{"id":89777,"date":"2025-10-21T23:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/89777\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T23:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:02:07","slug":"joe-hills-dragon-horror-novel-was-inspired-by-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/89777\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Hill’s Dragon Horror Novel Was Inspired by Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJoe Hill<\/a>\u2018s ambitious new novel \u2014 the 900-page killer dragon epic \u201cKing Sorrow<\/a>\u201d \u2014 is\u00a0inspired by love.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew it was going to be the first book I was going to dedicate to my wife,\u201d Hill says. \u201cI think I wanted to impress her, and you know the trouble a man can get into when he tries to impress his best girl. So I began piling everything into it that I thought Gillian would love, and it would be fun to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the novel is a present to Hill\u2019s wife, the editor and publisher Gillian Redfearn, his fans are in for a big adventure as well, as \u201cKing Sorrow\u201d hits bookstores today from William Morrow. In the novel, six friends must make sacrifices through the years for the titular dragon after they call upon it for protection. From there, Hill dips into several different modes of storytelling.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou have one part of the story which is a mini-air disaster novel set on a 747 flying from New York to London, and there\u2019s a dragon outside the porthole window off in the thunderclouds,\u201d Hill says. \u201cAnother part of the book is an \u2018Indiana Jones\u2019-style plunge into a troll\u2019s trap-filled cave. At one point, a couple of people are kidnapped by a for-profit paramilitary organization, and they\u2019re forced to tell everything they know about the dragon, King Sorrow. There\u2019s a desperate attempt to rescue survivors from a collapsed building. There\u2019s a drunken brawl on roller skates. I just kept piling it on because there seemed to be so much story there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe book\u2019s release is coming as \u201cBlack Phone 2,\u201d the sequel to the film based on Hill\u2019s short story<\/a> \u201cThe Black Phone,\u201d sits at the top of the box office<\/a>. While that movie is perfect spooky season fodder thanks to Ethan Hawke\u2019s portrayal of the villainous Grabber, Hill was inspired to write his newest book because he loved his scaly antagonist.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m a guy who thinks Smaug from \u2018The Hobbit\u2019 is my favorite fictional character,\u201d Hill says. \u201cI think I like Smaug even more than Sherlock Holmes. I also think that a lot of times horror novels are only as good as their antagonist. So having a really great 4,000-ton, 70-foot-dragon with a nasty sense of humor feels like a stable thing to build a book around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with the plot inspiration, Hill amps up his prose, making for a distinctly cinematic reading experience.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor something on the scale of \u2018King Sorrow,\u2019 the language has to be fairly lean, mean, clean and direct,\u201d he says. \u201cYou want elegance, but you also want zip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBetween the plotting, pace and Hollywood\u2019s love of adapting Hill\u2019s work, it\u2019s easy to imagine a deep-pocketed streamer taking on \u201cKing Sorrow\u201d as a limited series. Luckily, he\u2019s been pleased with the other interpretations of his work.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been really lucky because no one\u2019s made an out-and-out stinker,\u201d Hill says. \u201cAll the adaptations that have been made of my work, I have generally thought they were pretty fun, and I found things to admire in them. I love when someone reads something and says, \u2018Oh, this is fun. I want to do this as a TV series,\u2019 or \u2018I want to do this as a film or comic book.\u2019 Then you get to see what they found interesting in it, and how they take that and make it their own, make it personal, expand upon what elements of the books they always wanted to explore more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, Hill has the unique vantage of seeing decades of his father Stephen King<\/a>\u2018s work adapted in ways ranging from brilliant (\u201cStand By Me\u201d) to noxious (\u201cThinner\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen the adaptations are really successful, it\u2019s because they\u2019ve captured something about his voice and his unique view of an artist in the world we live in,\u201d Hill says. \u201cThe relationships between men with other men and women with their society and married couples. When you hear the characters talk, it\u2019s like reading the dialogue in the book. It has that sound, that music which is unique to my dad\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite coming from a legendarily spooky family, leading the box office with a supernatural killer and touting a book with a deadly dragon, Hill says that his home will not be decked out with seasonal Halloween gear \u2014\u00a0for good reason.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wish I could tell you the house is draped in cobwebs, and the \u2018Addams Family\u2019 music is echoing through the halls, and kids creep up to the front door to get candy and the door swings open of its own volition and I lurch forward out of the dark in fright makeup, and they run screaming before they can get their candy,\u201d Hill says. \u201cThat would be terrific, but it\u2019s not like that at all, and here\u2019s why: Because I\u2019ve been writing horror fiction for 20 years now, and Halloween is when I have to work. I\u2019m like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, so I\u2019m not doing trick-or-treating or diving into the pleasures of the season. I\u2019m usually out there with a book or a film or a TV show or something, trying to find subtle, clever, charming ways to say, \u2018Buy my stuff.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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