I’ve read a fair bit of his work and this stands among his best for me. The pacing and gradual ramp up of the story comes off perfectly. We all know he writes exceptionally grounded, true to life characters and this one is no exception. The plot at its core of a mother lost to tragedy, a father nearly lost to alcoholism and a childhood deal with God leading to this flight of fancy beyond the pale – it works.
I love the “well of the worlds” and the funnel of stars – he represents the collective imagination without becoming overly academic brilliantly. Lovecraft is invoked subtly and it works well given the environment he has crafted. The slightly fourth-wall breaking, fairy tale referencing keeps the story touch and go, it never bogs down into self serious fantasy territory.
There’s more I could say but I am just completely addicted to this book right now and wanted to share!
by Profeseur-histoire
26 Comments
I listened to the audiobook in one day.
Almost finished listening to 11/22/63 and have Fairy Tale up next
Just finished the AB of that a few days ago, very good narrator and great book, probably one of my favorites from him as I found it was hard to put down. Gave me a lot of The Talisman / Black House vibes.
My favorite SK book now. Such a great story with all the classics woven in
Does the ending suck? Kings endings have burned me in the past.
I hadn’t read SK in over a decade. King’s writing is so familiar it’s comforting. This book has sucked me in as well .
As you can tell by my handle, I am a massive King fan; by far my most read author. That being said, I was severely disappointed with Fairy Tale. I felt it really lost steam about halfway through. Glad you’re enjoying it though OP!
loved it
Interesting. I’m a King fan in general but found this one to be a little childish/YA for me.
I loved it, too.
Mid tier King book imo.
I hated it lol. The writing was not good.
I agree except for “me in.”
Adding this to my list, adore a good fairy tale referentialism.
I’m so glad to see this book mentioned! I’ve never made it through a whole Stephen King novel before, but Fairy Tale? Finished it in one weekend! Something about the characters and the cute fantasy references and the reluctant hero….SO GOOD!
Glad you like it. For me though, the book was pretty terrible after the “under dark”. It felt like Stephen king just wrote himself as the main character then realized that was bad, so he wrote a random character to tell the story.
“I know you won’t believe me, but that’s what happened”. He says this over and over. Terrible
I enjoyed the audiobook
I read this, looking at my own aging dog. I couldn’t put it down.
I’m glad you are enjoying it. I used to be such a huge Stephen King fan I considered his books automatic buys, but he’s just not as good as he used to be. And to me Fairy Tale is his worst book. It’s the only SK book I’ve ever abandoned. I skip a lot of his newer stuff.
I hated it, musta gone over my head. Was enjoying it until he went down.
I adore that book.
Something I always like to mention whenever this book is brought up…….
There are characters in the book with facial differences (those affected by “the grey”) and other disabilities who are portrayed as good, and this is SUCH a rarity in media. I have a facial difference and 99.9% of the time, the only representation my community gets is in villains (seriously – start paying attention to how many villains have some type of facial scarring or something to that effect. You’ll notice it EVERYWHERE**), and it has real world consequences on me and others like me.
It was so refreshing reading about characters who looked different but were good. It moved me to tears.
**Edited to add:** and please TALK ABOUT IT with the people in your lives. We are a community that is so underrepresented and most of us are so fucking tired. I’ve had my difference since I was 8 years old and am now 34 and am still discriminated against constantly.
Some resources if you want to learn more:
* About Face out of Toronto, Ontario ([https://www.aboutface.ca/](https://www.aboutface.ca/))
* Changing Faces in the UK ([https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/](https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/))
* The Children’s Craniofacial Association which I believe is US based ([https://ccakids.org/](https://ccakids.org/))
* Face Equality International (https://faceequalityinternational.org/)
Ha ha IMO this is his worst book. No 17-year-old talks like that.
I have been a huge King fan for over 35 years, though I’ve skipped a handful of his novels since the early 2000s. I was very excited to read Fairy Tale at release last year. I didn’t hate it, but other books were begging for my attention so I put it down at the halfway point and never picked it back up. I did, however, blaze through Holly in 3 days a couple of weeks ago. That one really grabbed my attention unexpectedly, so maybe I outta grab Fairy Tale off my shelf and crack it open again. Thanks for the reminder!
I enjoyed the story but it felt like a watered down version of midworld and the city if lud from the wastelands.
I really enjoyed it. I’m hoping for an unlikely sequel. Definitely more that can be explored with the world building.
I really enjoyed this one.
Quite a departure from his normal stuff, And all the references to classic fairytales was fun