King Sorrow Chapter 27: Twin Telepathy and the Dragon Summoning
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Donna and Van drive north after the slaughter. Donna dozes with her head on her brother’s shoulder. In the months ahead, she will find Van waiting for her at the edge of sleep, wearing a necklace of sand dollars, or see him in her own reflection if she narrows her eyes. The chapter flashes back to the night they called King Sorrow forth. Around a card table they passed a cracked mirror (or, as Allie insisted, a conch shell; Arthur believed it was a Russian helmet). The door repeatedly flew open and slammed shut, once revealing a sky of strange constellations, another time an eye the size of a tractor tire. Allie played piano; Arthur chased someone through the snow. Van and Donna played War with two shuffled decks. They communicated without speaking—twin telepathy realized. Van held up the dragon of hearts, Donna the dragon of spades. The cards caught fire, red lace of flame spreading. The game was suspended on account of dragons.
Key Events
- Donna wakes in the car and sees Van’s reflection in the rearview mirror; she will continue to find him in mirrors and at the threshold of sleep.
- The narrative shifts to the night of the summoning ritual: a group passes a cracked mirror (or alternative objects) around a table.
- The hallway door repeatedly opens and closes, revealing impossible sights—an alien sky and a giant eye.
- Allie plays “Puff the Magic Dragon” on a player piano; Arthur gives chase in the snow.
- Van and Donna play War, silently communicating through telepathy.
- They each play a dragon card (hearts and spades), and both cards ignite and burn.
- The game ends “on account of dragons.”
Character Development
Donna – Grief is transforming her perception of reality. She slips into a state where her dead brother appears as a comforting presence at the edge of sleep and in reflections. The memory of the summoning shows her both terrified and utterly complicit; she and Van act in perfect synchrony without spoken instruction.
Van (Donovan) – Although he dies later (alluded to by Erin Oakes’ eulogy), this chapter foregrounds his humor, his irreverence (“Tall women turn me on”), and his deep, almost supernatural bond with his twin. In the memory, he is alive, grinning, and steering the ritual as much as Donna.
Colin – Mentioned as a potential sexual partner for Donna (“Just fucking”), he blows smoke rings and stays apart from the ritual, an observer whose role remains ambiguous.
Allie & Arthur – Their perspectives on the ritual object (conch shell vs. helmet) are given but not resolved, emphasizing the unreliable, dreamlike nature of the memory.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Twin Telepathy – Van and Donna’s unspoken communication moves from playful banter to genuine psychic connection. The mirror, the shared thoughts, and the simultaneous act of playing the dragon cards all reinforce the idea that their bond transcends ordinary sibling kinship.
Fire and Burning Cards – The dragon cards ignite from the inside (Donna’s) and from the corner (Van’s). Fire symbolizes both destruction and transformation—the summoning of King Sorrow literally burns away their childhood game.
Mirrors/Altered Reflecting Surfaces – The cracked mirror, the conch shell, the helmet: each is a flawed or ambiguous lens. Mirrors in Donna’s later grief become portals where Van still lives. The cracked mirror also suggests fractured identity and the boundary between worlds.
Thresholds – The door that opens onto impossible skies and a giant eye; the “lonely strand” between wakefulness and dreams. These thresholds mark liminal spaces where the supernatural intrudes on the ordinary.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 27 is the emotional and mystical core of Donna’s relationship with her brother and the origin of the dragon that is tied to King Sorrow. It confirms that the twins’ bond was always more than coincidence—it was a latent power that the ritual activated. The chapter also establishes the cost: Van will die, and Donna will live haunted by his literal presence in mirrors and dreams. The summoning scene is the most direct depiction so far of how King Sorrow was called into the world, and it sets up the central mystery of the novel: what else was summoned with that dragon?
Study Questions and Answers
1. What objects are mentioned as the focal point of the summoning ritual, and why do the characters disagree about what it was?
Donna remembers a cracked mirror; Allie insists it was a conch shell like the one in Lord of the Flies; Arthur believed it was a World War II–era Russian helmet filled with tap water. The disagreement underscores the memory’s instability—none of the characters can agree on the physical details, which suggests that the ritual was so disorienting that their perceptions became unreliable.
2. How does the card game War become a vehicle for twin telepathy in this chapter?
Van and Donna shuffle two decks together and play their childhood game. They stop speaking aloud partway through and realize they have been communicating mind-to-mouth, knowing which card is higher without discussion. They play the dragon of hearts and dragon of spades simultaneously, each burning as they hold them up. The game is “suspended on account of dragons,” meaning the act of playing triggered the summoning.
3. What does the repeated image of finding Van in reflections or at the edge of sleep suggest about Donna’s psychological state after his death?
It suggests unresolved grief and a refusal to fully accept his absence. Donna sees Van in the rearview mirror, in her own eyes when she narrows them, and in bathroom silhouettes. She also meets him at the “lonely strand between wakefulness and dreams,” where he wears a necklace of sand dollars. These visions imply that the twin telepathy may not have ended with Van’s death—or that Donna is actively sustaining his presence through her own need.