King Sorrow by Joe Hill

Author : Joe Hill

Book : King Sorrow

/Horror, Fantasy/

Publication date : October 21, 2025

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Blurb:

Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings.

But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible crime: stealing rare and valuable books from the exceptional college library.

Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for help: the wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren; brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen. Together they dream up an impossible, fantastical scheme that they scarcely imagine will work: to summon the fabled dragon King Sorrow to kill those tormenting Arthur.

But the six stumble backwards into a deadly bargain—they soon learn they must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow each year or one of them will become his next victim. Unleashing consequences they can neither predict nor control, this promise will, over the course of four decades, shape and endanger their lives in ways they could never expect.

My thoughts:

Honestly, I rarely venture out of my comfort zone, which is my favorite genre, fantasy, but Joe Hill's works always make me curious, so naturally King Sorrow was a must-read.

The story turned out to be so much more than a horror to quicken your pulse, but we were given the story of Arthur Oakes and his friends spanning through the years. Spurred by the impossible situation he is in, Arthur and his entourage make a horrible decision in their effort to come up with a plan, so they summon a dark force. A mistake that will have consequences for each and every one of them as we follow it unfurl through the different stages of their lives and how it affects their path and personality.

The story is a wonderful blend of gripping horror at times with a pinch of fantasy seamlessly woven into it, with the strong relationships and friendship as a foundation to the story.

And the cherry on top was the easter eggs to a few of Stephen King's works and The Lord of the Rings, to name a few, and I'm certain I missed more of them.

Definitely a strong read, and exactly because of books like this, I force myself to read outside my regular genre.