A review by asourceoffiction
Fairy Tale by Stephen King

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A master of storytelling, this is a genuine modern-day fairy tale from King that I found utterly captivating. It's almost three separate stories, and from the first third or so I could never have guessed where things were going to go for the rest of the book.

I love a plucky young hero-with-dog combo, and the fact that Radar was the focus of all of Charlie's decisions just made me love him more. So by the time he goes on this fantastic adventure, I was rooting for him 100%.

This weaves traditional fairy tale stories with more recent fantasies, borrowing elements from each to create an astonishing, beautiful and brutal world. Of course it's not all sunshine and rescuing princesses, this gets dark and gruesome, in a way only King can do.

The end, after so much drama for so long, felt a little quiet and almost too easy. But after sitting with it for a while I realised it had been signposted all the way through, and it felt like a pretty classic fairy tale ending. Basically I just loved it.
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