Growing up, I always liked Stephen King, but didn’t do a lot to reach my goal of reading all of his books. Now, in middle age, I’m trying to do that but am finding it overwhelming. Some of the books I’ve read, like Under the Dome and Pet Sematary, are favourites, and I’ve yet to read a bad one. There’s just so many.
I’ve also been reading his son, Joe Hill’s, books for over a decade now. I started with Heart-Shaped Box, which was great, then moved on to the short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, which was even better. That still stands as the best one I’ve ever read, although its follow-up, Full Throttle, isn’t too far behind in that regard. Horns was quite good, and Strange Weather was as well. Meanwhile, N0S4A2 — a unique take on the vampire, which stands as one of just three that I’ve enjoyed — holds a special place in my heart because it helped me through a loved one’s cancer treatments. The day I finished it, I’d been at the hospital with them for 12 hours, waiting for radiation.
When I heard that Joe was going to release his first book in almost a decade, I got excited. However, if I’m being fully transparent — which I try to be at all times, as that’s my job — I was kind of disappointed when I read the premise for King Sorrow. That’s because I’ve always struggled with fantasy, and am more of a horror fan. Then again, his father’s recent book, Fairytale, was pretty good.
Now, I’ve finished the almost 900 page behemoth that is King Sorrow by Joe Hill. It took about two months, but I’ve seen it through. As such, I can now share my final thoughts on what is a good book, but isn’t the author’s best.
King Sorrow follows a group of six college age folks, made up of a mix of three men and three women. Their names are Arthur, Donovan, Donna, Colin, Allie and Gwen. Arthur begins as our main character, and who we see the opening of this story through, but different parts focus on certain characters. The sections in-between, then, tend to follow Gwen throughout the next 20 plus years.
You see, this tale begins on a college campus in Maine. There, Arthur Oakes works as a librarian of sorts, and has access to the college’s special collection of unique and expensive books, including one made out of human skin. This is important.
After going to see his mother in a somewhat local prison, where she’s residing after being charged with staging a protest that led to someone’s death, Arthur finds himself in hot water. He is nice enough to lend his hoodie to a young woman who’s denied entry to the jail, but then becomes the target of that (Nighswander) family’s scorn. They owe money for drugs, which they sell for others, and decide to blackmail our protagonist into stealing expensive books from the special collection. They do this by giving him a Polaroid of his mother sleeping, with a shiv pressed close to her neck.
It is 1989, after all.
After taking the book made of flesh, Arthur and company decide to try to summon something to help them; that being a dragon called King Sorrow. Their summoning seance works, but it comes with a cost: each Easter, the dragon must feed, and it wants a human target. As such, the group must take turns choosing who to send it after. King Sorrow then almost scares them to death, before taking their life on Easter morning. This creates a major moral dilemma, and tasks seemingly good people with picking someone to essentially murder, and sometimes there’s collateral damage.
This lengthy beast of a book then follows the six for decades, and lots happens. I can’t share any of it with you, though, because I’m against spoilers and don’t want to spoil anything for a fellow fan. I’d feel bad.
Most of what happens is interesting, but there are times where the novel drags. As much as I love Joe Hill’s stories, this one is maybe a little too long and is not his best. It’s good, but I’m hesitant to call it great.
In all honesty, if I were asked to rank his books, I’d probably place King Sorrow at the bottom. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, though, because it most definitely is not. At least, in my opinion. It’s a solid book, and an interesting read, but it’s not up to the same level with most of the author’s previous works. They set the bar high, though, so keep that in mind.
There’s quite a bit of appreciated depth to the characters herein, and that’s something I liked. You’re not supposed to like all of the main characters, as they have flaws, issues and other things. I’m glad that this isn’t a cookie cutter tale of good versus bad, because the subject matter doesn’t allow for that. It just wouldn’t work.
As always, the writing is strong within King Sorrow. I don’t think many doubt that the King family can write, and this is another example of their talent. Joe inherited some impressive skills and a good talent for stringing words together from his unbelievably prolific father, and his mother who is also an author.
At the end of the day, King Sorrow by Joe Hill is a good read and an impressive novel. It’s long, it’s got an interesting story and it’s got deep characters. That said, I don’t feel that it’s as good as his best works, and found myself wanting a bit more.
This review is based on a copy of the book, which we were provided with. It was an early, digital, advanced reader’s copy, which hadn’t been fully edited yet.