Fairy Tale Book Review

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the first Stephen King novel I ever read and I’ve heard from some fans of him that this wasn’t his best work. I believe that is a testament to what a great writer he is because I found this book to be well-written and entertaining. I can see where fans found fault. While the story follows the same character – Charlie Reade – throughout, the first half and second half feel as if they’re written by two different people for two different genres. The first half is more literary fiction whereas the second half is more fantasy.

I actually enjoyed all aspects of the book. But, the first half of the book had much stronger writing and captured my attention more. I loved reading Charlie’s interactions with his curmudgeon of an old neighbor Mr. Bowditch. It was a great character study of a young teen boy. It’s about halfway through the book before the fantasy portion really begins and although I found it entertaining I like the first half of the book a tad bit more. I would have loved to know more backstory of the fantasy land that Charlie enters instead of getting it piece by piece along with Charlie.

While I found myself wanting more from the fantasy world I still felt that King provided context and information about things in a very clear way. There were quite a few new characters introduced in the later half of the book but King did it in a way that didn’t overload me as a reader. Some portions of the story were over explained like how speech differed in the fantasy world. I think we got an explanation for that almost every chapter and it wasn’t necessary after the first couple times. But, King definitely made it clear how differently things worked in this fantasy world he created.

There were no flat characters in this book. Even the minor characters were given enough shape to be well-rounded. Nobody was perfect and I liked the way King should the strengths and weaknesses of everyone. The world is not black and white, it’s gray. You’ll understand why that’s a little on the nose when you read this book. I thought this was a very well-written story with interesting characters throughout and I’m so glad this was my first Stephen King read. I connected extra well to this book because Mr. Bowditch’s dog was German Shepherd named Radar and I had a dog with that exact name growing up.

I highly recommend this book because it is highly entertaining. I’d just say if you’re a Stephen King fan to maybe lower your expectations a tad. As you can see I rated this book with top marks. Five whole stars! So, I’m really excited to read other books of his because I’ve only heard they’re even better than this one.

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