Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Fairy Tale
    Fairy Tale
    Fairy Tale
    Audiobook24 hours

    Fairy Tale

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Stephen King and Seth Numrich

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the 2023 Audie Award for Best Male Narrator

    A #1 New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice!

    Legendary storyteller 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 that world or ours.

    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 horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. 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. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it.

    Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

    Magnificent, terrifying, and “spellbinding…packed with glorious flights of imagination and characteristic tenderness about childhood, Fairy Tale is vintage King at his finest” (Esquire).

    “Good, evil, a kingdom to save, monsters to slay—these are the stuff that page-turners are made from.” —Laura Miller, Slate

    Editor's Note

    Good versus evil…

    Charlie Reade, a lonely teenager with problems at home, befriends the elderly Mr. Bowditch. The more time Charlie spends at Mr. Bowditch’s home, the more curious he becomes about the shed out back — and the unearthly noises coming from within. Of course, it wouldn’t be a true King (“Billy Summers”) novel if the oddly mysterious didn’t morph into a fantastical adventure full of good versus evil and quests for survival.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 6, 2022
    ISBN9781797145297
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

    Related authors

    Related to Fairy Tale

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      8 Best Stephen King Books That Will Have You Gripped

      Mar 14, 2021

      To say that readers love Stephen King is a huge understatement. The most recent count of his total sales came to a whopping 350 million and his affable online presence, no-nonsense attitude to transphobia and right-wing politics, and extremely genero

      5 min read

    • Article

      Fairy Tale

      Sep 7, 2022

      Fairy Tale
      2 min read

    • Article

      Getaway Driver

      Feb 10, 2022

      Getaway Driver
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Amazing Ranchero Slide

      Aug 26, 2019

      The Amazing Ranchero Slide
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tumblong Tavern

      Oct 20, 2023

      Tumblong Tavern
      8 min read

    • Article

      Watching The World Go By

      Aug 3, 2021

      I think almost every house in Kansas had a porch swing. It was 1950 and no one had air conditioning, so we waited until the sun had gone down below the giant elm trees, and then people would wander out to their porches to sit in their porch swings an

      4 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Sep 7, 2023

      It Happened to Me…
      8 min read

    • Article

      Royal Hotel, Mt Hope

      Nov 14, 2018

      Royal Hotel, Mt Hope
      6 min read

    • Article

      Beneath the Pennsylvania MOON

      Jun 1, 2021

      Beneath the Pennsylvania MOON
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Pub At Woodstock

      Dec 23, 2021

      A Pub At Woodstock
      8 min read

    • Article

      Your Poetry

      May 28, 2021

      Email your poems to: (editorial@choicemag.co.uk) or post to Your Poetry, Choice, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, Peterborough PE2 6GX There’s a train that runs on barren track, along the side & at the back,of the caravan. The children laugh & sho

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Men, One Story

      Mar 1, 2024

      Two Men, One Story
      6 min read

    • Article

      Thumbs Up...

      May 10, 2022

      Thumbs Up...
      10 min read

    • Article

      Everywhere You Don’t Belong

      Jan 23, 2020

      Everywhere You Don’t Belong
      6 min read

    • Article

      Thumbs Up…

      May 10, 2022

      Thumbs Up…
      10 min read

    • Article

      Thumbs Up…

      May 10, 2022

      Thumbs Up…
      10 min read

    • Article

      Refusenik

      Jan 1, 2021

      I was promised a girl held her glossy image, shatterable, ice skating on a Soviet pond. I’d never seen snow but for the cut out paper flakes hung in school hallways. I only knew rain as intermittent confusion. Los Angeles in the ’80s. We set fire to

      7 min read

    • Article

      BITS & PIECES

      Jun 1, 2021

      On Saturday afternoons in the late summer and early fall in 1938, my dad and I would walk three blocks from our house to our local drugstore for our ice-cream treat. On our walks, the trees on each side of the street were covered with late summer/ear

      3 min read

    • Article

      Black Stump Hotel, Merriwagga

      Nov 14, 2018

      Black Stump Hotel, Merriwagga
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Fairy Tale

    4.5/5

    3,191 ratings256 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Start to finish. A true Gem. Going to re re ad

