King Sorrow by Joe Hill Review

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joe Hill's debut, Heart-Shaped Box, won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. His second, Horns, was made into a film freakfest starring Daniel Radcliffe. His other novels include NOS4A2, and his #1 New York Times Best-Seller, The Fireman... which was also the winner of a 2016 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror Novel.

He writes short stories too. Some of them were gathered together in his prize-winning collection, 20th Century Ghosts.

He won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his long running comic book series, Locke & Key, co-created with illustrator and art wizard Gabriel Rodriguez.

He lives in New Hampshire with a corgi named McMurtry after a certain beloved writer of cowboy tales. His next book, Strange Weather, a collection of novellas, storms into bookstores in October of 2017

Publisher: William Morrow (October 21, 2025) Length: 896 pages Formats: all

When I see a book that’s nearly 900 pages long, I usually turn around and sprint in the opposite direction. I like my wrists intact and my attention span respected. But I’m very glad I made an exception for King Sorrow. Joe Hill’s first novel in nearly a decade is long, yes, but it also feels alive. It’s full of menace, humor, heartbreak and excellent imagination.

The premise is simple: six college friends mess around with the occult to help one of their own, accidentally summon an ancient dragon called King Sorrow, and end up chained to him for the rest of their lives. They struck a deal - once a year, a life must be given. If not, he takes one. The rest of the novel tracks how that bargain poisons everything that follows.

The book spans decades as friends grow up, drift apart, and keep circling the monstrous thing they unleashed. Each of them copes differently. One becomes a reclusive scholar obsessed with dragons, another a ruthless tech billionaire, another a media demagogue. Some try to escape. Some embrace the power. None really win.

As the story progresses, it hops between horror, fantasy, mystery, and even political satire. One section feels like dark academia, another like an airplane thriller, another like a tragic fairy tale. And Hill knows how to thread it all together. He also keeps the focus on friendship and the ties it creates, and it’s done remarkably well.

King Sorrow himself is a great villain - charming, cruel, and sardonic. He plays with words and makes them his weapon. And when they stop working, his talons will do the trick. Yes, King Sorrow impressed me, and I won’t forget him soon.

That said, it is a lot of book. On the one hand, Hill uses the space beautifully as he gives full lives to all characters. You meet them as reckless kids and leave them as broken, older versions of themselves, still haunted by the same choice. The passage of time matters here; you feel it. On the other hand, some sections drag, and a few plotlines wander before finding their way home. In the end, though, I didn’t mind that much. I was invested in the story. The pacing is good, the writing is engaging, and the last act delivers one of those rare, earned gut punches that make the entire journey worth it.

King Sorrow is a novel about bargains and about how one reckless act can haunt you for the rest of your life. Guilt mutates, and love endures, though, so there’s that. King Sorrow is ambitious, sprawling, occasionally indulgent, but absolutely worth your time.