Stephen King Fairy Tale release date

Home > > Fairy Tale: a spellbinding new novel from Stephen King, coming in September!

January 25, 2022

Welcome to the Dark Side of Happily Ever After.

Hodder & Stoughton is thrilled to announce publication of Fairy Tale, a major new novel by international bestseller Stephen King. Hodder will publish in hardback, eBook and audiobook on 6th September 2022.

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 their 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 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 a dog named Radar and his 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.

King’s storytelling in Fairy Tale soars.  This is a magnificent and terrifying tale about another world than ours, in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy – and his dog – must lead the battle.

Early in the pandemic, King asked himself:  ‘What could you write that would make you happy?’

‘As if my imagination had been waiting for the question to be asked, I saw a vast deserted city – deserted but alive.  I saw the empty streets, the haunted buildings, a gargoyle head lying overturned in the street.  I saw smashed statues (of what I didn’t know, but I eventually found out).  I saw a huge, sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds.  Those images released the story I wanted to tell.’

Philippa Pride, Stephen King’s UK editor, says:  ‘Following the No. 1 bestselling thriller Billy Summers, master storyteller Stephen King now turns his amazing imagination to the world of the fairy tale.  If you grew up reading the Brothers Grimm and came of age watching Stranger Things, you will relish this fabulous new novel which reminds us of both the richness of fairy tales and the darker side of the ‘happily ever after’.  Charlie’s quest to save his dog by entering a magical yet decaying land will certainly pull at your heartstrings, and we can’t wait to share this very special book with King’s legions of fans this summer.’

'Bourne' movie alum Paul Greengrass will direct the film version of King’s epic fantasy story for Universal Pictures.

By Benjamin Bullard

Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images and Scribner

Wow — that didn’t take long. Only one month after the book debut of Stephen King’s new fantasy novel Fairy Tale, Universal Pictures has reportedly won a heated bidding skirmish that will transport the 600-page coming-of-age story out of readers’ imaginations and onto the big screen.

Deadline reports that Universal will adapt Fairy Tale into a feature film with director Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, News of the World, the Bourne franchise) at the helm, ending a short-lived but high-stakes studio competition to land the rights to King’s sweeping story of a boy who discovers a incredible fantasy realm.

Written during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “happy” outlet to placate King’s prolific imagination, Fairy Tale debuted in book form last month with a story that follows 17-year-old protagonist Charlie Reade through the doors of a nondescript backyard shed and into a wondrous, but decaying, new world.

'Fairy Tale' is Stephen King's most vivid exploration of the raw power of stories

Like many of King’s fantasy stories, Fairy Tale isn’t a straightforward trip through only the idyllic and enticing parts of new discoveries. Charlie’s had a tough ride in his young life: His mother died in a hit-and-run accident, leaving his father to drown the tragedy in alcohol. But after going to work for a mysterious aging recluse named Howard Bowditch, Charlie eventually stumbles upon a well-concealed portal, long tucked away behind Howard’s decrepit hilltop mansion where the gateway to his high-stakes adventure beckons.

With his dog at his side, Charlie joins a secret conflict of good against evil, set within an alternate land inspired by King’s original visions of gargoyles, “haunted buildings,” “smashed statues,” and “a huge, sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds,” as the author explains in the novel’s synopsis.

Photo: Scribner

“Needless to say, I’m a Paul Greengrass fan and think he’s a wonderful choice for this film,” King said via Deadline’s report, assuring he’s all aboard Universal’s Fairy Tale film treatment. For his part, Greengrass described Fairy Tale as “a work of genius — a classic adventure story and also a disturbing contemporary allegory.”

Greengrass will reportedly produce the film adaptation alongside Greg Goodman (X-Men: First Class, Fantastic Four, Jason Bourne), though there’s no early word on casting or an eventual premiere date. In the meantime, you can get your Stephen King fix with the novel itself, while hitting up Netflix for Mr. Harrigan’s Phone — the latest screen adaptation of the genre master’s work.

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