Blaine's Reviews > Fairy Tale

I’m sure I can tell this story. I’m also sure no one will believe it. That’s fine with me. Telling it will be enough. My problem—and I’m sure many writers have it, not just newbies like me—is deciding where to start.
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I thought of that book cover, the one showing a funnel filling up with stars. Not stars, I thought. Stories. An endless number of stories that pour into the funnel and come out in our world, barely changed.
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I thought, I don’t want to be a Disney prince. To hell with that. If I have to be a prince, I want to be a dark one.

Stephen King has said that Fairy Tale was prompted by a question he asked himself early in the pandemic: “What could you write that would make you happy?” And the answer to that question turned out to be a story about a young man who loves an old dog so much that he’s willing to travel through a portal to another, perilous world for a chance at saving the dog’s life.

Fairy Tale works for a number of reasons. First, Charlie Reade is a complex, richly drawn character. He’s got flaws and made mistakes, but it’d be pretty close to impossible not to root for him. Second, I’m a cat person and even I was moved by Charlie’s love for Radar the awesome dog. But most of all, this book works because it is a story about all the great stories. Within this novel are dozens of references, homages, and outright plot points taken directly from famous fairy tales (Jack and the Beanstalk, Rumpelstiltskin and other Grimm’s fairy tales), novels (the Chronicles of Narnia series, Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, and HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu), movies (including The Wizard of Oz and, surprisingly, Gladiator), and King’s own novels (11/22/63, The Talisman, and It, just to name a few).

Will Fairy Tale enter the pantheon of great Stephen King novels? Time will tell. But it has a little bit of everything, and something for everyone. And it will definitely put a smile on your face. What more can you ask for? Recommended.