This is Joe Hill’s first novel in almost a decade so I was pretty excited to read it because I remember enjoying some of his previous novels like Horns and Heartshaped Box. I had completely forgotten that his last novel, The Fireman, didn’t do anything for me. And while I like NOS4A2, Hill’s novels generally seem to be darker or have a less hopeful outlook than his father’s (and King can get dark but there’s something about them that feels a little less dreary).
I should also say that I am in the group of readers that despises The Secret History – just pretentious, spoiled rich kids that think they are special. And this novel really feels like a mix of some of Stephen King’s worst tendencies as an author combined with The Secret History. It’s getting incredibly positive reviews so I am definitely an outlier here. But I am also an outlier for The Secret History.
The novel follows six friends that summon a dragon from an old rare book to help them deal with a problem. Arthur has become a target of drug dealers and they have been extorting him to steal books from the rare book collection for them. Given the leverage, they can’t figure out a way out other than a deal with King Sorrow, and as they realize after it’s been made, it’s a deal for life. Every year, the group must choose a name or sacrifice for King Sorrow to kill. Now King Sorrow doesn’t care about collateral damage so every Easter the target or targets will die – but so will anyone that might be in their proximity (but they literally only have to give him the name, they don’t have to get the target in a specific location or otherwise make them available – while they talk a lot about the morality and guilt of it all, the actual execution part is simple).
The novel is almost 900 pages, and is broken into multiple longer sections with interludes between the sections. The first section is told from Arthur’s perspective, the interludes from Gwen’s and the others also get their chance. Plus, intermixed in between, we have a few pages from the view points of other characters or villains. Like his father, Hill can quickly capture a character and paint them for the reader. The problem is that in this novel he doesn’t really give us anyone to care about.
Arthur is supposedly the good and noble one but we barely see him after the first two hundred pages as he is off doing his own thing in England. In his initial section, he is a bookish and sweet guy but also easily fits into the rest of the group and doesn’t stand out as a moral beacon. Gwen is the other moral center and she is nice but also kind of boring. I hated Donna from the minute we met her, and she only got worse, even as we understand later why she is the way she is. Basically a horrible thing happened in proximity to her and it made her fearful and hateful, leading her to lean into all her worst instincts and bigotry. Her twin brother Van is a charming screw up and drug addict, Colin is really into psyops and computers, and Allie is sweet but unhappy because she is suppressing her sexuality.
None of these characters are exactly very engaging or interesting or likable (well, Allie and Van are fine). Also, while the novel begins in the late ‘80s and spans through the 2010s, there is something about the way they are written and developed that feels very ‘80s or ‘90s. Not in the sense that the characters feel like they are in the ‘80s or ‘90s during those chapters but the writing itself feels like something written then rather than something from a modern writer (the foreshadowing is definitely from someone aware of modern politics, though).
The novel was just too long for no real reason since it didn’t help us establish a connection with the characters. There was a nice reference to his father and The Dark Tower with one of Arthur’s chapter’s opening lines. There were some interesting ideas and I do feel like it picked up for me after Arthur’s section and Gwen’s first interlude but it still never completely turned around for me to the point that I could say I was enjoying the novel.