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A review by heyimberbie
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
This was my first Stephen King novel and I wouldn’t say this book was for me, but I do think it was really good.
The writing, the characters, the dog, it was purely an adventure.
I feel as though I would have enjoyed Fairy Tale more if I was well versed in traditional fairy tales to begin with, which I’m not. So, as someone who’s never read the true fairy tales that don’t necessarily end in a happily ever after like Disney does, I thought this book was really good.
I liked the high stakes fantasy while also being able to relate to Charlie Reade, the main character. It was pretty easy to understand what was going on, and for the annotators out there, this book was fun to take notes on and theorize about what would happen throughout.
My main problem with this book, is I feel like it could be shorter. I love long books, but as long as the length is necessary, not just full of fluff.
Like, for instance, this book’s chapters are each at least 50 mins-1 hour long, and we don’t get to even meet Mr. Bowditch until chapter 10 or see any real adventure until up to chapter 20.
So I think there could definitely be some editing somewhere to make the chapters much shorter and events happen more sooner.
Needless to say, I enjoyed the book, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again. And as as someone living on a very low income, I don’t like that it cost $16 just for the ebook version.
The writing, the characters, the dog, it was purely an adventure.
I feel as though I would have enjoyed Fairy Tale more if I was well versed in traditional fairy tales to begin with, which I’m not. So, as someone who’s never read the true fairy tales that don’t necessarily end in a happily ever after like Disney does, I thought this book was really good.
I liked the high stakes fantasy while also being able to relate to Charlie Reade, the main character. It was pretty easy to understand what was going on, and for the annotators out there, this book was fun to take notes on and theorize about what would happen throughout.
My main problem with this book, is I feel like it could be shorter. I love long books, but as long as the length is necessary, not just full of fluff.
Like, for instance, this book’s chapters are each at least 50 mins-1 hour long, and we don’t get to even meet Mr. Bowditch until chapter 10 or see any real adventure until up to chapter 20.
So I think there could definitely be some editing somewhere to make the chapters much shorter and events happen more sooner.
Needless to say, I enjoyed the book, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again. And as as someone living on a very low income, I don’t like that it cost $16 just for the ebook version.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Sexual content
Ableism: there is a brief mention of a ‘prank’ pulled on a disabled man that is very sad and could be triggering to those that have physical disabilities
Sexual Content: I was a little uncomfortable with the main character, who is a 17 year old boy, having sex. Even though it’s a very brief mention, there really was no need for it. To me it seemed like it was just a plot device. The reason why I say that it is just a plot device is because Charlie is rewarded with sex as a thank you/celebration for Empis being saved and the story didn’t need it whatsoever. I thought that was rather icky because Stephen King, a 75 year old man, writes a 17 year old kid having sex whenever Fairy Tale isn’t even a romance/hardly has any romantic relationships in the book anyways. Plus, the person who has sex with Charlie isn’t even a main character in the story and hardly has any shining moments whatsoever, so there wasn’t any point. Like why couldn’t this character just say thank you?