“Charlie Reade looks like a
regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But
he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he
was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of
himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch,
a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the
backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature
is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a
massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to
believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder. Because
within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril
and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this
parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of
a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes
who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which
men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the ‘Fair
One.’ And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.”
In many ways, the tale is a
accumulation of King’s decades long run as the 20th and 21st
Century’s generous gift as a storyteller. Here myth and Grimm’s dark fairy
tales come to life in one his strongest books in years (and considering her
rarely disappoints me, this saying something). It does take time going (a trait
he’s always excelled at, though some may find boring), and the first 1/3 of the
book is extraordinary, a mystery layered in shadows. His set up with Mr.
Bowditch and Radar, the aging German Shepherd, reminded me a lot of King’s
shorter fiction, in particular Mr.
Harrigan's Phone from his If It Bleeds book. That too had a young man
interacting with a grouchy old man.
The rest of the book plays
homage to some of his earlier work, including The Talisman, Eye of the Dragon,
and The Dark Tower series (there are other worlds than these). It’s a fantasy
novel wrapped into horror, as King seemly decides that original Grimm Fairy
Tales are better than the Disney version of such tales as The Little Mermaid.
I will say, once again, King’s
young hero is a bit anachronistic. If Charlie is 17 in 2013, his knowledge of,
say He-Man and the Master’s of the Universe is bit off. That original series
ran in the 1980s, and in the early aught’s I don’t think the show aired much in
syndication. And apparently he also absorbed a lot of movies that aired on classic
movie cable channel, TMC, during his Dad’s alcoholic days, because he drops
quotes often (also, TMC get’s called out a lot here). My point is, maybe King
should be asking his grandkids what is cool today, or asked someone who
actually grew up in this period, because it’s another reminder of writer’s obsession
with his early childhood and how it doesn’t really work in his novels set in
the current time period.
Overall, a grand book with typical slow parts; he could’ve excised about a 120 pages, really. Also, this was the second book I’ve read recently that featured a world with two Moons, both with names. Wesley Chu’s latest, The Art of Prophecy, and now King’s Fairy Tale. Great writers sometimes think alike.
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