BOOK REVIEW: Fairy Tale by Stephen King

 

Charlie Reade is a young man about to graduate high school. Though he is reasonably handsome and has been athletically successful most of his life, Charlie has been through some tough times. His mother was killed in a tragic accident when he was only a child and his father turned to alcohol to drown his own grief, which led Charlie down some dark paths and into some choices that he now regrets. But then he becomes the only friend of the hermit who lives in the big old house at the top of the hill and falls in love with the man’s equally old dog. When the man dies suddenly, he leaves Charlie his entire estate and, among all the other papers, a cassette tape on which the old guy tells a story that is clearly unbelievable. However, upon further investigation and to his utter astonishment, Charlie finds that the story is absolutely true. For the old man has left the boy not only a magical place, but the chance for a life changing experience, as well as an incredible responsibility to not only protect what he has been given but to also make sure that two entire worlds do not end up destroying each other.

This novel is just what its name indicates, a fairy tale. Over three decades ago, Stephen King wrote a book called The Eyes of the Dragon which was similar. In it, a good, honorable prince fought to save his kingdom from a demonic sorcerer.  However, in this, the prince is a young man from our world, and the danger is from the desires of members of a corrupt royal family that have made a deal with the very essence of evil. This is a dark fairy tale, in that there is a great deal of bloodshed and body parts, and most of the people involved, even the good ones, are well equipped for killing when they must. King has an uncanny way of weaving a web of events that keep coming back to the old bedtime stories that he was told as a child (one in particular), thus becoming the theme of the narrative and still having the ability to work their own form of magic. There are many who have not and will not like this, mainly because it is not in King’s usual vein of horrible beings and nightmarish happenings, but it is a fairy tale worth the telling. And worth the reading as well.