📕 [Review] King Sorrow by Joe Hill
This review contains vague spoilers!
I normally read books in the 300-450 page range, as I feel like this is where I'm most comfortable. Once I start getting to around 350 pages, I get a little angsty waiting for the wrap-up. I like the satisfaction of ending a story, saying I've completed a book, and getting the conclusion. But I wish that I had the patience to read longer books.
I found King Sorrow on a Saturday when my mom invited me to go bookshopping with her. She'd found out about a couple bookstores in town she hadn't been to before and asked if I'd wanted to go too; I also hadn't heard of them and was excited. At all three stops, I saw King Sorrow on display (even the used bookstore) and figured it must have released recently to get such a big marketing push. At first glance I thought it was a demon on the cover because of the coloring, but each time I looked again, it looked more like a dragon head. After reading the book jacket and realizing it was a dragon and being swayed by the synopsis, I decided to take it as a challenge for myself.
It's large! It's just shy of 900 pages. Do I have the patience to finish it? And if I do, can I move onto larger books in general?
| Category | Notes |
|---|---|
| Characters | Very character-focused. Despite terrible things committed on occasion, I loved everyone. |
| Writing Style | No complaints. Felt like a movie, but wasn't a bad thing. |
| Editing | No complaints. |
| Story | Obsessed with this. |
| Overall | 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷 5/5 |
Summary
Arthur Oakes is a college student. After an act of kindness to a stranger gone wrong while visiting his mother in prison, Arthur is blackmailed into stealing rare books from his college's library. As an honors student with trusted access to the college's rare books collection, he has access to some rare and one-of-a-kind books that could fetch a pretty penny for his blackmailers.
Arthur's friends tell him they're ride or die for him, and decide to prove it. Fate plays funny games and gives them exactly the information they need to perform a summoning ritual to call forth a dragon by the name of King Sorrow. They hope the dragon can help free Arthur of his blackmailers. This resident of the Long Dark has a storied history tied with our world and is more than happy to help. Once the deed is done, the group of six thinks it's over... until the King rears his scaly head once again at the same time of the summoning the following year. The group of six friends then learns that the contract they verbally signed with this beast wasn't just for once job - it was every year.
Every Easter, the King needs a feast. And the group can't say no.
My Thoughts
I didn't recognize the author by name, but after looking him up, I saw he was the writer for the Locke & Key graphic novel. I read the first of that and had a good time, though wasn't motivated to continue the series. So didn't really have huge expectations based on the author's name.
Once I started, I spent a lot of time thinking about this book. There's some intentionally-obvious foreshadowing objects early on set to get you thinking and wondering, and it led me to question some of the characters real feelings about their "contract." The time I spent not-reading made me excited to get back to it, and I spent a lot of time mulling over what might happen next.
This is categorized as horror and did have some horror scenes, but once the ball gets rolling, the situation they're in becomes a bit... normalized. Yes, we need to tribute to King Sorrow every year. But we've made it a bit easy to pick candidates, and we can "do good" by choosing someone "evil." We kind of just autopilot our way through this, the same way we might give our taxes to an expert or software to file for us; yes taxes suck, but we've made it just a yearly nuisance.
I also feel like there were some missed opportunties. There is a point where someone in the main group is chosen for the tribute, and I don't feel like this was explored nearly enough. Early on in the book, the first tribute has her death and torture broadcasted telepathically to the six, forcing them to witness the horror of their choices. This is never done again; or if it is, it's not ever explored in the book. This includes during the inner circle tribute. Once the tribute was declared, I thought we'd be getting more psychological torture of one of the characters I'd grown to love, but it was sort of hand-waved away.
Also, my synopsis isn't too far off from the official one, and I'm going to leave it that way. But I'll say that the way it's constructed, it does feel like there's more turmoil in the choices for the King. It's presented very much as "if they don't pick someone, they'll be the ones on the menu!" Which I guess is true, but they never find themselves in a situation where they're struggling to find a target. Not a huge deal it didn't play out that way, but I was sort of expecting that.
I gave this one five stars because it made such an impact on me and got me obsessed with it, talking about it constantly to my husband. Is it perfect? No, but I loved it. I would definitely read it again, though it's going to be a while.
Dragons!
This was a dragon book! My favorite kind of book. 😊 I feel on one hand you could have easily replaced the dragon with a demon, especially since he's summoned with a seance, but this was more true toward the beginning of the book. Later on, there is more magic and folklore hiding in the real world beyond just the dragon of the Long Dark himself (namely: trolls.) There was also dragon imagery hiding in the characters' environment, subconsciously influencing them and reminding them of the lives they led. I think I had more fun with this for it being a dragon rather than a demon.
Length
In the end, it felt like a quick read. This was so gripping that every time I sat down to read, I found myself just lost in it. Time slipped by and before I realized it, I'd read 90 pages in one sitting. Which is a LOT for me. The prose itself isn't super complicated and there's a fair bit of dialogue, which allows pages to fly fast. I ended up finishing this in the same amount of time it would take a 300 page book that I'm casually reading.
I ended up taking a short break at around the half-way point to read another book. I could have kept going but was starting to feel my interest wane and it was the 450 point, so I thought I would probably enjoy the whole thing more with an interlude. I think that helped, and when I came back I was stoked again. So I'm going to keep that in mind with other large books I get to, even if they don't have a nice break-friendly point.
I do think that this was written in a way where it affected its size less than I expected. Yes, it's just shy of 900 pages, but it didn't feel that way - from how engrossed I became with it and how I approached it by taking a break. So I was hoping I would gain the confidence to tackle other large books, like maybe Brandon Sanderson's (yes I know not all his are large, but the size of The Way of Kings is intimidating.)
Conclusion
I'd recommend this book. If the size intimidates you, I'd suggest taking breaks at a new act - there's a time jump with each act so you're "resetting" a bit anyway when you get back.