The Dragon's Curse by Joe Hill Review – A Dragon-Fired Horror Saga Delivers Masterpiece-Level Thrills

Six unlikely but doughty children fall into the path of a vast and terrible supernatural darkness that has invaded our existence from the outer limits of shadow. They must devote their lives battling it, experiencing one nightmare after another in the ordeal.

An Echoing Storyline with a New Spin

This is the plot, in essence, of Stephen King’s iconic book It (arguably his finest; undeniable). It is also the plot of King’s son Joe Hill’s new massive horror novel, in which a close-knit group invoke the ancient, utterly malevolent beast the Dragon King from the Long Dark to help them defeat some villains. Needless to say, their supernatural ritual goes awry.

Acknowledging a Family Lineage

Joe Hill started his career striving diligently to remain separate from his well-known dad, adopting the nom de plume he continues to employ and avoiding meeting his agent (he possesses a striking resemblance to his father). But in this latest novel, he fully acknowledges it. There are lines that deliberately echo some of King’s most famous (the famous Dark Tower introduction); a scene that brings to mind a recurring theme in King’s works (a game of puzzles). In this whopper of a novel, the author rejoices in his heritage, and readers share in the joy.

The Cast of the Main Characters

Returning to the group: five of them are students at the made-up Rackham College in the New England state. We have Arthur, bookish and brilliant, solving historical enigmas in his leisure hours; another key figure, wealthy, clever, and prone to trampling those who oppose him; Donna and Donovan; the beautiful Allie herself. Then we have Gwen, who doesn’t study with them, but becomes a key part of their circle as they dabble, partly convinced, partly skeptical, in supernatural practices.

The Critical Ritual

The protagonist finds himself, due to circumstances beyond his control, obliged to take prized manuscripts from his beloved college library by a set of regional villains. This wounds his academic spirit, especially when he’s forced to acquire the library’s most valuable and chilling work: the diary of adept Enoch Crane (condemned “for trafficking with the devyll in 1703”; the cover is made from his skin). These young investigators examine the log, discover they could summon what the author references as a “proud worm to help Arthur out with his extortion dilemma – and spend the rest of the novel enduring the repercussions. King Sorrow will certainly eliminate those troublesome local drug dealers, but they must select a fresh offering every twelve months or succumb to the dragon’s wrath. As Arthur later puts it: “You plant seeds of destruction, all you get is more dragons.”

Genre Dexterity and Imaginative Range

Spanning forty years, Hill also moves with natural fluency across narrative styles: as the allies attempt to deal with the predicament they find themselves in by, in different ways, selecting clearly malevolent individuals to immolate, or searching for methods to slay the beast themselves, we transition from suspense to shadowy tale, clandestine torment to affectionate subplot to terror. My favorite genre switch was to a quest story, deep in the caves below Cornwall, a segment tinged by the Lord of the Rings author that was wonderfully frightening.

An Expansive Tapestry of Dread and Optimism

There are trolls – bridge-dwelling ones and online ones, genuinely frightening and superbly depicted. We see enchanted blades and betrayals, pulse-pounding sequences of bravery and ones of terrible wickedness, both human and supernatural. It stands as a masterpiece: a frightening tale that is chiefly a tribute to the imagination, and to devotion and companionship. “We longed for a tale to embrace and {now we’ve got one|presently we possess it|currently we hold it,” says the wealthy student as the friends sit around the table, getting ready to invoke their dragon to life with the strength of their collective will.

In the author’s own words in his epigraph: “Hic sunt dracones”. Do not overlook this.