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      King does not disappoint. He lulls you with a seemingly coming of age story and then plunges you into a dark fairytale that is so hauntingly beautiful with it brutality that when it’s over, you ache for a world that lives in his mind.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I was not disappointed. One of his best & I look forward to the next Stephen King Novel.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I loved this story! I really hope a movie is made!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      So the story itself is good if you are familiar with s.king and his writings. I only have two complaints one from the actual story and two is the playback. The first thing is his use of GD. In the story. Yes I know and expected it some from King but he literally uses it like ten times in first three minutes over and over to describe a bridge. I understand the reason for why he hates the bridge but that just seems redundant.
      Second is the playback of story there’s a couple spots where it skips ahead in middle of chapter and once it went back and repeats. But it’s not too bad you can still follow along with the story ok.
      Just warning if you listen to Stationary Bike by King it wouldn’t play at all. I got first 3 minutes then it was over.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Great! This one was great! I loved Seth too! Thanks

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It pulls you into the adventure. It’s not what you’re expecting. Keeps you on your toes.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing Amazing Amazing,I completely loved this book it was Steven king old style,although I love most of his books,never had I enjoyed one so much since The tailsman and black house. I don’t know where to begin,from start to finish it’s hard to put down,I’m just gonna say READ THIS!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I fell in love with the characters. I didn’t want the story to end. All good things do.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I'm no good at writing reviews. I will just say that I enjoyed the tale immensely and another great work by a great writer.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I think this book just shows how vast the imagination can become if you let your mind go to different places, places created in your mind. The good and evil in all places, the good that become bad, being forced to be on a side you don’t want to be on but keeps you alive. Being courageous and selfless for others. It was by far the best fairy tale I’ve ever read!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Different genre from what Mr. King's usual, but definitely as good as any of his books. Of course you can read traces of him everywhere, and that's fantastic

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      What a magnificent piece of magic. I loved every bIt of this book

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Had to stop. Once he starts going down into make believe land, I just lost interest completely. This isn't like The Stand or IT - both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and couldn't stop listening to. There's a lot of King's liberal nonsense sprinkled throughout. A teacher asking for the boy's take on "blue on black crime." ? Or the woman making a circle with her fingers, "like how white people say whites rule." Nobody does that. Give me a break. Leave your political nonsense out of your books.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A book I will most definitely reread! The narrator made this book go from a 7-10 in the first chapter.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      One of Stephen King’s best. Twists and turns to keep you engaged till the end.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite books and one of King’s best!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Mr. King, thank you so much for this story! I have been looking for this gateway to another world in my head like this ever since the Tower series. You took me away...
      Far, far away and wishing I could go back. PLEASE LOL :)

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing book! Loved loved loved this book! Feel empty without it!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Bros. Grimm Meets Lovecraft. It is beautifully done. The narrator did an excellent job with such a large number of characters.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing! I want to read more books like this. Such a great book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It has been a Loooong time since I’ve had a book Hangover. I don’t want it to be done! I want more Empis stories!!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Beautiful storytelling but I wish I knew more about what happened to all the creatures in the other world.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this one a lot. The narration was excellent.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I’m a big fan of Stephen King and this book didn’t disappoint me, I loved it and I will definitely read it again in some months, I’m sure of it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      As if the story wasn’t incredible and immersive enough as it was, this narrator though! I just want him to read every book to me from now on. I can’t get over his intonation, and the way he differentiates voices. His giantesses! I fell out of my chair laughing while “Hannah” was singing her lewd song with the voice he gave her. In general, I prefer reading to audiobooks, but I am thrilled I made an exception this time. I knew King wouldn’t disappoint, but the reading on this is PHENOMENAL.
      That acknowledged, this is one of those stories I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for. I love a dark fairytale, and this one effortlessly weaves the reality of our world with the horrible magic of another - without leaving loose ends, but also without unnecessary explanations. The story moves along at a rapid clip, but tells every juicy, adventurous step along the way. Highly recommend to almost everyone I know, whether they love fantasy, horror, adventure, or a good coming of age story.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Absolutely outstanding. Really incredible how big a story king was able to cram into this and still wrap it up nicely.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It delivered. As always.
      On to the next one !

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It's a lovely story. A boy, his dog, a magical kingdom.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Another edge of my seat King Story. One good book

      1 person found this helpful