Fairy Tale
Stephen King, 2022
Contemporary fiction FantasyHorrorMystery, thriller & crime
A boy who learned to survive his father's drinking follows a neighbor's dog into a world where fairy tales have gone wrong. A boy's plainspoken voice moves from everyday dread into wide-eyed wonder, with wit and quiet faith lightening the darker turns.
Feels like wonder and dread. About faith.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy a grounded boy's voice, fairy-tale imagery turned strange, and a mix of wonder and dread. The early pages include a parent's drinking and its fallout, so the story can feel bleak before the wonder arrives.
Why read it
It gives you a boy's hard-won resilience and a strange journey into what happens when old stories sour, told with warmth and wit.
A page from the book
The world-ending thing you’ve stopped noticing.
You get used to the amazing, that’s all. Mermaids and IMAX, giants and cell phones. If it’s in your world, you go with it. It’s wonderful, right? Only look at it another way, and it’s sort of awful. Think Gogmagog is scary? Our world is sitting on a potentially world-ending supply of nuclear weapons, and if that’s not black magic, I don’t know what is. Stephen King.Stephen King was a high-school English teacher when Carrie was published; nearly fifty years later, Fairy Tale opens with a boy's voice again.
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Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Fairy Tale for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy a grounded boy's voice, fairy-tale imagery turned strange, and a mix of wonder and dread. The early pages include a parent's drinking and its fallout, so the story can feel bleak before the wonder arrives.
- What is Fairy Tale like?
- A boy's plainspoken voice moves from everyday dread into wide-eyed wonder, with wit and quiet faith lightening the darker turns. Feels like wonder and dread. About faith.
- What should I read after Fairy Tale?
- If you liked Fairy Tale, try The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis), Elantris (Brandon Sanderson) and American Gods (Neil Gaiman).
A taste of the feed
What if the only water is guarded by what frightens you?
I daren’t come and drink,“ said Jill. Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. Oh dear!“ said Jill, coming another step nearer.”I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.“ There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
The Silver Chair · C.S. Lewis
The advice you already know and keep ignoring.
Do not dash if you only have the strength to walk, and do not waste your time pushing on the walls that will not give. More importantly, don’t shove where a pat would be sufficient.
Elantris · Brandon Sanderson
What if death is not life's enemy but its jealous lover?
The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity — it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.
Life of Pi · Yann Martel
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