Fairy Tale

A #1 New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice!

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher--for that world or ours.

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 it.

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.

Magnificent, terrifying, and "spellbinding...packed with glorious flights of imagination and characteristic tenderness about childhood, Fairy Tale is vintage King at his finest" (Esquire).

"Good, evil, a kingdom to save, monsters to slay--these are the stuff that page-turners are made from." --Laura Miller, Slate

BUY THE BOOK

624 pages

Average rating: 7.66

609 RATINGS

|

54 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

MidnightCharcuterie
Nov 27, 2024
4.0
T_Sander
Nov 03, 2024
1/10 star
Unfortunately, this did not engage me as much as I had hoped for.
Grolfe_77
Nov 01, 2024
6/10 stars
Not my favorite. I am not a fan of fantasy novels or stories in book form. Movies, okay, but in books... I just can't do it with all the made-up names for characters and places.
I LOVED the opening of this novel and it wasn't until around the 250-300 page mark that I got bogged down by the fantasy jargon.
I took a few months away from the book before eventually pushing through.

I loved Charlie Reade. Great character. I was totally invested in him until he wound up in a dungeon. I won't say more about that so as not to spoil anything.

The ending was solid and the wrapup was okay.

Overall, I give FAIRY TAKE 3 stars. Probably my least favorite King novel, but that's because I don't do fantasy. If you love King and fantasy books, you'll probably go bonkers for this one.

Anonymous
Oct 15, 2024
8/10 stars
4.5 stars.

This would have been 5, but after an amazing first half, I felt disconnected from the story for about 20% of the second half. Such a good story though.
Greeneyez
Oct 03, 2024
10/10 stars
This was oddly satisfying to read. It was a little hard to get into at first but it was really good the more I read.

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.