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A review by anastashamarie
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
🏰 This feels like someone gave Stephen King the "write a popular fairy tale as a modern day story" prompt that we all got in creative writing class in high school and he just ran with it for 600 pages.
🗡️ There's objectively nothing wrong with this, expect that the pacing slow. (So slow that I--as someone who strictly listens to audiobooks no faster 1.35x because I like to be immersed in the inflection and voice acting--had to bump this sucker up to 2x to be able to get through it.)
🐕🦺 Charlie is a well-rounded character, whose motivations totally hit hard...as I, too, would risk life and limb to get even just a little more time with my dog. The "other" world was as immersive as I would hope. The relationships appropriately tugged at my heart strings. And yet...
🧌 This was such a standard chosen one hero's tale. Prototypical, in fact. More a homage to fairy tales than a new and original one. At such a hulking tome from a well-loved author (who has created some of my favorite stories ever), I just expected more I guess.
🎒 Listen, I'm not my any means mad that I read this (I enjoyed it a lot and have even recommended it to a few people already), but I also don't think it added anything to my life either. This was just really and truly fine.
🗡️ There's objectively nothing wrong with this, expect that the pacing slow. (So slow that I--as someone who strictly listens to audiobooks no faster 1.35x because I like to be immersed in the inflection and voice acting--had to bump this sucker up to 2x to be able to get through it.)
🐕🦺 Charlie is a well-rounded character, whose motivations totally hit hard...as I, too, would risk life and limb to get even just a little more time with my dog. The "other" world was as immersive as I would hope. The relationships appropriately tugged at my heart strings. And yet...
🧌 This was such a standard chosen one hero's tale. Prototypical, in fact. More a homage to fairy tales than a new and original one. At such a hulking tome from a well-loved author (who has created some of my favorite stories ever), I just expected more I guess.
🎒 Listen, I'm not my any means mad that I read this (I enjoyed it a lot and have even recommended it to a few people already), but I also don't think it added anything to my life either. This was just really and truly fine.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcoholism
Minor: Murder and Torture
Old sick dog's decline described through most of the book. The dog does not die.