For Adults
King Sorrow by Joe Hill is the next book to be featured this season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club—an epic horror opus in which six college friends summon the eponymous dragon-demon to wreak bloody vengeance on those who have wronged them.
You can listen to the live interview with Joe on BBC Sounds from 11 November.
We have the chance for you to win a set of 10 copies of this novel for your book club. To apply, click on the survey link below. UK residents only, deadline for entries 26 November 2025.
Not yet a member of Book Club Hub? Sign up now.
King Sorrow
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.
How to apply
To apply, fill in this survey by 26 November.
