follow through the years in this book as being similar to the show "Friends" in certain respects, only with a horror setting. Indeed, there is a case to be made that there are some similarities, particularly when this group of six are young. That said, we watch them grow older, and they feel a lot less like "Friends" by that point in time.
However, before I get more into it, let me now do the usual warnings.
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this story already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning.
So as mentioned earlier, this reminded me of one of my favorite authors, Stephen King, for several reasons. First of all, there are quite a number of easter eggs relating to King and his works. Secondly, Hill's writing was obviously and understandably heavily influenced by his famous father. Hell, Hill even acknowledges that his father and mother and both siblings in the writing family, for that matter) helped in the process of his writing this book.
Beyond that, however, there are similarities to specific works by King. Firestarter because of the facility that two of the six major characters were held in, as well as the fiery end of their internment. That felt similar to Firestarter. It reminded me of Doctor Sleep because the dragon, King Sorrow, likes to make people suffer and in constant fear in order to make their blood taste better. And Fairy Tale, at least a little bit, since this delves into the territory of myths and, yes, fairy tales, with dragons and trolls and magical potions (Dragon Tears) and even magical swords, if you will. Perhaps even Revival, in the similarities with one major character (a bad guy in both books), both of whom are mad scientist types, and both also starting off seemingly young and idealistic and then deteriorating as the book progresses, both physically and morally.
It even reminded me just a little bit of an Indian Jones adventure. That is particularly true (for me) when two of the major characters, Arthur and Colin, head off to an isolated cave in southwestern England in order to try and retrieve a mythical sword that has the power to pierce dragons. Granted, it was only one section of the novel, but it did remind me a little bit of the legendary archaeologist.
Now, summing up a book of this length is no small task. I guess it might be worth taking a crack at it, though.
Six friends (young at first) are in a relatively elite college. They all seem highly successful in some way, with maybe the exception of one, Gwen. She is a working class girl, and we sense that she feels outside and, perhaps, a little resentful of the relative wealth of the other characters. That said, however, her love interest, Arthur, is not nearly as wealthy as the others outside of Gwen.
Arthur hopes to go to school in Great Britain. He seems almost unsure as to why, but his heart is set on it. Yet, it will take him away from Gwen. In the months before he is set to go, he is effectively blackmailed by another suspect group of young people. This group includes the rather gentle Tana Nighswander, who almost becomes one of the group of six, although not quite. But her sister, Jayne, and her boyfriend are clearly bad news. They physically assault the group of six and force Arthur to steal books from the school library. This is what gets this group to summon the powers of a dragon, and they send him to kill these two. The dragon materializes and indeed kills the couple.
There is a catch, however. It turns out that they need to kill people every single year. They give a name on the new year, and the person selected is dead by winter.
Suddenly, the group feels haunted. At least so it seems. They have to compile information on people particularly worthy of being killed. This list is compiled and presented by Colin, the tech guru of the bunch. This comes into play later. He effectively turns rotten as the book goes along. He looks at the responsibility of having King Sorrow kill bad people as a gift, as a blessing. Eventually, however, he himself seems like a power-hungry madman worthy of being taken out himself.
Perhaps I should describe each of the six major characters. Having described Colin, it warrants some mention of the other characters. Colin's love interest is Donna, who has a brother, Donovan, also known simply as Van. Donna and Van are opposites. Van is friendly and idealistic and keeps Donna's cynical and hardline, perhaps harsh, political conservatism in check. Allie is another of the friends, also from a very wealthy background. She and Van have a romance, although it is no secret that she is a lesbian and actually is obsessed with Donna, Van's brother. Obviously, this causes some friction, which comes into play later in the book. Then there is Arthur, a young, idealistic black man who's mother is in prison. He and Gwen are the only two who are not wealthy. Gwen is the daughter of the college groundskeeper. She is, in many respects, the outsider of the group, although she is nonetheless well-liked by all of them, especially Arthur.
