Review of Fairy Tale by Stephen King
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 4 / 5 Ravens
How was this review scored?
Fairy Tale arrived in September 2022 from Scribner, with little fanfare, just as the novel’s hero Charlie Reade arrived in another world. Like the main character Charlie, the novel delivers more than meets the eye.
Stephen King’s new fantasy offering is a classic fairytale in the true sense. There is plenty of gore, terror, and suspense to keep lovers of Classic Brothers Grim fare salivating for more. While those of us familiar with the sanitized versions of lore passed down at bedtime will find new insights into our favorite characters.
The characters of the story linger with you between readings. The reader longs to return to Empis, that close-at-hand distant land where tales are more than true, every minute they’re away.
It has to be said that the first part of the telling is very mundane. King begins with a Buddy Story between a likable High School athlete and a reclusive old man living in a spooky Victorian on a hill. The character development and backstory are there to develop empathy for a character you may not otherwise care about. I just wish that King would have arrived at the main story much sooner. The laundry list of things the reader is asked to care about and keep track of is long and repetitive. When those elements come into play late in the novel, the payoff is satisfying, but King winds up the pitch for a very long time.
Overall, the story is one of Jack and the Beanstalk retold. In saving their world, Charlie may also prevent the destruction of our own. King is clever (always clever) in pointing out his source material through direct reference when Charlie discovers an old copy of Well of the Worlds by Henry Kuttner in a battered Startling Stories magazine at Mr. Bowditch’s house.
The use of Kuttner’s work opens the door (or should that be gateway) wide for King to explore plenty of classic fairy tales and perhaps gives us a glimpse of their true origins. Fairy Take is not your typical Stephen King horror story. The novel is a modern fairy tale told in his familiar voice, and his unique style. Did you ever read Stardust by Neil Gaiman? Along those lines!
By following Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, King delivers a familiar pattern that ushers readers along the path he laid out, with breadcrumbs, right up to the witch’s door. About halfway through readers may begin to ask ‘Where’s the story? Charlie is going to get the prize and escape scot-free…’ But they’d be wrong - after all, Stephen King is known to embrace the phrase ‘kill your darlings’.
The Dedication by King at the front of the book reads “Thinking of REH, ERB, and, of course, HPL”. The three pulp fiction masters - Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H.P. Lovecraft - may have been among the first to explore the well, and this work would make them proud.
Read more from Stephen King at https://stephenking.com and find him most often on Twitter (@stephenking).