What are you currently reading?

[Martin]

Okay, so some thoughts on Joe Hill's KING SORROW, a book that has received a great deal of praise from critics and fans, but one that I find myself struggling to connect with:

I'm 200 pages in, and am taking the next day or two to reevaluate if I continue on. It's an odd place to be, since -- with the notable exception of THE FIREMAN -- I've been a big Joe Hill fan ince day one. But at 200 pages, I'm faced with a cast of characters that aren't particularly likeable or interesting, one that feels a bit Young Adult horror in which attitude and scrappiness substitute for personality. There is a semi-auto pistol scene that has three significant errors in it...I'm surprised that scene got through a cast of proofreaders and editors...you'd think someone, anyone who's actually fired a gun, would catch these glaring issues. Then there are pages upon pages of italics...any scene where the characters "see" through the eyes of King Sorrow when he hunts prey are italicized, so three, four, etc. subsequent pages of italicized print in multiple scenes. This has always been a particular pet peeve of mine, I've always really, really disliked this hard-to-read, stylistic design choice, and typically just set a book back on the store shelf when I see its prevalent use when flipping through it. Then he namedrops a bunch of side characters with names of his author friends -- Bracken MacLeod, Catriona Ward, Sarah Pinborough, et al. Between this and the italics and whatnot, it feels like Hill's authorial self-indulgence is a bit too apparent. So with all of these things inherently kicking me out of the story, reminding me that these are simply words on a page and keeping me from really submerging myself into the tale, I'm struggling with staying engaged. Perhaps I'm being overly critical and small annoyances are keeping me from seeing the bigger picture that many others seem to see and enjoy, so I'm going to give it a break for a day or two and see if it calls my name again...but at the moment, it's not looking particularly good.

Overall

I generally liked King Sorrow, but understand your points. The italics were not an issue for me as I do not have a problem reading them and I understood the reason for them. Every aspect of the story, section names, characters, etc. are a large nod to his family and friends. In a few cases it caught me by surprise and there are probably some I missed. That also did not bug me that much. Overall, I put this one place higher than The Fireman, which is the only Joe Hill Novel I really did not care for. The good news is that Mr. Hill stated that this would be his last long novel in a while as he has embarked on a goal of a book a year for a decade. He also stated that his 2026 release "The Hunger" was turned given the publisher before this one hit stores. I am hoping he is able to strike gold like he did with "Heart Shaped Box" and "Horns" again!

[sholloman81]

Overall

I generally liked King Sorrow, but understand your points. The italics were not an issue for me as I do not have a problem reading them and I understood the reason for them. Every aspect of the story, section names, characters, etc. are a large nod to his family and friends. In a few cases it caught me by surprise and there are probably some I missed. That also did not bug me that much. Overall, I put this one place higher than The Fireman, which is the only Joe Hill Novel I really did not care for. The good news is that Mr. Hill stated that this would be his last long novel in a while as he has embarked on a goal of a book a year for a decade. He also stated that his 2026 release "The Hunger" was turned given the publisher before this one hit stores. I am hoping he is able to strike gold like he did with "Heart Shaped Box" and "Horns" again!

Glad to see at least one sort of positive review in the forum! Haven't purchased this one yet but had planned to do so sometime soon. All of these lukewarm reviews are giving me pause but I can't imagine myself not giving a Joe Hill book a try.

Be honest, if this were to be released as a limited, how many of you would still purchase it, even with the lukewarm reviews, if only to maintain your Joe Hill LE collection?

[Martin]

Glad to see at least one sort of positive review in the forum! Haven't purchased this one yet but had planned to do so sometime soon. All of these lukewarm reviews are giving me pause but I can't imagine myself not giving a Joe Hill book a try.

Be honest, if this were to be released as a limited, how many of you would still purchase it, even with the lukewarm reviews, if only to maintain your Joe Hill LE collection?

For me it was worth the read but does not compare with his shorter novels. Will I buy the limited, yes if it is not cost prohibitive or from a publisher I avoid.