- Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER TRADE
- Publication date: 09/06/2022
- Binding: 20 Compact Discs
- ISBN: 9781797145280
- Author: Stephen King
- Read By: Seth Numrich with Stephen King
Fairy Tail by Stephen King is just what the title suggests, a fairy tale, though it should come as no surprise that it comes with the Stephen King twist to the tale.
Charlie Read is a fairly normal 17 year-old high school kid. Pretty good at baseball and football. Maybe even good enough to get the scholarship he’ll probably need to go to college. After losing his mother in a tragic accident, and then losing most of his father to alcoholism, Charlie had to learn to take care of himself. He’s no saint, but when an elderly neighbor falls off a ladder, Charlie comes to his aid and is sucked into his life. He becomes more and more involved with the broken Mr. Bowditch and his equally elderly dog, Radar.
This is only the beginning of a story that eventually leads to another world (worlds?) with fairy tale like characters. Charlie will need to rise to new heights of bravery and love to survive and maybe help a world that has been overtaken by an evil force. This is no Disney fairy tale. This harkens back to the original fairy tales that did not always have happy endings. The tales where Cinderella’s stepsisters cut off their toes to try to fit the slipper. Where Red Riding Hood’s grandmother was devoured by the wolf. Where the little mermaid turned to sea foam. Not that this tale is incapable of a happy ending, but King takes us on a winding tale laced heavily with death and destruction and despair before coming out the other side… maybe.
Stephen King is not a great artist, but he does a very good job of spinning tales that keep you turning the pages (or replacing the discs). This book is not timeless classic literature. At more than 24 hours of listening, it was far from ‘timeless’. Still, it never got old and it kept me engaged. Fairy Tale is definitely a Stephen King book, complete with long, sometime arduous descriptions and details, lots of characters, lots of scary stuff. If you don’t like Stephen King, I don’t think this one will change your mind, but if you like his works, this is a good one.
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If you like Science Fiction:
try Plastivore by Matt Truxaw
