Surreal, non-spooky Stephen King.
Before Fairy Tale, I had read only two Stephen King books, On Writing and the first book in the Dark Tower series. On Writing is more autobiographical. The Gunslinger is… something else. Something I should probably revisit. My exposure to King has been minimal, and importantly, none of his spooky thriller stuff. From what I gather, there are generally two kinds of King books. The spooky books, and the surreal books. Fairy Tale falls into the later camp.
King takes his time. The opening chunk of the book isn’t in a hurry to get to anything seemingly related to the title. The leisurely pace is not a bad thing. He doesn’t overstay his welcome, describing a path for a few too many pages (looking at you, Ghost of Tolkien). King luxuriates in the telling of the story. Once I settled into his pace, it just felt right.
As the story progressed I couldn’t put the book down. It’s a considerably sized book as well (I gather this is pretty standard for King). I won’t describe the characters or plot, I recommend going in blind on this one. The book hangover was strong. It feels like a book I’ll revisit a few times over the years.