Reviews

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

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itssophiedoph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny slow-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

5.0

Brilliant use of tropes, long but loveable characters, felt like i was reading a fantasy tv show!

alexmillar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

emilyb_chicago's review against another edition

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2.0

This feels like 3 separate books, each interesting for what they are but they never quite feel like a cohesive story. The first part was my favorite and is about the first third of the book. In those 10 chapters our main character is fleshed out and his world is set up for the reader. Then the book shifts to a quest story that is somehow both repetitive and just penciled in. The final section is supposed to be our climax. Unfortunately that is not an epic culmination which collected up all the carefully laid story threads, but a slap dash overview that had many different endings. Even within sections, the pacing was inconsistent.

Charlie, our main character, is initially very well depicted as a teen who had to grew up too fast, but he seems to reverse develop into a thinner picture of himself. Maybe because of that, I never quite bought in to the fairy tale world of this book.

I have not read much King and was unprepared for how “unedited” this book would feel. I will likely give King another try since he has so many books and so many fans, but this one wasn’t for me.

I did however really enjoy reading this in parallel with a group and discussing the book throughout. I also like this Latin phrase, which I hadn’t heard before (mentioned in chapter 24, but not a spoiler): “Time is a shadow in the mind”.

stormcatt's review against another edition

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5.0

What a wonderful story! Like most King books there is at least a trace of horror but it is a fairy tale. An adult fairy tale but a fairy tale all the same.