King Sorrow: the epic new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author
Oct 2025 · Hachette UK
4.7star
7 reviews
Ebook
896
Pages
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About this ebook
SOME PROMISES SHOULD NEVER BE MADE...
***A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK***
'With King Sorrow, Joe Hill gloriously resurrects the doorstop horror blockbuster for a startling new century.' ALAN MOORE
'A soaring epic and painfully intimate. You won't be able to stop burning through the pages' PAUL TREMBLAY
'Epic, exhilarating and haunting in equal measures' DAILY EXPRESS
'A commanding, captivating read' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Epic...a multi-layered, rich response to the horrors and hopes of living today' DAILY MAIL
Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings.
But his idyll - and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot - is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible crime: stealing rare and valuable books from the exceptional college library.
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for help: the wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren; brave, beautiful Allison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen. Together they dream up an impossible, fantastical scheme that they scarcely imagine will work: to summon the fabled dragon King Sorrow to kill those tormenting Arthur.
But the six stumble backwards into a deadly bargain - they soon learn they must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow each year or one of them will become his next victim. Unleashing consequences they can neither predict nor control, this promise will, over the course of four decades, shape and endanger their lives in ways they could never expect.
'A brilliantly Faustian fable with a heart as huge as a dragon's, and a stinging twist in its tail. I devoured it.' RUTH WARE
'A wild, genre-defying journey, packed with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns' DAILY MIRROR
'A glorious, wild ride' NEW YORK TIMES
'Epic! KING SORROW is Hill's best and most ambitious work to date' LINWOOD BARCLAY
'Magnificent - by far and away Hill's best book to date' SFX
'When they talk about "natural born storytellers," it's Joe Hill they're talking about' JOHN SCALZI
'A monster of a book...a vast, brimstoned, relentless zinger' NICK HARKAWAY
Praise for Sunday Times bestseller Joe Hill:
'Fantastically compelling' THE OBSERVER
'Clever, gripping and packs a hell of a punch' JOANNE HARRIS
'Character-driven stories that enthral and thrill' DAILY MAIL
'Original and gripping' GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
***A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK***
'With King Sorrow, Joe Hill gloriously resurrects the doorstop horror blockbuster for a startling new century.' ALAN MOORE
'A soaring epic and painfully intimate. You won't be able to stop burning through the pages' PAUL TREMBLAY
'Epic, exhilarating and haunting in equal measures' DAILY EXPRESS
'A commanding, captivating read' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Epic...a multi-layered, rich response to the horrors and hopes of living today' DAILY MAIL
Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings.
But his idyll - and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot - is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible crime: stealing rare and valuable books from the exceptional college library.
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for help: the wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren; brave, beautiful Allison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen. Together they dream up an impossible, fantastical scheme that they scarcely imagine will work: to summon the fabled dragon King Sorrow to kill those tormenting Arthur.
But the six stumble backwards into a deadly bargain - they soon learn they must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow each year or one of them will become his next victim. Unleashing consequences they can neither predict nor control, this promise will, over the course of four decades, shape and endanger their lives in ways they could never expect.
'A brilliantly Faustian fable with a heart as huge as a dragon's, and a stinging twist in its tail. I devoured it.' RUTH WARE
'A wild, genre-defying journey, packed with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns' DAILY MIRROR
'A glorious, wild ride' NEW YORK TIMES
'Epic! KING SORROW is Hill's best and most ambitious work to date' LINWOOD BARCLAY
'Magnificent - by far and away Hill's best book to date' SFX
'When they talk about "natural born storytellers," it's Joe Hill they're talking about' JOHN SCALZI
'A monster of a book...a vast, brimstoned, relentless zinger' NICK HARKAWAY
Praise for Sunday Times bestseller Joe Hill:
'Fantastically compelling' THE OBSERVER
'Clever, gripping and packs a hell of a punch' JOANNE HARRIS
'Character-driven stories that enthral and thrill' DAILY MAIL
'Original and gripping' GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
Ratings and reviews
4.7
7 reviews
Neville Townsend
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October 21, 2025
Wow what a read I could not put it down. The story of a group of friends that span over a long time. Arthur is bullied into stealing valuable rare books, his friends then summon up King Sorrow a dragon, they have to nominate one person to die every year or one of the group will die. The characters are what drives this book along. The plotting and pace are excellent. I have read all Joe's books and this is the best yet. Thanks to Headline and Netgalley for this review copy.
Johnathan Parsons
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October 24, 2025
The cover is elegant and the book well-crafted.
Lilian Cross
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October 24, 2025
High-quality cover and printing, very satisfied!
About the author
Joe Hill is a Sunday Times bestseller and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box, The Fireman, and Full Throttle. He won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his long-running comic book series, Locke & Key, co-created with artist Gabriel Rodriguez. Much of his work has been adapted for movies and television. His second novel, Horns, was translated to film in 2014 and starred Daniel Radcliffe. His third novel, NOS4A2, is now a hit series on AMC, starring Zachary Quinto. The first season of Locke & Key was released on Netflix in early 2020 and became an overnight smash. His story, 'In The Tall Grass'. co-written with Stephen King, was made into a feature for Netflix, and became a mind-bending cult horror sensation. Most recently, Hill has returned to graphic novels -- his latest comics include Basketful of Heads and Plunge for D.C., and Dying is Easy for IDW.
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