A review by indoorg1rl
Fairy Tale by Stephen King

4.5

Charlie Reade looked like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But his mom had been killed in a hit-and-run accident and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie had to grow up fast. When he was seventeen, he helped Howard Bowditch, a recluse living with his dog, Radar, in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard which made occasional strange sounds.

This was definitely an epic fairy tale. Given this was Stephen King’s world, you’d know immediately that the fairy tale wouldn’t be your usual fluffy one. It did have princes and princesses but they were cursed, deformed and monstrous.

The story itself had King’s signature all over it. I loved the connection between grumpy Howard and Charlie, and the bond between Charlie and ageing Radar. Rades totally stole my heart from the start to the end. By the way, I thought it was totally cool that King could refer to Cujo as ‘that old movie that had scary dog in it’. He’s one of those rare authors whose recent bestseller can refer to his old bestseller-turning-popculture as if it was done by someone else!

(Thanks to Hachette Australia for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review)