Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Hodder & Stoughton publishes Stephen King’s Fairy Tale, a fantasy-horror epic about another world than ours. In this tale, good is pitted against evil. A well-read and mature for his age boy and his adopted dog goes on a quest that takes them to a world where a terrible sickness rages.
The blurb on the back cover reads: “Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself – and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and his ageing master. Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the back yard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.”
I enjoyed reading Fairy Tale, although as a Christian reader I found the language here in there offensive. The book is almost 600 pages long and does lag a bit in the middle, but what happens next makes up for it. Charlie as main character is quite unforgettable, so is the grouchy Mr. Bowditch. Radar the pooch steals the show, however.
References to well known fairy tales, movies and books are scattered throughout the text. There is also the clever mixing of the mundane and the supernatural. An enthralling read all in all.
Buy your copy of Fairy Tale at a bookshop or get it here.
Read Louise Viljoen review of The Spiritual Growth Bible here.
