Description

From legendary storyteller Stephen King, comes this No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller, now with a stunning new cover look for Summer 2024.

WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student.

But when Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. When Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe – inside the shed is a portal to another world.

Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher – for their world or ours.

Publisher Review

There is a splendid climactic battle . . . King’s delight in the world he has created is infectious and there’s much to revel in here * Daily Telegraph * With ogres and castles, maidens and pots of gold, this is a fairy story through-and-through. Because it’s Stephen King’s, it’s a Once-Upon-A-Time tale like no other * Daily Mail * Fairy Tale is a multiverse-traversing, genre-hopping intertextual mash-up, with plenty of Easter eggs for regular King devotees . . . allusions and homages abound . . . a page-turner driven by memorably strange encounters and well-rendered, often thrilling action * New York Times Book Review * Fairy Tale is vintage, timeless King, a transporting, terrifying treat born from multiple lockdowns which, in true King style, puts its finger right on that tender point which is the threshold between childhood and growing up * Guardian * The latest addictive thriller from King * The List * King’s reputation precedes him, and his spellbinding new novel is magnificent and terrifying * Living North Magazine * The hailed King of masterful writing has pierced the page with mighty words once again, releasing a whopping fantasy novel, reminiscent of the haunting magnificence of those Brothers Grimms . . . Fairy Tale soars, allowing you to bask happily ever after in its unforgettable spell * Buzz Magazine * A blazing flash of creativity . . . King’s best book in over a decade * Esquire * A really enjoyable and enthralling read, both exciting and enchanting, and yet another captivating tale from the pen of Stephen King * The Afterword * A fantasy gem . . . King tells this wonderfully fantastical tale with such effortless skill that the reader cannot help but fully invest in Charlie and all the characters, his evocation of late 20th-century small-town USA and its people pitch perfect, and his descriptions of the parallel world of Empis . . . vividly terrifying * Irish Independent * Some brilliantly written escapism . . . featuring a loyal dog, a grieving hero and childhood fears and dreams made real . . . King at his finest * Evening Standard * A spellbinding tale that bursts with imagination * Woman’s Own * Stephen King is the world’s greatest storyteller. Fairy Tale had me enchanted from page one. I remain in total awe at his genius * David Walliams * Magnificent . . . a doorstop chronicle of small-town America, and the battle between good and evil. Classic King, and clearly written with joy . . . He is one of the best writers on childhood and teenagers, which continues in Fairy Tale * Richard Osman, The Sunday Times * The master storyteller returns with a spellbinding story of mysterious houses, parallel worlds and reluctant heroes as an ordinary high school kid discovers a portal to a universe populated by classic fairy tale archetypes * Waterstones * If you’ve ever enjoyed classic King – coming-of-age stories grounded as much in suburban neighbourhoods as in supernatural fairylands – you will enjoy this * Literary Review * A dark, dazzlingly inventive fantasy novel * Daily Mirror, Best Books of 2022 *