Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
⭐⭐⭐⭐

In Fairy Tale by Stephen King, we are introduced to Charlie, a seventeen year old whose mother died tragically when he was a young boy. To cope with such a monumental loss, Charlie's dad becomes a raging alcoholic. One day, Charlie asks God for a favor - if God can help his father with his sobriety, Charlie will do whatever God asks of him when the time comes. Years go by and when duty finally calls, it is in the shape of Mr. Bowditch, the neighborhood's grouchy old hermit, and his dog Radar. Meeting Mr. Bowditch triggers a domino effect in which Charlie is thrown into the adventure of a lifetime.

So Stephen King wrote his own twisted fairytale - and I loved almost every page of it! This is a portal story - almost all of Charlie's journey takes place in the "Other World," also known as Empis. The setting of Empis was pure magic; the world is filled with humans, giant bugs, royalty, and like any good fairytale - villains and monsters. Stephen King effortlessly combined horror and fantasy in this book!

As much as I loved Fairy Tale, there were a few things that brought this rating down from five stars to four. Firstly, the ending is very rushed. There's so much buildup and backstory but the ending just kind of... happens. Also, the epilogue genuinely made me mad. I don't think it should have been included at all. It totally made the rest of the story less impactful and detracted from my enjoyment of the tale overall. The story could have been even darker and a little longer as well, in my opinion.

The characters were the heart of this book and each one, even the villains, had their own charms. The characterization was amazing as per usual with Mr. King. Radar is literally the best fictional dog ever and Charlie is such a great main character.

There's so much more I could say but this review would be way too long! I absolutely adored Fairy Tale and I loved the time I spent in Empis with Charlie. I definitely recommend this book, but only if you're NOT new to Stephen King. I don't think this would be a good introduction to his body of work. Overall, this story was awesome!