Fairy Tale

Mr. King, I have a bone to pick with you. If you are going to set a book partially in suburban Chicago, be good enough to research that we do not have turnpikes (we have expressways and tollways). Also, please add some of the local vernacular (example: “over by the Jewels”) as you do so well with books set in Maine.

“Fairy Tale” has received a lot of hype (of the positive flavor) since it was released. I took a long break from Mr. King's books after the exponentially awful 1993 “Tommyknockers,” which was so bad King went from one of my favorite authors to one I avoided almost entirely until the impeccable “11/22/63.“. Read that book instead!

This book seems to be two different stories jammed together. The first part of the book focuses on family trauma after the mother is suddenly killed. The main character, Charlie Reade, then goes down a do-gooder path to “pay“ for his dad being saved from alcoholism. The most interesting character in all of this is the old codger, Mr. Bowditch, and his elderly dog, Radar.

Another bone I have to pick with Mr. King is choosing to run “Fairy Tale” through a supposed teenager. Charlie doesn't act or think like a teenage boy other than maybe two references to being slightly hot for some girl at school. The story would have been far more interesting if told from Mr. Bowditch's perspective vs Charlie's (such as using Charlie's caretaking as a vehicle for flashbacks).

A single father would typically be proud of his son for wanting to help a nearby neighbor after a serious and unfortunate accident. However, I found it hard to believe that the elder Mr. Reade would allow his teenage son to be at said old codger's house every night, including sleeping over something like a month. Where was Charlie's industriousness and caring at home? Is this even supposed to be the same kid? He knew his Dad struggled and needed help, but didn't seem to help at home (I refer to the period after his father was on the path of recovery-totally understandable that Charlie would withdraw after the complete loss of his mother and partial loss of his father). Not to mention Charlie's awful (by awful, I mean rude AF) note to his Dad when he planned to go into Empis.

Unfortunately, most of the Empis section was disappointing. A few characters had potential, but weren't drawn well enough to be more than so much cardboard. I appreciate callbacks to one of my favorite fantasy classics, “The Wizard of Oz,” but they really fell flat.