In the late 1980s, student librarian Arthur Oakes finds himself breaking the worst of his moral codes (stealing rare books from the university library) to fend off a drug dealer and her violent partner. Desperate to stop stealing, Arthur and his five friends dip into the occult, calling forth a dragon to murder the blackmailing pair. After the deed is done, however, the six friends learn that their pact with the dragon is not done — each year, they must choose another person to sacrifice to the dragon or else he'll take one of them instead. What follows is a tale spanning nearly 40 years as Arthur and his friends battle their personal demons and try to get out of the Faustian bargain they unwittingly entered years ago.
Told in episodes focusing on each of the friends in turn and hopping through the decades, this book does not feel like it's almost 900 pages long. It's engrossing, propulsive, and just complicated enough to make the pages fly by without feeling flabby at any point. For his first full-length novel in a decade, Hill has knocked it out of the park with this one, seamlessly melding supernatural and all-too-human horror with a bit of a history lesson on global atrocities, the division of American politics, and the influence of technology on society. And it's all done with humor, horror, and exceptionally created characters. I loved this book, and I'll be recommending it widely.
*This book will be published Oct. 21, 2025.
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