Once King Sorrow does his first killing and we find out that the group has to come up with a new name every year, things grow a little more complicated. However, after a few years - well after everyone is out of college - there is a particularly complicated situation that arises. King Sorrow reveals to Allie that the man whom they picked for death this year - a white supremacist who is friends with, and quite similar to, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh - will be on a plane to Great Britain just before Easter. Now, Allie feels compelled to go on the plane, with the belief (mistaken, as we find out) that King Sorrow will protect everyone in their circle. She boards with the intent of finding him. But Van, who is in love with her, surprises her by showing up on the plane as well. The two are seated next to Robin, a trans woman who winds up being a fairly prominent character the rest of the way.
Long story short, King Sorrow attacks the plane. The pilots do manage to land in an isolated airport in Greenland. There, everyone in the circle gets back together as Van and Allie get married. Allie and Van are also relentlessly interviewed by shady government figures. In the end, however, nothing much comes of it. Or so it seems at first.
We learn later that Van has written a conspiracy book about what happened, insinuating all sorts of wild reports. This gets him and his sister, Donna, apprehended into some pseudo-government/private corporation facility off the coast of the Carolinas. They are forcibly kept there for months, enduring torture. Donna, who was already a cynical MAGA sort and had become a bitter conservative talk show host, becomes even more hardened in her stances. We learn that as a child, her best friend was apprehended by strange men who were never really found, and that she was raped and beaten to death. This has scarred Donna, and she never was the same person after that. The government types within this facility already know all of this, and try to use it against her. However, just as they are about to use Donna and Van against one another in order to force their hand as Easter comes, Van sacrifices himself by making a break for it then plunging off the edge of a staircase, committing suicide. King Sorrow comes and attacks the facility, killing almost everyone and laying waste to the site. At the end, we see Colin driving to Donna's rescue, but we also see that he has made a deal with one of the leaders of the facility.
The next episode between members of the group takes place in England. Arthur went to school there, and he decided to live there. In part, this is because pf the heartbreaking situation with Gwen. Yet Colin, who meets Arthur in England for this quest to obtain a special sword which can pierce dragon scales, notices that Arthur has effectively become almost like a hermit. Arthur has dedicated his life to researching ancient legends, particularly in relation to dragons and trolls. This was how he came to find out about the mythical sword buried deep in a cave, and guarded by a nearby troll living under a bridge. The troll is meant to defy human eyes, so he looks like a regular, albeit reprehensible, person. In fact, he is indeed a creature who can consume human beings. But Arthur makes a deal with him so that he and Colin can travel down a series of underground passageways, also with mythical themes and powers, where painted spiders on walls suddenly come alive and attack them. Arthur has a special flashlight with daylight savings to protect he and Colin from the troll, who does show signs of extreme hostility and untrustworthiness. Still, they manage to find the sword and Arthur, just like King Arthur, proves righteous enough to pull the sword out of the rock it has been embedded in. Colin asks to see it, then stabs Arthur with it, killing him. Colin views Arthur's desire to kill King Sorrow as a threat, and does not see the perils that Arthur sees in continuing to give a list of those to be killed by the dragon. We find out in the end that Colin has made a deal with the troll.
So by now, we know that Colin has become one of the bad guys. He is a tech billionaire, using his technology to run (and ruin) people's lives. Similarly, Donna has become one of the most iconic voices of the far-right, regularly spewing hatred and demonizing Hillary Clinton and the Democrats and anyone on the left. Not surprisingly, Colin and Donna have become a couple, although not a conventional one by any stretch. Still, they seem like an alliance more and more to the exclusion of everyone else in their circle. The King Sorrow circle, if you will. Also, the troll which Colin made a deal with is an actual troll on the internet. We find out that Russia is trying to harvest a whole bunch of trolls to plague the internet. So while this book has some similarities to Game of Thrones, with dragons and legendary swords and mythical creatures and, of course, sex (mostly bad, by Joe Hill's own admission), it nevertheless relates it all in a way to the modern world, making it seem relevant to our times. Some interesting ideas there.
