Read this as part of CBR14Bingo: heart. One of the characters has a heart attack, won’t say which one. Also, Stephen King is a writer who has my heart. I love his books but this one was bad.
I don’t really know where to start with how much I did not enjoy this book. And I feel terrible for that because I love Stephen King and appreciate what he is trying to do: rewrite beloved fantasy tales as a means of pandemic escapism. But ugh, this is bad.
-Another elongated setup of someone struck down by and overcoming alcoholism. I have recovering alcoholics in my family. I love them. It is an incredible hurdle. I admire King himself for staring down his own demons. But this a story I’ve read time-and-time again. It took way too long, did nothing to enhance the narrative and made the book a slog from the start.
-More table setting between the characters. Some reviewers thought the relationship building in the early part was the book’s strength and it went downhill from there. I’m the opposite: it was bad to begin with and I couldn’t wait to get things started…
-Only when we finally get to the fairy tales themselves, I have no connection the main character and while the world King describes is lovely, it’s also familiar and uninspiring. We get the eventual Manichaean confrontation which I won’t spoil. But it all felt too rote to enjoy.
If you like fairy tales and the history behind them, you may appreciate this one. Otherwise, unless you’re a Constant Reader like I am, I’d give this one a hard pass.