Donna McBride: The Fierce Heart of King Sorrow

Overview

Donna McBride is one of the twin sisters in Joe Hill's King Sorrow, reincarnated from twins executed in Salem for devil worship. She is defined by fierce loyalty, a violent temper, and a traumatized past. From childhood, she witnessed the abduction of her friend Cady Lewis—an event that sculpted her guilt and rage. Throughout the novel, Donna evolves from a reckless accomplice into a sacrificial figure, ultimately breathing fire to blind King Sorrow. Her arc is a study in moral compromise, self-destruction, and a desperate bid at redemption.

Plot Role

Donna serves as both enforcer and emotional anchor within the group of seven friends who summon the dragon. She participates in early ESP experiments at Colin Wren’s estate, helps steal rare books under duress, and is later kidnapped by government contractor Joe Valentine. During captivity, she endures psychological torture and the threat of her brother Van’s death. After escaping, she uses the saint’s blood to save Gwen Underfoot. In the final confrontation, Donna drinks dragon tears, intones a riddle, and breathes fire directly into the dragon's eye, blinding it and sacrificing her own life. Her death allows the others to strike the killing blow.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Donna’s primary motivation is guilt—over Cady’s abduction and over the hundreds of innocent people she later helps destroy. She believes suffering does not justify inflicting harm, yet struggles to live by that belief. Her traits emerge through action:

• Fierce loyalty: She would kill for any of her friends (Chapter 78 explicitly states this).
• Violence: She stabs Valentine repeatedly in the neck without hesitation (Chapter 100).
• Self-loathing: She admits, “I don’t like me either” (Chapter 138) and acknowledges she drinks hate’s poison.
• Bravery: She volunteers to confront the dragon directly, drinking fire to blind it.
• Manipulative cruelty: She torments Allie with sexual jabs and derides Gwen’s mercy killings, calling them murders.

Her intelligence is practical, not academic—she knows how to evade pursuers, break phones, and read a room’s dynamics. But her emotional insight is often buried under cynicism and alcohol.

Chronological Arc

• Childhood (1980s): Donna and Van play with Cady Lewis. A van kidnaps Cady; Donna stays behind, leading to lifelong guilt. She later bites a classmate’s cheek when accused of being a kidnapper.
• College Years: Identifies as a reincarnated Salem twin, demonstrates telepathy with Van. Joins Colin’s group, participates in Zener card tests, and helps summon King Sorrow by playing War with Van and burning dragon cards.
• Post-Summoning: The group uses the dragon for protection, but Donna’s involvement becomes darker. She helps choose victims, including Francine Trout, and participates in violent acts.
• Captivity (Cherokee Island): Kidnapped by Valentine, tortured via brother’s drowning, injected with truth serum. When King Sorrow speaks through her, she kills Valentine and commands the dragon to burn the facility (Chapter 100).
• Final Year: After Gwen is shot, Donna delivers the saint’s blood. She later confronts Van’s ghost, who gives her a sand dollar and urges her to make things right. At the library tower, she drinks dragon tears and sacrifices herself to blind the dragon (Chapter 157). Reverend Erin Oakes eulogizes her as someone angered by suffering, who loved her friends completely, and who finally threw off her ugly life like a rotten coat (Chapter 163).

Relationships

• Van McBride (twin brother): The most important relationship. They share telepathy, can sense each other’s thoughts during the War game. Van is her moral compass even after death; his ghost scolds her for the harm she caused. She misses him desperately and finds him waiting at the edge of sleep.
• Allison Shiner (Allie): A complex, often toxic bond. Allie loves Donna romantically; Donna uses that attraction to maintain power. Yet in moments of vulnerability, Donna rests her head in Allie’s lap and asks for comfort. Ultimately, Donna sends Allie away to save her, accepting that Allie has moved on to Tana.
• Gwen Underfoot: Rivalry and grudging respect. Donna dismisses Gwen’s hospice work as murder, but later admits Gwen is a saint. She saves Gwen with the blood and attends her funeral remembrance.
• Colin Wren: Sexual partner and ally. Donna lives with Colin after the massacre, but their relationship is pragmatic—she feels no deep love for him, only convenience.
• Arthur Oakes: Marginal connection. Donna respects Arthur’s moral stand but rarely interacts with him directly; Arthur’s death is a distant event for her.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme/Symbol Connections

• Revenge and Consequences: Donna’s anger, born from Cady’s abduction, fuels decades of revenge—only to create more victims.
• Dark Academia and Knowledge: She participates in Colin’s occult experiments, using forbidden knowledge to bind a dragon.
• Moral Compromise and Guilt: Every “good” act (saving friends) requires terrible compromises (killing innocents). Guilt drives her drinking and self-destruction.
• Sacrifice and Redemption: Her final act—drinking fire—is a literal sacrifice that redeems her in the eyes of the group, even if she never forgives herself.
• Friendship and Betrayal: She betrays Gwen by targeting her for sacrifice, yet dies to protect the rest. Love and treachery are inseparable for Donna.

Symbols: The sand dollar (from Van’s ghost) represents the possibility of making things right. Fire is both the means of her death and her weapon. Dragon tears provide lethal power but stop her heart.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Donna feel guilty about Cady Lewis’s abduction?
Donna believes she failed to act: when Cady asked her to come to the van, Donna hesitated and stayed behind. She later imagines an alternate timeline where she intervened, showing that the guilt has never healed.

2. What role does twin telepathy play in the summoning ritual?
During the War card game, Donna and Van communicate wordlessly. They each play a dragon card (hearts and spades), and both cards catch fire. The telepathy makes the ritual work—they believe together, and the dragon appears.

3. How does Donna’s relationship with Allie change over the story?
Allie loves Donna, but Donna uses that attraction to dominate her. After Van’s death and Donna’s alcohol abuse, Allie grows disillusioned. Donna ultimately lets Allie go, encouraging her relationship with Tana. By the end, Allie attends Donna’s funeral hand-in-hand with Tana.

4. Why does Donna decide to sacrifice herself by drinking dragon tears?
She realizes her life has been spent causing harm. In her vision of Van, he gives her a sand dollar and says it is not too late to make things right. Drinking the tears and blinding the dragon is the only way she can redeem herself and save her friends.

5. What does the sand dollar from Van symbolize at the novel’s end?
When Donna wakes in the hospital, her fist is clenched around a sand dollar that may or may not be real. The sand dollar represents the hope that she can still choose differently—even a small, fragile object can hold the weight of redemption.