Justin's Notes
Apr. 30, 2026
This story follows a teenager named Charlie who finds himself befriending Mr. Bowditch, the old, secluded man living at the top of the street with his dog Radar. Through this friendship that emerges, Charlie inherits a secret that Bowditch has kept for decades. A portal to another world.
I have now read five of King's works, three novels and two novellas. Fairy Tale felt like classic Stephen King to me in comparison to what I have read. Which means I really enjoyed it. It read incredibly similar to 11/22/63 to me, which is probably my second favorite book of all time. I loved the pacing, the character development was great, and it was filled with scenes that get dark enough to teeter on that line towards horror that King loves so much. I enjoyed the relationships King builds with Charlie and the people of the fantasy world, both friend and foe, and as always, he is so easily able to draw me in with suspenseful action scenes, making this quite the page-turner. He really doesn't slow down much in his writing.
The other world that King builds in this story was also pretty intriguing to me. I don't want to go into much detail here because there is no real explanation or teaser of it on the back cover of the book. But I thought that the world and the conflict within it were solid and I enjoyed learning more about the world alongside Charlie. I will say, there is an aspect of this world dealing with language that I wish I had gotten more explanation about. But that's just a nitpick. It was a compelling parallel world to me, full of interesting characters and scenery.
I would recommend this not only to Stephen King or fantasy (especially dark fantasy) fans, but to anyone who wants to give King's writing a try. It has some dark moments, but relative to much of his collection of works, it felt rather tame and approachable.
