King Sorrow by Joe Hill (book review).
The butterfly effect is a device that is often used in fiction as a device to link a series of consequences deemed inevitable as a result of an action. While it is unlikely that the flap of a butterfly’s wings would instigate a hurricane on the other side of the world, it is true that human actions can set in action a train of events. It is such a deed that sets the whole of ‘King Sorrow’ in motion.
For Arthur Oakes, it is an act of generosity and kindness that dramatically backfires. As the novel, ‘King Sorrow’, opens, he is visiting his mother in the Black Cricket House of Correction. She was part of a protest group when a security guard died. She accepted responsibility and was nearing the end of her sentence. As Arthur is waiting to be let in, he is standing behind a pregnant girl, Tana Nighswander, also waiting to visit her mother, but her t-shirt features Guns N’ Roses. The guard won’t let her in, so Arthur loans her his hoodie to cover up the offending image. It is that act that leads to everything in the rest of the novel, as, in the pocket of the hoodie, is a newspaper cutting showing Arthur in the library of Rackham College, the place he attends.
Arthur is part of a small group of friends. Van and Donna McBride are twins, and Allie Shiner is the kind of girl who turns heads. Colin Wren lives with his uncle off campus, and it is where the group often meets up. Gwen Underfoot is actually the daughter of Colin’s uncle’s housekeeper and, though younger than the others, tends to join them.
Tana’s sister, Jayne, and her boyfriend, Ronnie, are unpleasant chancers. Using threats to Arthur’s mother, they blackmail him into stealing valuable books from the library. He resists by only bringing them books that are unlikely to be missed and with only moderate value. Ronnie and Jayne are greedy and pressure him for a particular book. It is a journal produced by Enoch Crane but bound in human skin. It also contains spells. When his friends discover what he has been doing, they are on his side, and, somehow, Arthur is not sure how it happened, they decide to use a spell to summon King Sorrow, a dragon from another dimension, and strike a bargain with him. The result is that King Sorrow kills Jayne and Ronnie.
They think it is all over, but a year later, King Sorrow returns. They find they have signed up to give him one death a year, or he will take one of them. The novel starts in 1989 and ends in 2022. In the intervening years, the six friends have to accommodate the idea that every year they have to pick someone to die. The stress takes a toll on all of them, changing their lives. Arthur goes to England; his father was English and becomes an academic but is also searching for a way to either banish or kill the dragon. Gwen becomes a paramedic, hoping her skills will help offset the tragedies they cause each year. Allie and Van marry, but their relationship is fuelled by drink and drugs. Allie would prefer to be with Donna. She had been on the edge of a breakdown ever since her best friend was kidnapped and killed when she was a child, and she could do nothing about it. The situation with the dragon doesn’t make it easier. Colin is the only one who seems at ease with the situation. As they realise it is he who draws up a list of possible victims. Mostly, they are people the law has been unable to touch, and he treats it as a cleansing situation.
There are added complications when Jayne Nighswander’s mother decides that the group are responsible for Jayne’s death. Although there is not much she can do until she is released from prison, she is determined to have her revenge on all of them.
This is a huge book, both in its scope and the number of pages. While there is an argument for dividing it into several shorter volumes, the narrative is told in discrete sections; having all the text together allows for a continuous flow, leaving no time for the reader to forget characters. While there are some who might dislike the characters, that might be because they are realistic. No-one, knowing they have to choose someone to die every year, can be expected to cope with the situation without being profoundly affected. Each deals with the trauma in different ways.
This is a fantasy novel, despite having leanings towards horror. It is not a coincidence that the two sanest characters are Gwen and Arthur or that he uses his knowledge of mediaeval literature to seek the method of killing the dragon. There are plenty of literary references hidden within the text, especially to Stephen King novels. Any reader of ‘King Sorrow’ needs to put aside a lot of hours to read this tome, but the journey is worth it.
Pauline Morgan
January 2026
(pub: Headline/HarperCollins, 2025. 877-page hardback. Price: £20.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-06-220060-0)
Check out the website: www.headline.co.uk.