Even when I knew it would be a doorstop brick of a novel, I gulped and said ‘yes’ when offered a proof of Hill’s sixth novel, having really enjoyed two previously; Heart-Shaped Box and The Fireman. I can say that although the book was heavy going – to hold, needing a rest with its soft proof covers – it was anything but to read! The pages fair sped by.
The novel may start in dark academia, but Hill’s premise underneath the student-led beginning is to demonstrate that carelessly wished for things can continue to affect lives decades into the future.
We begin with young Arthur Oakes driving over two hundred miles to visit his mother in the House of Correction. His mother, Erin, had been an ethics professor at Dartmouth, but also an activist, jailed when a security guard died accidentally while trespassing on federal property. Arthur tells her about his summer in England, his father is British. During his visit, Arthur manages to mark his and his mother’s card, firstly by lending his hoodie to a girl his age wearing an inappropriate Tee-shirt, then when that girl and her mother squabble and it turns to fisticuffs, he intervenes – not the way to deal with Jayne Nighswander.
Arthur is a student at Rackham College in Maine, and has a tight friendship group with sweet Gwen, twins Donna and Donovan aka Van McBride, beauty Alison and rich boy Colin Wren. Rackham is particularly known for its library which houses many rare volumes including a ‘Special Collection’ which includes the journal of Enoch Crane – bound in skin amongst other treasures, Arthur is a student librarian and has access to them all. When Arthur’s mother is has a shiv planted in her cell and her parole is delayed, Arthur gets a message from Tana Nighswander, who works in town at a takeaway. They want Arthur to steal some books from the library – not just any books though, only ones worth money. He manages to fob them off with first editions for some time, but soon Jayne is out of jail and is demanding the special book.
Arthur turns to his friends. It’s now approaching Easter, and together they steal the book, but then vow to get revenge on Jayne Nighswander and her drug-addled partner Ronnie. Inspired by a tale in which people magicked a man into existence by pure belief that he existed, they summon up a dragon from a parallel universe known as the Long Dark to kill Jayne and Ronnie. Tana isn’t included having been abused by her parents and rented out for sex, and is now pregnant. They can’t believe it works and the fabled King Sorrow appears to them, forcing them into a deal that will cost them more than they ever bargained for. For the dragon’s pedantic deal means that they must offer up a sacrifice each year, or one of the six will die.
This is where it starts to get really dark. Colin makes a list of serial killers, mass murderers, paedophiles etc. who deserve to die for their crimes, thinking that they’re meting out justice of a kind. But one year, their selected sacrifice is booked on a plane and they realise that King Sorrow will take the whole plane to get that one man – drastic action is needed. The years go by and it takes its toll on the group. How can they stop the dragon? Hill takes us to an interesting place with Colin, and Arthur who is now a medieval studies professor at Oxford. It’s not what you’d expect given the ordinariness, sorry I can’t think of a better word, of our world into which the dragon makes his annual visit from the Long Dark. It gives another major twist to the narrative.
Like his dad (Stephen King, just in case you didn’t know), Hill is great at plotting and pacing. Those 889 pages just zip by. He manages the changing dynamics between the six friends brilliantly – they’ll feud, they’ll fall in and out with each other. Gwen is perhaps the most surprising, having had to lose love of her life Arthur early on, has taken on Tana and her child as a personal project early on too, she has depths of empathy and also resilience that are more than equal to any of them. I did miss Arthur once he’d moved to England in the middle of the book, but that’s a small quibble.
If you want a scary and sustained horror read that has emotional depth and great characters, I’d say Hill has pulled it off with this one. I enjoyed it a lot, despite the weight of trying to hold it up in bed! I also read this book for #RIPXX.
See Elle’s review too here.
Source: Review copy – thank you! Headline hardback, 896 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK+ P&P)
