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King Sorrow

the epic new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author
By Joe Hill
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Brief Description
SOME PROMISES SHOULD NEVER BE MADE... A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK 'A tour de force...huge, sprawling - and absolutely fantastic' THE GUARDIAN 'Joe Hill gloriously resurrects the doorstop horror blockbuster' ALAN MOORE 'A soaring epic' PAUL TREMBLAY 'Exhilarating and haunting...perfection from start to finish'... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2999
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Releases 8th December 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order  "King Sorrow" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

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Like The Secret History colliding with IT, this exhilarating, emotional and genre-bending novel is perfect for fans of Stephen King and Catriona Ward.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

SOME PROMISES SHOULD NEVER BE MADE...

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK

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

'Joe Hill gloriously resurrects the doorstop horror blockbuster' ALAN MOORE

'A soaring epic' PAUL TREMBLAY

'Exhilarating and haunting...perfection from start to finish' DAILY EXPRESS

'A commanding, captivating read' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Epic...a 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' RUTH WARE

'A wild, genre-defying journey, packed with all sorts of unexpected twists' DAILY MIRROR

'A glorious, wild ride' NEW YORK TIMES

'Epic! Hill's best and most ambitious work to date' LINWOOD BARCLAY

'A monster of a book...a vast, brimstoned, relentless zinger' NICK HARKAWAY

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781035434312

Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 September 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Headline Book Publishing

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 896

Collections

Coming Soon in Fiction Fantasy Fiction General Fiction Horror & Supernatural Joe Hill Pre-order Books Pre-Order Science Fiction & Fantasy Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date Sci-Fi & Fantasy

About the Author

Joe Hill is the number one New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman, NOS4A2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box; Strange Weather, a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner Award-winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, Locke & Key. Much of his work has been adapted for film and television, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), In the Tall Grass (Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse).

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