The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: King, Stephen. Fairy Tale. Scribner, Sept. 6, 2022. Kindle.

In the fantasy novel Fairy Tale by Stephen King, Charlie Reade did not have a fairy tale life. His mother was killed in a tragic accident when he was seven. His father’s grief drove him to alcoholism. Charlie had years where he and a friend played pranks of which Charlie was not proud. When Charlie made a promise to God that he would return the favor if God would make his father stop drinking, Charlie never dreamed where that promise would take him.

Charlie’s life changed when he heard the desolate howls of a dog as he walked past the ramshackle house where Howard Bowditch, an eccentric elderly man who preferred to keep to himself, lived. Charlie discovered that Bowditch had fallen from his ladder and broken his leg. Charlie convinced Bowditch to allow him to take care of Radar, Bowditch's elderly German Shepard, while Bowditch was in the hospital. Soon, Bowditch trusted Charlie enough to tell him there was a bucket of gold pellets in his safe in his upstairs bedroom. Bowditch instructed Charlie to trade several pounds of the gold for a check that would cover Bowditch’s hospital bill. Bowditch promised to tell Charlie the story of the gold later. He claimed he had not stolen it.

Meanwhile, Charlie, now a teenager, stayed with Bowditch and helped him recover from his injuries. Soon Bowditch was on his feet again. Charlie and Bowditch’s concerns turned to Radar, who was having more and more difficulty walking because of her old arthritic hips. They started her on an experimental medication that helped rejuvenate her. It would also shorten her life.

Bowditch never told Charlie about the gold, and he would not allow Charlie to enter a shed on the property. One day when Radar alerted them to a skittering noise in the shed, Bowditch got his gun and went to the shed where he shot something. Charlie could tell the stress of what happened in the shed had hurt Bowditch’s health, but Bowditch claimed he was recovering. A few days later, Charlie received a phone call from Bowditch telling him he was having a heart attack. He told Charlie everything he needed was under the bed. Bowditch died on the way to the hospital.

After Bowditch’s funeral, Charlie learned from Bowditch’s lawyer that Bowditch had willed all of his property to Charlie. Back at the house, Charlie listened to a cassette tape he found under the bed. In the recording, Bowditch described a stairway in the shed that led to another world. He begged Charlie to keep this world a secret from everyone because he feared the wrong people might exploit it. He also described a sundial in the center of a deserted, haunted city that would reverse Radar’s age if Charlie was willing to risk the trip to put her on the dial.

Charlie and Radar made the trip down the stone staircase that Bowditch described to him. There, Charlie met Dora, a friend of Radar and Bowditch. Dora sent him to speak to Leah. Leah, a princess whose family once ruled in Empis, sent him to talk to her uncle, Woody, and then his cousin, Claudia, for more directions on how to safely reach the sundial and escape the city without being captured. Leah, Woody, and Claudia had all been cursed by the evil Flight Killer who now ruled in Empis. Leah had no mouth, Woody was blind, and Claudia was deaf. Other, non-royal people in the land had been infected with a wasting disease that turned their skin gray and deformed their faces. Their bodies became progressively deformed until they could no longer breathe.

Charlie successfully made it to the sundial even though Radar’s condition was deteriorating so rapidly he feared he would be unable to save her. Returning from the sundial, however, Charlie became lost. A revengeful man named Peterkin erased the marks Bowditch had made that should have led Charlie safely from the city. Even without those marks, Charlie managed to locate the city wall and follow it to the gate just as Hana, a giant, and a team of night soldiers caught up with him. The gate opened enough for Radar to slip through, but Charlie was captured.

Charlie woke up in prison. He learned that Flight Killer planned to use the 32 prisoners he had captured as a form of entertainment in the town’s arena. The prisoners would be paired off to fight each other to the death. Charlie learned Flight Killer hated these prisoners, referred to as whole people, because they had royal blood. This blood protected them from contracting the gray disease.

Before Charlie’s time in prison, Charlie had noticed his brown hair was becoming lighter. His cellmate pointed out to him one day that his hair was almost completely blond. His brown eyes were also a lighter color. Many prisoners believed these were signs that Charlie was the prince who had been sent to save them.

Pursey, the man who delivered food to the prisoners, told Charlie a way to escape from the prison. They had already been forced to fight one round of the competition and did not want to be forced to kill off any more of their fellow prisoners. As the prisoners ran for the main gate of the city, they were chased by Hana’s daughter named Red Molly and night soldiers from Flight Killer’s guard. Charlie found Bowditch’s gun, which he had discarded by the prison wall before he was arrested, and shot Red Molly. The remaining night soldiers were suffocated by a flock of Monarch butterflies.

Charlie, Leah, and a few of the other prisoners returned to the palace to follow Flight Killer to the Dark Well where he had gone to get more evil power. Leah, who had not wanted to acknowledge it was her beloved brother who had brought so much suffering to the kingdom, accepted how evil he had become and killed him.