Fairy Tale is a novel by renowned horror author Stephen King, published in 2022 by Scribner. While King is best known for his works of psychological and supernatural horror, he is also a prolific fantasy writer; he considers his eight-volume fantasy series, The Dark Tower, his magnum opus. Fairy Tale is a portal fantasy about 17-year-old Charlie Reade’s journey through the land of Empis, a fairy tale-inspired alternate reality that is under the control of dark forces. Totaling over 600 pages, it is an epic, coming-of-age tale that encompasses themes of the struggle between good and evil, fate vs. free will, and the consequences of moral decisions. Fairy Tale is a story within a story and is King’s testament to the way that reading and writing shape our humanity.

This guide refers to the 2022 Scribner hardcover version of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain references to substance use disorder.

Plot Summary

Speaking from the future, protagonist Charlie Reade narrates a story from 2013, the year he turned 17. He warns readers that the tale will be hard to believe.

In the small town of Sentry’s Rest, Charlie Reade lives alone with his father after his mother’s death in a tragic accident. Charlie’s father has an alcohol addiction, and Charlie must take care of him for several years despite being a child. One night, a desperate Charlie prays for a miracle, promising to do something good in return. Shortly afterward, his father begins attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and recovers from his addiction. Charlie is overjoyed and vows to fulfill his end of the bargain.

One day when he is 17, Charlie finds his neighbor Mr. Bowditch lying injured on his front porch. Charlie saves Mr. Bowditch and befriends his elderly German shepherd, Radar. Mr. Bowditch grows to trust Charlie, putting him in charge of his old house and dog. Mr. Bowditch reveals himself to be a strange and cagey person whose odd anecdotes remind Charlie of old fairy tales. While his neighbor recovers, Charlie tends to Radar and the house at 1 Sycamore Street, occasionally noticing odd noises coming from a gardening shed in the yard. He forms a close bond with Radar, who is growing frail and ill in her old age. One day, Mr. Bowditch asks Charlie to open a safe in his bedroom, revealing a massive stash of gold pellets.

Shortly after being released from the hospital, Mr. Bowditch dies of a heart attack. He leaves behind a taped message for Charlie, explaining that his shed contains “the well of the worlds,” (185). This well is a portal to another reality called Empis, a strange and wonderful world where two moons rise in the sky. Empis is home to the city of Lilimar, which was once beautiful but fell under the control of an evil being named Flight Killer, who in turn is controlled by a creature named Gogmagog. In Lilimar, there is a magical sundial that can reverse the aging process. In the past, Mr. Bowditch used the sundial on himself and Radar. With his final words, he asks Charlie to take Radar there to prolong her life once more.

Charlie uncovers the well of the worlds in the shed and cautiously enters with Radar. He emerges into Empis, where he meets Dora, a kind woman who knew Mr. Bowditch. The people of Empis are afflicted by a rapidly spreading, wasting curse called “the gray” which deforms and erases their features. They speak of a “promised prince” who will one day save them from Flight Killer and Gogmagog. Charlie learns that he is a “whole person,” immune to the gray. Dora sends Charlie to a girl named Leah, a former princess from the fallen Gallien royal family. The Galliens once ruled Lilimar with a fair and kind hand, but they were slaughtered en masse and driven out of the city by Flight Killer’s cronies. Each surviving Gallien was cursed to lose one of their senses; Leah lost her mouth and cannot speak.

Charlie reaches Lilimar, where he encounters the bloodthirsty giantess named Hana. He finds the sundial and restores Radar’s youth, but before he can leave the city he is captured by the night soldiers, an army of reanimated skeletons who do Flight Killer’s bidding. Radar escapes, but Charlie is taken to the palace and thrown into a dungeon called Deep Maleen. Here, he meets a throng of 30 other prisoners who believe that he is the foretold prince and turn to him for help.

In Deep Maleen, Charlie learns that Flight Killer is Elden Gallien, Leah’s brother. As a child, Elden was ugly, and he endured bullying from all of his siblings except Leah. He made an eldritch deal with Gogmagog, who turned him into Flight Killer. As Flight Killer, Elden engineered the ousting of the other Galliens and sent Hana to kill them, but Leah and a few other relatives escaped. He also set the graying curse on Empis with the powers bestowed on him by Gogmagog. Now, his mission is to round up all the “whole” people in Empis, whose association with the Gallien bloodline makes them immune to the curse.

When the 32nd prisoner arrives in Deep Maleen, Elden hosts an event called the Fair One, a death tournament in which pairs of prisoners are forced to fight to the death. With the other prisoners’ help, Charlie orchestrates a mass escape from the palace in the middle of the tournament. When the survivors emerge from the dungeon, they must fight their way past several formidable enemies. As he steps into the role of hero and leads the fight against Flight Killer’s cronies, Charlie’s physical appearance changes to that of a stereotypical prince, and he realizes that he is becoming part of Empis’s story.

Charlie reunites with Radar, Leah, and the other Empirians. They warn him that when Empis’s two moons collide, Flight Killer will open a portal beneath the palace called the Deep Well and unleash Gogmagog. Charlie formulates a plan to kill Flight Killer, but Leah refuses to believe that he is the Elden she once loved. Leah, Charlie, and the liberated prisoners enter the palace and locate the Deep Well, a Lovecraftian chamber of horrors in the deepest part of the castle. Leah faces off with Flight Killer, who has transformed into an eldritch monster, finally accepting that he is what remains of her brother. The moons collide, and Flight Killer manages to open the Deep Well before Charlie kills him. Gogmagog begins to emerge, but Charlie, remembering the story of Rumpelstiltskin, drives Gogmagog back by shouting his name. He closes the Deep Well, and he and Leah escape the palace.

With Flight Killer defeated and Gogmagog sleeping once again, Leah is free to take back power as Empis’s queen. Charlie says goodbye to his Empirian friends and journeys back through the well of the worlds with Radar. He emerges into his original reality to discover that he’s been missing for four months. Charlie and his father reunite, and Charlie takes him to the portal’s mouth to prove the truth about Empis. They then seal off the well of the worlds to protect the two realities from one another. Charlie concludes the novel by reflecting on the happenings in his life since he sealed up the well. He teaches a mythology class at NYU and still enjoys a close relationship with his father and Radar. One day, he hopes to have children to whom he can pass on his archive of stories.