Eventually, inevitably, Gwen finds out that Colin has killed Arthur. Robin has made the discovery when she went back to the site of the troll, where Arthur was killed, after turning the troll into a stone. Gwen had sent Robin an email basically trying to part ways, but Robin saw through this, understood that this was Gwen's way of protecting Robin against Colin, who has named Gwen as the one to be killed by King Sorrow. This means that Gwen loses her makeshift dragon tattoo on her body, which was the sure sign of being part of the King Sorrow circle. So Gwen prepares to die, although a part of her still figures there may be a chance to defeat and kill King Sorrow through certain magical things in Colin's possession. Specifically, it would be Dragon Tears and a sort of cloak made of human hair that makes people invisible to the dragon.
Meanwhile, we find out that Allie, who has been madly and hopelessly in love with Donna, finds out that Colin named Gwen as King Sorrow's next victim. She has been dealing with decades of substance abuse issues by that time, but finally is able to end her fixation with Donna, seeing her for the awful person she has become (remember, Donna remains allied to Colin, even when everyone knows that Colin has killed Arthur and sentenced Gwen to death by naming her to King Sorrow). For what it is worth, Allie finds new love with Tana Nighswander. So Allie and Tana form an alliance with Robin and Gwen to try and save Gwen from King Sorrow, which means killing him. It also means that now, whatever remained of the old circle is fragmented in a makeshift civil war, with Colin and Donna versus Gwen and Allie, and allies.
Gwen publicly confronts Colin. Colin shoves Gwen to the ground after he tries to attend to an injury to his leg, something which, fittingly enough, modern technology captures and immortalizes with onlookers capturing on their cell phones. This hurts Colin's public image, and limits his ability to do anything back to Gwen, since it might be very bad publicity. Donna, meanwhile, goes on a makeshift espionage mission, acting like she is sorry and wants to rejoin Colin and Donna. She is a recovering alcoholic and manages to secretly stay sober while allowing Donna to get drunk and pass out at Colin's place. Then she gets through Colin's special lock into his hiding place of the magical things needed to kill King Sorrow, but not without an eerie, but ultimately peaceful, confrontation with Colin himself.
There is another public confrontation between the group. By now, Colin and Donna are aware that Allie never meant to rejoin them. But they treat her as little more than a child, commanding her to get in the car, meaning to deal with her later. They underestimate her independence and determination to remain sober and become a better person, as Allie now sees them, justifiably, as a bane to being a decent person. During this conflict, unbeknownst to all of them, Tana's mother, who was released from jail, comes out of hiding and shoots several members of the circle, viewing them all as responsible for the death of her daughter. Colin and Gwen are both hurt badly, and both sent to the hospital.
This is when Donna finally has her turn. She recognizes that Colin is a horrible person, and understands that she herself has become a person she does not like very much. She tries the dragon tears on her own foot wound (she was shot there) and it heals quickly. Colin has requested the dragon tears, but Donna brings it to Gwen, who makes a fairly speedy, albeit incomplete, recovery. But Gwen seems uncertain that she is up to the task of fighting King Sorrow when she herself is so physically compromised and weak. This causes more tension between Gwen and Donna. Still, a final confrontation is inevitable.
Before that happens, Colin tries to summon spirits one more time. But the spirit which he summons winds up killing him. All of the men of the original circle are now gone. Gwen decides that the most fitting place to fight King Sorrow is in the new, technologically advanced library that Colin has gifted the old college, where the circle first formed. The group of four - Gwen, Allie, Tana, and Robin - are now joined by Donna. They make their stand, as it were, when King Sorrow bears down. There are casualties, as Donna is killed in the action. But after trying to get the spirits of Arthur and Van back, they are able to use an old legend of a dragon being defeated by using it's greed against it, and King Sorrow consumes himself, biting his own tail and flying off.
Yet we find out that King Sorrow was only one of many dragons, and that there are now tons of trolls, as well. They are responsible for most of the horrific tragedies of the world including, even, the war between Russia and Ukraine.
That's it. That's a summary of a book of nearly 900 pages in length. Joe Hill has a solid writing style quite similar to his famous father. And this book is one of his best, allowing him room to flex his muscles with character building, where he is very strong. Highly recommended for any fans of horror, medieval-themed fantasy (ghosts and trolls and dragons, oh my!), or fans of Stephen King or, of course, Joe Hill himself.
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