 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another Stephen King review today. We were talking about his newest release It was released on September 6th of 2022 and that is fairy tale Right off the bat. I've had two questions that I want to get out of the way First one is does this spoil the dark tower? Universe story series any of that stuff the answer is absolutely no There are some very very loose connections and I have one big connection But I will save all of that for my Thursday theorist, which will be at the Thursday after this video pose but what is fairy tale about fairy tale is about a young man named Charlie Reid who Ends up coming across a ratchety old man crotchety Grimudgingly whatever you want to call it and his name is Mr. Bodich. Mr. Howard Bodich There is another name, but I won't reveal that here because that's kind of a spoiler So the book opens up with Charlie Passing by mr. Bodich's house and he hears a dog howling and he hears someone in a very low voice calling for help Come to find out. It's mr. Bodich. He's falling off a ladder. This is all in the first chapter And he needs Charlie's help But then we do a very quick jump back in time to learn in the same chapter to learn about Charlie And how his mother was killed on a bridge that goes. Well, it's one of those overwater bridges It's I believe it's the Little Rumpel River is what it's called in the book And all of this is important everything that you learned at the beginning of the book It and here's another question. I I was getting is for a portal fantasy. Is it any good? I don't like fantasy. I especially don't like portal fantasy One of the reasons I don't is because I feel it's a bit of a lazy bit of storytelling Lazy storytelling device and what I mean by that is it's very easy to take someone out There was a fish out of water scenario where you have the narrator Talking from from their own world or what we're comfortable with what's common to us And that makes it describing the other worlds very very easy Um, I did not see that as a crutch in this book In fact, King did some very cool things to make it so that it wasn't really a fish out of water story because There's some very doctor who ask kind of things going on here with The language that they speak in the other world versus what Charlie speaks in his own world so on and so forth The TLBW the too long didn't watch here. I know you guys have already been watching for like two minutes, but I Absolutely loved this book every single page of it. Not only do I not like portal fantasy I don't like fantasy in general and the book. This is a minor spoiler But I also want to prepare people if you're expecting a very quick portal fantasy get in to Get in this world within the first 200 pages You're not gonna get that King spends an enormous amount of time getting to know Charlie read this dog named Radar and Mr. Bodich all building the care. It's it is some of King's best character work since revival This is also my favorite one of his books since revival. It's better than the Institute is better than the outsider It's leagues leaps and bounds better than things like Billy Summers Um, you're gonna spend a lot of time getting to know Charlie I know there's a lot of you out there who don't like the slice of life story stories And you just wish the king would get to the horror or to the action or whatever This probably is not gonna be a book for you It is very character driven for the first at least the first half of it because even once he does transport over to The other which is what he calls the the new the fantasy land Um Once he gets transported over there It still takes a little while for the action to get going but once it does once the fantasy stuff starts popping off. I I I'm honestly feel this way It is close to being as good as the run through blood in the wastelands, which is the third dark tower book I was amazed. I was on the edge of my seat which brings me to a point that I found Exceptional this is told in first-person narrative from Charlie's point of view only Charlie's point of view He doesn't head hop. He doesn't get into the other character's minds whatsoever It is Charlie telling this story in first person and I was constantly scared for Charlie That's another thing that's been missing from his most recent books is peril Feeling like the the the hero is not going to make it Dr. Sleep was really bad about that even to some extent so was the Institute it's funny though because this one is kind of like a blend of let's say the talisman and Probably the outsider and what I mean by the outsider is the book changes halfway through it goes from being this very small story to this epic all-encompassing story in this fantasy realm And that's kind of how I felt with the outsider It was a very small personal story led by an amazing supernatural story. That's what I got here Now as far I do have one very minor criticism, but I'm not gonna knock any points off for it King go double really doubles down with the tradition of fairy tales like Disney fairy tales and the whole story you have A Jason to certain characters like you have like rumple still skin is mentioned and you have an adjacent to that You have the old woman in the shoe. There's an adjacent to that so when you get in there It's not really a spoiler, but the main character starts to turn into the traditional Prince charming and what I mean by traditional prince charming is it falls into the same trappings as all of the prince charming Which is blonde haired blue-eyed whiter than Elmer's glue King does Bring up the fact that this is goofy. This is stupid in the story The character even thinks it's goofy and it's stupid I think there's something to be said about having the opportunity to change that aspect to change That the way people look at fairy tale heroes I think you could have done a little better with that other than that this book is fantastic all the way through it I love Hannah and these I'm gonna I'm just gonna be saying names here because I don't want to spoil anything for you Hannah and red Molly both of those characters were highlights of this for me There's several different stories in this one story. You have