Fairy Tale by Stephen King

 “There’s a dark well in everyone, I think, and it never goes dry. But you drink from it at your own peril.” — Stephen King, Fairy Tale

Charlie Reade is a high school student who winds up taking care of an old man who lives in a big creepy house with his dog. The old man also has a secret. 

I’ve seen lots of reviews saying that the first third of the book is more compelling than the rest. I felt that way at first but then the story drew me in again. The first third is an interesting mystery and sets everything up. From there the story moves into the fairy tale aspect. It almost felt like a different book from that point, and I think the story slowed down a little. It didn’t bother me. I was just enjoying the ride and it didn’t take long for things to pick up again. If Stephen King’s version of a fairy tale doesn’t click with you, you probably won’t enjoy the book. It worked for me.

It’s not that his version of a fairy tale and the world he created is so astounding, it’s the story, the characters, and the prose. It’s been a while since I got lost in the pages of a really long book. I loved it from start to finish. 

There is one thing that I didn’t like so much. Charlie often mentions old movies, which is fine, but he mentions seeing them on Turner Classic Movies constantly. It’s a minor complaint but it got old after a while. 

Some other things that added to my enjoyment of this book: 

The dedication. It reads, “Thinking of REH, ERB, and, of course, HPL.”

Robert E. Howard is one of my favorite writers. I read the John Carter of Mars and the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was in high school and loved them. The first horror book I ever read was by H. P. Lovecraft. 

The chapter illustrations. They’re by Gabriel Rodríguez and Nicolas Delort. I especially like the ones by Rodríguez. He’s the artist for Joe Hill’s Locke & Key. 

The chapter titles. Each chapter is numbered but also includes a few phrases that refer to that chapter’s events. Those hints always kept me interested. It’s done in the style of Victorian novels.

I think it’s interesting how the chapters themselves are organized. They’re broken into numbered sections. In his book On Writing, Kings talks about the difference between books that appear hard to read because of long, packed paragraphs and books that look easy to read, because they have lots of short, concise paragraphs. It seems like the same principle can be applied to chapters. Maybe this is one reason why the book seemed to flow for me. 

I like how King demonstrates his love of reading, storytelling, and language throughout the book. Noir books by Cornell Woolrich get mentioned, as well as fantasy and horror authors Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Henry Kuttner, and August Derleth. At one point a place where Charlie is traveling through is so creepy that it reminds him of the vocabulary in Lovecraft books. I also like how language is played with once the story moves into the fairy tale aspect. 

I love that King reminds us that the current versions of classic fairy tales have been watered down from their original forms. I’ve been interested in this topic for a long time. I have a copy of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm translated by Jack Snipes on my shelf. It’s an excellent collection of the original stories. I haven’t read anything from it recently but now I’m motivated to jump back in. 

Finally, one of the big reasons I liked this book. It stuck the landing. I don’t always enjoy the ending to a Stephen King book or story. I loved the ending to this one.