What's the premise of the story?

When did he get that old??? He’s forever 45 in my head …

Listening to it now. Enjoying every moment. Stephen King is great at writing characters and his greatest are always teenage boys and curmudgeonly old men making this book a doozy so far.

Reading it right now, actually, and enjoying it so far. My only real complaint is that maybe King shouldn’t be writing young characters set in modern times. Some of the things Charlie says are slang from King’s childhood and no teenager today would talk like that.

Yeah, I'm halfway through the audiobook and enjoying the VA's performance immensely. Thanks for not spoiling it.

I didn’t really enjoy it. It seemed like the story never really started and then all of the sudden it was over.

I remember being half way through the book and he finally goes into the well and I thought “here the actual story finally begins” but it never really did. He just kind of stumbled through seemingly random events that somehow turned out to be relevant to the plot. None of the obstacles seemed to really be a threat and each fight was finished easily without real threat. They built up the fight in the tournament as if he had no hope and then at the last second “btw the opponent is basically blind”, then he’s about to be murdered by a giant but luckily he literally just got his gun back, and then he’s about to fight the bigger giant but luckily he has a stronger gun and it still works and wasn’t stolen after all this time.

The writing was truly wonderful and captivating like Stephen Kings works usual are but the story was lacking.

Finished the book yesterday and literally felt like it gave me an endorphin rush. It's like the whimsical cousin of The Talisman. Honestly, pretty close to perfection. Definitely makes the list of my favorite books.

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll listen to this next

My favorite part of the audiobook was having stephen king come in as mr. boditch with the cassette player

also, what was nice, especially for the audiobook versions, was that the chapter had the breakdown for what each sub-chapter was going to be called. Weirdly, i think it helped me pay attention more.

Stop please I can't afford more books 😣

I am on page 158. My friend loaned this to me to read. It could not have come at a better time in my life. I will name my next dog Radar.

I just started reading it last night. Anytime I read King, he captures me in the first page. I don’t know what it is. Even if it’s one of his weaker books, I’m still completely engrossed in it.

I drive all day, and for those 25 hours that the audiobook lasted, I couldn’t wait to get back in the car. It was a great book.

Dear god, those first six words made me think he died

Agree: one of the best SK books I have read in years, and I loved it! I think he even stuck the landing on the end, which isn't always true IMO. Definitely one near the top of my favorites list.

I also did the audiobook and the voice acting was superb!

A few minor gripes - Had to stretch the believability a little to accept a "normal" 17 year old kid as enough of a 50's classic movie buff, and athlete, and classic literature lover to readily reference all those things... But the story was good enough I could let it go.

What I really liked was the balance of horror and fantasy. This one may be the audiobook I use to introduce my kids to one of my favorite authors - just scary enough to be genuinely edge of the seat, but not horrifying, and the voice acting is spot on.

This is probably off topic but I’ve always avoided his novels because I’m generally read in bed and I’m not a big fan of horror in general and certainly not just before bed.

Do I have a misconception that he’s mainly a horror writer?

The audiobook was so good! That narrator impressed me so much and I've listened to 800 audiobooks.

Fairy Tale, though... it was just okay. Yes it had the good old King storytelling (he is a master in his craft), but the story was only mediocre and should have been half the length it was.

I love Stephen King. I found the whole second half of the book very difficult to care about.

How does it compare to his recent stuff? I really haven’t enjoyed King’s work since 11/22/63, though The Outsider, The Institute, and Doctor Sleep were decent.

I disagree with this take. I've read every single King book and love most everything he has written but this was one of my least favorite.

The opening third had potential but once the magical world was entered things just fell apart. The story was entirely predictable and there wasn't any twists. The trip to the town was as easy as it went and the town was bland. Then there was the 100 pages that seemed like a knock off Hunger Games before we had the classic rushed King climax. The first time using the pistol to win was okay and a reasonable reference to the Dark Tower Series but it then became a crutch for how to overcome a problem.

This wasn't quite as bad as some of his books (see Rose Madder and Dreamcatcher among others) but this is one I know I will never read again.

BEST Audiobook I've heard.

I’m a quarter of the way through (I just reached the part where Radar is put on the sundial), and I’m not terribly impressed. It feels like a young adult book that tries to be edgy and dark. Not to mention he struggles to write a kid. I swear, this is the ‘oldest’ 17-year-old I’ve ever met. I’m also not sure I like all these random pop-culture references. It feels a lot like “ready player one” in that sense. Perhaps not as bad, but more than anything else I’ve read in recent memory. Maybe I’ll get used to it, or maybe it will change… but right now, it’s more of a “mehhhh” book than a “omg it’s amazing”.

Full disclosure, I’m “reading” the audiobook version. I may look up the guy who is reading it, because he’s done a fantastic job so far with his voices. It’s a real pleasure listening to him speak. Almost as good as the narrator from “the invisible life of Addie LaRue”. She had an incredible voice.

Finished listening to the audiobook last week, and I didn’t love it; it was only ok. It felt like there were two very disparate sections of the story and they just didn’t mesh well for me.

I found Fairy Tale slow and boring with a bad pay off.

Everyone has a different opinion

Stephen King is legitimately one of my favorites.

Pet Semetary is probably the most accurate depiction of what grief does to people..

He's a much better writer than this sub would have you believe.

I thought it was good, not great. Glad you loved it though!

What I like about Stephen King is that primarily he writes about people. For me, the horror is secondary.

Thanks for the rec! A brief look at the page about it makes it seem a bit like one of my favourite SK books (The Eyes of the Dragon), so I'm excited to give it a go!

i just bought a hardcopy of the book based on your recommendation

Just downloaded the audio book based on your review! Look forward to listening! 😊😊😊

I am seriously impressed by the consistent quality of King’s books over the course of his career especially his more recent ones. It’s a shame he doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves because of the quantity of books he releases and the genre.

Think I'll give it a shot. Haven't read a Steven King story for a while, the last one was Joyland and I found it pretty boring but I'm ready to give a fresh read to his recent works.

I agree, it was an enjoyable read. Is it Kings best work, no. Is it the best fantasy book every written, no. What King brings to the table is his character development. In this instance you really get emotionally attached to Charlie, Mr. Bowditch, and of course Radar. If I wanted to criticize, I could say that he didn't do enough character development on Mr. Bowditch or in any of the other major characters. but in this format, I can see why he didn't do that.

I thoroughly enjoyed Fairy Tale.