Constant readers of this review site will know that I am not a huge fan of Stephen King any longer. Most of his books are political or long-winded and boring. However, his new book fairy tale is brilliant.
The story flows well and even though it is long-winded with a very long entry intro before we get into the meat of the story, I feel that most of that intro worked well and it built up the story as a good lead-in.
Happily, there was only one Trump comment not shrouded in derangement and two democratic talking points. The rest of the story was story. And what a story it was.
Hints of pre-accident King was clearly evident and I think he enjoyed writing that story. It seems to have taken him two years so it’s a big book, it’s a long story, and if you use Audio-book like I did it’s really excellent to listen to.
The narrator was great and King even narrated a small section of the book which was an audio tape recording.
The story is about a boy named Charlie and his dog Radar. The dog is old and in the other world (Empis) the Fairyland world there is a sundial that can reverse age. It should be an easy journey, but, Fairyland is not as nice or safe as it once was, especially when the sun goes down.
This book is a quick and compulsive read, even though I use the audiobook, I found myself listening when I was working out or walking the dogs and killing time listening to it just sitting at home in my room.
This book is brilliant, but it has flaws. It’s told in first person, where the MC occasionally talks to the reader and gives away the result of the action taking place eg. “Of course, things don’t always go the way you planned”. And there was the constant millionth-time reminder about the different language the people in other world used eg. “That’s not what he said, but my brain translates it as such.” It’s very repetitive and gets old very quickly. Finally, our hero Charlie often talks about how he was such a bad person after his mother’s death and the bad things he did with Billy (?), and he says he’s no hero. The things he did with the great reveal, are nothing that terrible. I thought he had maimed or committed manslaughter. What a let down.
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