like a count of mommy, Crisco Cristo, Crisco, Cristo, I don't know you have that that you have so many different ones You have even little bits and pieces from a game of thrones all different kinds of stuff In fact, there's a form of creature in this one I can't remember what they're called, but the skelly bros from game of thrones that the night watch has to keep back There's kind of an adjacent to them too in this one So it's really a big amalgamation of all of the fantasy literature that's been out there A word of warning before you go out here and and buy this book There are pictures. I will show you one that is not a spoiler, but we're gonna get into this why they're spoilers You have pictures like this Okay now with these with the first one It's not a spoiler But with the vast majority of the pictures they spoil something before the chapter that they're ahead You're gonna see something you're gonna go Oh, well now I know the fate of that character or now I know what's going to happen in this chapter and It comes to pass every single time which I didn't I thought was kind of crappy I wish it would have been a picture at the end of the chapter at the end of the chapter I think that would have helped quite a bit As far as other characters that I loved Peterkin Christopher Pauly all these characters no matter how small they were to the end Well once you start reading you're gonna realize I like to certain type of character in in this story But uh there you have the Fantasy world afflicted by some kind of cursed disease something they're called the grays of all things Because they literally turn gray. So there's this of this disease going around you have a Betrayal there's a there's a hierarchy monarchy whatever you want to call it There's so much lore packed into this book In fact, I would hazard a guess and say there's just as much lore in this one 600 page book about this one place Then there is throughout the entire dark tower series because mostly what we get is just little snippets from you know Rowan Rowan's point of view. We never got the battle of oh, I can't I'm gonna get blasted for this one But you guys know what tech what battle we didn't get the horn of Eld Anyways, we didn't get the battle. We never got the battle. We get insight into so much of this world I feel like this world actually exists like I was living with these characters going on these adventures My favorite absolute favorite part of this book is when they get into Lilamar, which is the city that they're trying to get to to help radar at this point They're trying to get into the city that was as much fun for me as running as the chase through Ludd at the end of the Wastelands absolutely phenomenal book To those of you who worry about Kings politics you're sick and tired of politics politics politics There is absolute there's almost nothing here that I think there are two or three throw throw away lines Even at one point in time I'm pretty sure King leans to Mr. Bodich who is a good guy in the book being a Trump supporter Being more conservative minded. So but he doesn't go into politics whatsoever Not anything that you know conservative People are going to you know tear their hair out, but those people usually find something anyway, so go in at your own risk with Sorry, just bumped the camera anyways This is a beautiful beautiful story is twists and turns throughout it's just This is this is classic King for me This is King telling a small story and making it huge and sweeping and epic It is at its core a story about a boy and his dog But there's also a lot of Stephen King stuff in here Thursday theorist episode is going to be insanely long because I have a list of about this long of connections and things that I've picked up If you have read Mr. Harrigan's phone if you have read a lowman in yellow coats if you have read Joy, I think it's joyland. There's so many books where King puts a young man with an older man Usually geriatric a teenager and a geriatric You have these two characters and he does that That dynamic very very well and he is at his best In this one when it comes to that in fact I like this more than any of the other ones that I listed like mr. Harrigan's phone, which is going to be a movie pretty soon Uh, let's see here. There's also I believe joyland had have had a little bit of that Um, and the one that I uh, oh, yeah Lowman Ted Brotigan and whatever his name is the boy's name in lowmen in yellow coats Uh, this is the that this is the best version of that dynamic and while I was reading this I couldn't help But feel if you guys play this uh the from soft souls games Um, if you've played elden ring especially and you've played all the rest of them This book is like an amalgamation of everything that makes Stephen king Wonderful let it it's that down You know that close storytelling that makes you feel like you're sitting on a porch drinking lemonade Listen to someone tell you an amazing story and I think that's what all of us love about Stephen king I'm sure there's going to be a lot of you who dislike this book simply because it is an amalgamation of all these different ideas Um, because I you got he even references himself in the book You know, there is kujo exists in this not the the movie and the book kujo exists, but uh, and that's That's really early in the book. I think it's like the first or second chapter. So no spoilers. Um anyways the uh everything that makes Stephen king great is in this book and if you have not read it yet I highly suggest you go out and check it out. Um, it gets my highest seal of approval when it when it comes to Stephen king I'm giving it an easy five stars, which is So relieving after the one star crap show that was billy summers But if you're a steven king fan no matter what era of steven king you like There should be something for you in this book But have you read fairy tale by steven king if you have let me know what you thought of it down there in the Doobly-doo, but until next time I am any you've been you this has been another steven king review Sorry, I got a camera person in the back who is doing my outro with me. Say hi. Hi. Yeah And just completely through I'll talk to you guys later. Bye