Bookseller Reviews
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A blazing treat
An absolute firebrick of a book (at 877 pages) but one that absolutely rockets along at a reckless pace, pulling you along for the ride. Here be dragons, b... READ MORE
Beyond brilliant! Is it too early to reread?
This book was a tome. It was a beast of a book with a page count that almost reaches right to the bottom of the Long Dark. However, due to its brilliant pa... READ MORE
Hill’s magnum opus is Stranger Things with a Dragon
Joe Hill has always been one of my favourite authors and with King Sorrow he’s really outdone himself.
Deliciously dark, gruesome and twisted but with ... READ MORE
Dark and Memorable
Joe Hill’s ability to create emotion and tension in his writing is never better than in ‘King Sorrow’.
Plunging between despair and hope the psychological... READ MORE
Unique horror…
King Sorrow marks Joe Hill’s return to horror books after a decade. And he returns with a mixed bag of a novel that reaches high and also dips very low.In ... READ MORE
Sinister af, and completely excellent
Imagine a dragon with an awesome sense of humour, a sneaky way with words — as any good dragon should — and a lust for life. Namely, ending lives. King Sor... READ MORE
Joe Hill never dissapoints!
I’d absolutely recommend this novel to readers who enjoy character-driven horror with real moral stakes. Hill’s storytelling is rich and layered; he switch... READ MORE
Synopsis
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 Alison 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.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
- ISBN: 9781035434299
- Number of pages: 896
- Dimensions: 238 x 158 x 70 mm
- Weight: 1208g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allJoe Hill fans will not be disappointed
Title - King Sorrow
Author - Joe Hill
Release Date - October 2025
Page Count - 877 pages
Read/Listen Time - 22hrs
Rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5 stars
What... READ MORE
The Dragon, the Faith, and the Fire
Every once in a while, a story arrives that feels less like fiction and more like a haunting. King Sorrow is that kind of book.
I knew from the opening ... READ MORE
Fantastic Storytelling
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Where Do I Even Begin?
This book! It definitely has the wow factor. I’m not gonna lie – when I saw the page count was just ... READ MORE
Don’t be put off by the “horror” tag, this is a story about people. And a dragon.
There are so many things I loved about this book.
First and foremost, a dragon story that not ruined by 100 pages of gratuitous humping.
It is categori... READ MORE
A superb horror story from Joe Hill
It has been a long time since Joe Hill's last novel, but King Sorrow has been well worth waiting for. The background of each character draws you into the s... READ MORE
Verified Purchase
Epic, fantastical but grounded, and overall amazing
Thank you to the author, publishers Headline and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.
N... READ MORE
5/5 Stars A gargantuan, pyrrhic beast of a book!
King Sorrow begins as a Suspenseful Thriller about a College Student named Arthur Oakes who is forced to steal Rare Books to pay off Jayne Nighswander and ... READ MORE
Verified Purchase
Worth the wait
Long story short Oh my god
My tiny mind has been blown, loved it!
When Halloween is on the horizon, I want to indulge in a bit of creepy reading that will put me in the mood as the nights draw slowly in. That said, my eye... READ MORE
Fantasy and Thriller meet
n imaginative blend of fantasy and thriller with a touch of romance to boot, King Sorrow is a huge book that takes some reading.
The story takes place ove... READ MORE
Four stars!
King Sorrow is a dark and powerful book that blends fantasy, horror and emotion in equal measure. What starts as a college tale soon becomes something far ... READ MORE
King Sorrow
Joe Hill’s King Sorrow is an expansive,
A captivating horror-fantasy novel that spans nearly 900 pages. It begins when six university friends, in a moment ... READ MORE
Fabulous Book
Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings.
But his idyll - and burgeoni... READ MORE
An epic novel that thrills and chills throughout. Highly recommended.
King Sorrow by Joe Hill is his Magnum Opus, an epic good versus evil, fantasy horror that is a rollercoaster of a ride from start to finish.
No Spoiler ... READ MORE
All Hail The King!
King Sorrow – Joe Hill
No word of a lie, this book completely scared me half to death with its size. Every look at it felt like a huge mountain to climb... READ MORE
It was my final read of 2025, and it is easily my favorite of the year.
Some books feel large in concept, others in emotion, and King Sorrow manages to be both.
It could be lazily described as Stephen King’s IT, following a ... READ MORE
Engrossing
With thanks to the author, publishers Headline, and NetGalley for providing me with a DRC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
An absolutely e... READ MORE
Insane in the best possible way
What a book! King Sorrow is an absolutely brilliant achievement, insane in the best possible way and I can't reccommend it enough! I think marketing this b... READ MORE
Epic.
Arthur Oakes is living normal college life at Rackham College in beautiful Maine. He’s also in a relationship with Gwen Underfoot and everything is going f... READ MORE
Not Hill's best but well worth reading
I have just finished King Sorrow and I wanted to write this review while it is still fresh in my mind. I appreciate that Joe Hill is a superb writer in his... READ MORE
Great Read
Wow, what a read, don’t be put off by the size, coming in at around 880 pages it can be a little daunting, but there is no fat and each page turns quicker ... READ MORE
Verified Purchase
Epic and engrossing
King Sorrow is an epic story, spanning decades in the lives of six friends. It's a story about friendship, power, human nature and... oh yeah, dragons.
... READ MORE
Excellent
When six friends experiment with the occult to aid a friend and carry out a ritual that summons King Sorrow, they end up themselves way over their heads (a... READ MORE
King Sorrow
We start with student Arthur having a random act of kindness spectacularly backfire on him. He is visiting his mother in prison when he comes to the aid of... READ MORE
Compelling read
King Sorrow is a horror masterpiece that is brilliant, gripping and creepy.
It's a blend of fantasy , the occult and a quest to bring forth King Sorrow.... READ MORE
Review
The horror fantasy-epic mash-up that I’ve been waiting for! Dragons but make it horror? Yes, please!
Basic overview: we follow a group of friends who m... READ MORE
A scorching good read!
Not a quick read but, wow, was this good. King Sorrow incorporates 5 books which each offer something different, yet interlink and simply could not be put... READ MORE
Addictive, dark, brilliant
When Arthur gave his jumper to help another person, he did not realise how much it would alter his life, or that of his friends.
Arthur attends the pri... READ MORE
Great blend of fantasy and horror
Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College and works at the library there. He is responsible for the rare collections of books that are there. When he d... READ MORE
A masterpiece that will haunt you
"King Sorrow" (2025) is an epic new horror novel by Joe Hill, author of "NOS4A2", the plot spanning 33 years, about a group of six college friends from Mai... READ MORE
The book of 2025!
Did this just become one of my favourite books of all time? I didn't know what to expect but this blew me out of the park.
It's described as a horror b... READ MORE
Dark and Awesome!
As stated several times in this book, sorrow only leads to more sorrow, or if you use dragon to solve your problems, you may just be making a bigger proble... READ MORE
Fantasy-horror epic will keep you entertained
Joe Hill's latest is a wild ride. Highly enjoyable, spanning 30+ years in the lives of a group of college students who make a deal with a dragon. Straddlin... READ MORE
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