Fairy Tale

A novel

by

Paperback, 577 pages

English language

Published 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton.

ISBN:
978-1-3997-1777-9
Copied ISBN!
(4 reviews)

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.

Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

13 editions

reviewed Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Another banger

Why didn't I know that King writes actually really gripping stuff? I mean, I really only knew him as "the guy behind It and Pet Semetary" and that's just not nearly the whole truth.

This "version" of the fairy tales we all know if quite the journey. Never boring, never overflowing with flowery descriptions.

I'll admit that between Fairy Tale and The Institute buecher.pnpde.social/book/115610/s/the-institute the stile of developing is pretty similar. Small steps, long ramps, and then a hard killer ending (quite literally). But if you're into that? Read this book!

reviewed Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Best Retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk for adults... and more!

I think that King went out on a huge limb here... and boy am I glad he did. This story, like the Shining, It, and the Institute before it, show the magnificent theme of "kid power" that Stephen is so good at. charlie Reade was no exception. I think that if he were a real person, I would want to get to know him, and I would probably hang out with him on a regular basis. Either way, if you want a book that's emotional as it is rivetting, then King does it again. It does have some of his normal horror, but this one gives the reader a bit of a break from that, where we see the more fantastical side of this wonderful and legendary author.