Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

I grew up reading Stephen King novels. As a near 40 year old now, my childhood and teenage years were spent devouring his titles from The Stand to IT, Gerald’s Game to Rose Madder. He was always the definitive horror author for me.

This book, Fairy Tale, takes his writing in a new, fantasy-led direction. Charlie Reade is our young protagonist and the hero of this story. Charlie, a high school senior, lives alone with his father after his mother’s accidental death a few years earlier. Charlie befriends an elderly man one day named Howard Bowditch and his loyal German Shepherd dog, Radar and begins doing odd jobs around Howard’s residence. One day he hears scratching from the shed in the garden.

Fairy Tale truly takes off when Charlie stumbles upon a portal between worlds and ends up in the magical land of Empis, where a battle is brewing between good and evil. King details this land so incredibly well it really pulls you in and fails to let up, right to the end.

At times while reading Fairy Tale I was dragged happily back to some of my favourite fantasy novels and films, such as The Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games. The land of Empis is home to many fantastical creatures and King, with his innovative imagination, describes them all in fantastic detail. In saying all this, don’t forget this is still a Stephen King novel. Some scenes are creepy and some can be downright horrifying. We wouldn’t expect anything else, would we?

Fairy Tale is a beautiful ride and highly recommended for any fans of Stephen King or fantasy novels. Fairy Tale is available at Greater Dandenong Libraries now, in both the Adult Fiction and Large Print sections.

Find Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Michael