Fairy Tale - King's Grim Era - The Quill to Live

King-a-ding-ding, everyone! The Stephen King bell tolls once more, which means I’m here to deliver a fresh book review. This time, we’ve got a recent King book, Fairy Tale, published in 2022. Does the book feature a scary threat lurking in the dark corners of the world? Is a small town in trouble? Will a strapping young man save the day? I think you know the answers. Let’s explore them anyway.

Is the town of Sentry’s Rest, Illinois okay? Honestly, yeah, it’s fine. It’s a normal midwestern town, and Charlie Reade lives there. He does well in school and plays sports. He’s a good kid with a troubled past. His mother died in a freak accident when he was young, and his father spiralled into alcoholism. Charlie pleaded with the powers of the universe to help his dad recover, and sure enough, he did. Charlie told himself he’d return the favor. When Adrian Bowditch, the town’s curmudgeonly old recluse, injures himself as Charlie walks by, the opportunity to make good on his promise appears. Charlie strikes a friendship with Mr. Bowditch and his dog, Radar. When Bowditch’s health declines and he passes on, he leaves Charlie a tape revealing some otherworldly secrets.

Plot spoilers follow for Fairy Tale. I can’t avoid them, folks. I won’t spoil the ending or anything major.

Fairy Tale employs a unique structure for a King book. The first third is what I described in the summary above. Charlie lives his life, helps Bowditch with his day-to-day tasks, and reflects on his past. This chunk of the book reads like so many Stephen King adventures—a guy goes about his life, enduring the tribulations and growth that encompasses such a life. After Mr. Bowditch dies, the book crosses a veil into a fantasy land called Empis. The remaining majority of the book takes place there, as Charlie and Radar make discoveries and embark on a small handful of quests to 1) save Radar from her creeping illness, 2) nab a bunch of gold, and 3) eventually rescue Empis from a dark force seeking to take over.

Nothing about Fairy Tale is outright bad. I mention the structure because I imagine it will be the biggest sticking point for prospective readers. My favorite King books are gradual. They shift the focus from the normal to the off, and by the time you reach the end, you wonder how any of the characters lived in the “real world” before. King slowly dips you into the dark waters of his mind. In Fairy Tale, that shift is nonexistent. Charlie’s entrance to Empis is a gut-punch that happens swiftly after only a few short chapters detailing Bowditch’s tape (wonderfully read by King himself in the audiobook, by the way) and Charlie’s plan to traverse the well in the old man’s backyard to reach the other world. I didn’t mind the phase shift all that much, but it stood out for its starkness, as opposed to, say, Jack Torrance’s gradual descent into madness in The Shining.

That said, the second chunk of Fairy Tale has the feel of a folkloric tale. King plays in the space of original, non-Disney-fied fairy tales with dark twists and gruesome fates. When he settles into this fantasy-horror combination, the story can flourish, even if it’s not the paragon example of either genre individually.

The side characters are excellent throughout Fairy Tale. They’re the reason my interest stayed piqued. Charlie himself is a ho-hum protagonist; I could take or leave him. But the Empis denizens each have unique flair, and their ailments (which I won’t spoil) offer cool takes on fairy tale tropes. Later on, Charlie encounters dastardly enemies, and they, too, are fun to explore.

The characters carry the story, which itself is fine. King plods along through the plot nicely, but there was one major hole that left me wanting at the end. To share it would be a major ending spoiler, so suffice it to say it has to do with a padlock and a questionable search. If you’ve read the book, I hope this clues you in.

Overall, I’m tepid on Fairy Tale. It’s a fun departure from the typical Stephen King format, but I prefer his spookier stuff. He thrives in that space. Here, he can’t quite meet the standards I have for a fantasy portal story. Still, the characters made it a fun trek, and I enjoyed more elements of the story than I scoffed at.

Rating: Fairy Tale – 7.0/10

-Cole