A review by moejawish
Fairy Tale by Stephen King

5.0

To be frank, I was scared of reviewing such a rich book, but I gathered the will within me and here it is coming your way, starting with a quote by none other than Tolstoy: “All great literature is one of two stories: a man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town.”

Saying that this is great literature is an understatement. It has everything anyone wants and needs in a story, a protagonist embarking upon his unique adventure, an idealistic love story, an evil spirit lurking in the shadows, the adventure that’ll require nothing less than everything in order for its undertaking to be fulfilled, and finally, a dose of reality wrapped up so hideously in a world of fantasy. What more can one’s heart desire?

To illustrate a few themes from the book that have completely bewitched me here are a few with quotes referencing to them:

—On the good and evil inside every man’s heart: “I’d like to tell you that I came back to my better self at the very end. To say I felt regret. It wouldn’t be true. There’s a dark well in everyone, I think, and it never goes dry. But you drink from it at your peril. That water is poison.”

—On adventure: “Some nights I stayed with a family willing to take me in and some nights I camped under the stars. It was grand. There were times when I didn’t see another living soul for days. That’s not for everyone, but it was for me.”

—On atonement, forgiveness and the passing of time: “Time is the water, Charlie. Life is just the bridge it flows under.”

—On love: “The sun came up, the sun went down. People came, people went. Some dead and some alive. The one I wanted most to see—the one who had gone to the well with me—didn’t come. Until one day she did. The goose girl who was now a queen.”

This is an essential read for anyone who would like to understand what the love of books is actually about. Definitely revisiting it in the future.