Book Review: King’s Hill by Josh Hanson
Genre(s): Supernatural Horror
Book Synopsis:
When Sadie Roth takes a part time job teaching creative writing at King’s Hill, the local prison, she finds herself in close contact with Edward Joseph Mills, a local boogeyman and convicted serial killer. As Mills uses the course as a vehicle to finally tell his story, Sadie finds herself drawn into a strange world of money, violence, sex, and magic.
Interweaving Mills’ hard-boiled narrative of occult murder with Sadie’s all-too-human story of marriage, friendship, and disability, King’s Hill asks what we owe to the truth, and what we’d be willing to sacrifice in the face of both human and supernatural horror.
Review:
This wasn’t your average horror novel, and I mean that in the best possible way. As the synopsis mentions, it’s a story focused on the human characters involved—their struggles, their everyday lives, their core values. Beyond that, there was a supernatural brand of horror, but I think what made this book special is that the horror took second stage to the characters. It made the whole thing feel a bit more believable, the people featured more real.
Sadie is the main character. She’s young (26, if I remember correctly), and dealing with severe auto-immune diseases that make everyday activities nearly impossible at times. But she’s also incredibly strong. She’s a fighter. I loved that about her.
I also loved her relationship with Trevor. Too often, books and other media portray marriages as volatile things, but theirs was a portrait of love built on trust and understanding. I wish there were more relationships depicted like theirs. They didn’t always agree, but they worked through everything together. They loved one another for who they were and didn’t ask or need the other to change. It was really beautiful—especially considering the choice they were forced to make at the end.
But back to Sadie. She takes a part-time job as a writing instructor at a local prison. Edward Mills, a convicted serial killer who has never once made a confession, winds up in her class. Sadie’s story then alternates with Mills’ written confessions that he gives her as part of his writing assignments. Mills’ narrative took a few turns I would never have predicted (that’s where the horror element first starts to seep into the book), and Sadie takes it upon herself to investigate the truth of his claims.
The way the story unfolded and some of the elements involved really reminded me of Dean Koontz, so if you’re a fan of his writing, I encourage you to check out King’s Hill. This book was the perfect way to finish off my October TBR.
Author website: joshhansonhorror.blogspot.com
