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King Sorrow

the epic new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author

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Pub Date 21 Oct 2025 | Archive Date 11 Nov 2025


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Description

SOME PROMISES SHOULD NEVER BE MADE...

***A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK***

'A tour de force...King Sorrow is huge, sprawling - and absolutely fantastic' THE GUARDIAN
'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

SOME PROMISES SHOULD NEVER BE MADE...

***A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK***

'A tour de force...King Sorrow is huge, sprawling - and absolutely fantastic' THE GUARDIAN
'Joe Hill gloriously resurrects the...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781035434299
PRICE £25.00 (GBP)
PAGES 896

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Average rating from 153 members


Featured Reviews

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King Sorrow is a vast epic of unsettling horror. Arthur Oakes is a quiet student working in his college's rare library. A misfortunate encounter finds him being blackmailed by drug dealers to steal rare books. Arthur is distraught that their demands are never ending so he turns to his closest six friends. They begin to delve into the occult to scare away the drug dealers. What do they do? They delve into one of the rare books and find how to summon a dragon named King Sorrow. Not the best of ideas. Unbeknownst to them at the time King Sorrow's demands become one of a yearly sacrifice from them.

What I liked best about this book was the development of the characters. They are well defined, close and loyal in the beginning. But everything unravels, slowly, and heartbreakingly as the weight of their deal with King Sorrow drags them through the years, through the decades. Friendships fracture with silence, betrayal, and impossible sacrifices. Hill's writing captures this with multilayered haunting unforgettable experiences of how sorrow can reshape love and friendships. Beware the bargains that bind.

Thank you to Headline and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity for this book to read for free for an honest review.


Well Joe Hill you have stolen my dark heart again.

Truly outstanding book , I never been so consumed by characters in a story than when reading this book

Bad things happen when you make a silly bargain.

This one really surprised me. It’s not scary in the usual Joe Hill way, but it’s heavy, emotional, and sticks with you. The writing is sharp, the mood is dark but beautiful, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it after. Definitely one of his more moving stories.

If you enjoy having to gasp at pages or even close the book take a break even though you have to know what happens …. This may be the book for you .

It’s a big chunk of a book be prepared to have sore arms if you buy the physical

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Well worth the 10 year wait. A classic in the making with elements of his dad's writing intertwined

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