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Fairy Tale [Hardcover] By Stephen King, Lord of the Flies By William Golding 2 Books Collection Set

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Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched

Titles In This
Fairy Tale [Hardcover]
Lord of the Flies

Fairy Tale [Hardcover] By Stephen King, Lord of the Flies By William Golding 2 Books Collection

Fairy Tale [Hardcover]:
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. 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.

Lord of the
A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive, and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance..

Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

19 people are currently reading
173 people want to read

About the author

Stephen King

2,356 books891k followers
Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

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5 stars
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26 (16%)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Macak Cro.
11 reviews
January 10, 2024
Stephen King's Fairy Tale, was a very enjoyable and fascinating read. Absolute page turner with plots, characters and stories that made me want to consume it all at once. King at his best.
Profile Image for Naching T. Kassa.
Author 63 books15 followers
November 17, 2022
*I didn't read the two-book collection. I only read the hardcover by Stephen King.
This is one of the best Stephen King books I have ever read. There is so much to love about this book.
but the most wonderful thing, is the love a boy has for his dog and the journey he takes for her. Beautiful story!
Profile Image for Gabriella Falkowski.
8 reviews
December 13, 2025
fairytale by stephen king

I’ve had a few days to fully digest how deeply this book affected me, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the best book I have ever read.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King felt like I read five different books in one, and I loved every single second of it. It does take a while to get into the “fairy tale” part of the story, but the beginning is necessary to fully appreciate the depth of the characters and the world. The ending tied everything together perfectly, Stephen King conveyed the conflict Charlie was feeling so well that I’m still conflicted myself about how I would have handled the existence of Empis.

One of the best parts of the entire story is Mr. Bowditch’s dog, Radar, and the love everyone has for her. For the majority of the book, I was more concerned about Radar’s well-being than anyone else. I love this dog like she is real, and I wish she were.

The descriptions of the other world were so vivid that I could clearly imagine it. I felt like I could hear how the characters would sound and visualize every moment of the story.

I wish I could read this book for the first time again. Safe to say, everyone needs to read it, even if you’re not a fan of fantasy.

I’m at the point where I could talk about this book for hours. I would recommend it to strangers on the street. I need everyone in my life to read it so I can discuss every chapter one by one.
Profile Image for Marilyn.
588 reviews
September 25, 2023
This review refers to the King book only; I don't know why Lord of the Flies popped up on Goodreads as well.

This is a nice mix of reality and fantasy, mostly devoid of the kind of blood and gore we usually associate with Stephen King. It's a good, fast moving story, although I found the protagonist, a 17-year-old high school student named Charlie Reade, a bit too good to be believable. On the other hand, the second major character, a German Shepard named Radar, was a complete delight from beginning to end. I got a bit weary of the endless description of the strange world Charlie finds himself in, but the plot, characters and dialogue all held my interest, despite the long length (1000 pages in large print) of the book. King takes his sweet time developing each element, and he is such a prose master one doesn't concern oneself with length. A nice surprise from the horror master.
1 review
August 2, 2023
It was both good, with some believable/relatable/realistic characters and also some really 2-dimensional and sort of cheap filler characters. The dog was probably the best character of the lot 😂 but I did like the narrator quite a bit. The cast of villains was so meh though - I felt like I'd seen them all so many times that his thing about "fairy tales all stem from reality/recognizable archetypes" seemed sort of overplayed and lacked originality. The bad guys in general felt sort of like the watered down baddies we had from fantasy adventure cartoons in the 80s-90s. Don't know if it was intentional, but it felt like his normal horror was being phoned in to fill the gaps of what would otherwise almost have just been an explorer's memoir.

The whole first third of the book was build up with a lot of pretty obvious "hints" and a ton of useless exposition that could have been cut out and had zero impact on the plot. It was a long read and while I don't feel it was a waste of time, it reminded me of why I generally avoid his books
19 reviews1 follower
October 23, 2022
It’s late, so I’ll keep this short. One reviewer said this harkens back to the old King, and she’s right. I thought I caught a whiff of Christine at the outset. High school student gets mixed up with mysterious old curmudgeon. Dividing the book up between horror and fantasy would be too facile but they’re both present. But I never read King for horror, and I usually can’t take fantasy (Tolkien, Rowling). I read King because he’s a fantastic writer. He writes page-turners. He never confuses or bores his faithful readers. I think there’s only one book by King and someone else where the fantasy became just too ridiculous and I had to put it down. But I’ve read just about all the rest of King and liked it. This excellent book is long, like The Stand. It’s got a little of The Dark Tower too. And I’m not a spoiler, so let’s just say I was a happier camper after reading this than his excellent Revival.

Sorry about Lord of the Flies. I read it too long ago to review it.
Profile Image for Chad Peterson.
14 reviews1 follower
August 2, 2023
Only read Fairy Tale this time around, though I've read Lord of the Flies in the past. Fairy Tale is extremely engrossing, and animal/dog lovers will be particularly appreciative of the relationship created between Charlie and Radar, but also Mr. Bowditch and Radar.

Like so many of his books, this one establishes a sense of reality and honesty, and then gradually pulls you into a deeper mystery and a more supernatural world. By the time things start getting weird you're already so connected to the characters that it all feels completely honest.

Definitely worth a read!
1 review1 follower
December 29, 2022
The Fairy Tale is a gripping read, especially the parts when the author is describing the plot. It's as good as three books in one. This book surely titilated the imaginative corners of my brain. I I found myself getting sucked into this imaginative world, and thoroughly enjoyed this long read. The end however was a bit rushed in my opinion but I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good story!
Profile Image for Jasmine .
7 reviews1 follower
January 21, 2023
Finally a book that allows me to read fairy tales as an adult! Enjoyed the journey, even if I was distracted by how the narrator didn't naturally feel like a young boy but Stephen King himself. I was glad for the admission at the end of the book that it was written from the perspective of the boy, who was a man when he recounted his tale. The author's self awareness enabled me to still enjoy the story for what it was, an entertaining fairy tale with a dark twist.
Profile Image for Kim Bock.
Author 9 books15 followers
January 26, 2024
I’ve read Lord of the Flies some time ago and watched the movie. Enjoyed both.

Stephen King…well you need almost not say more. He remains one of the best writers of Horror, Suspense and yes, Fantasy. He’s been an inspiration to me since the day I discovered the first book that he’s written that I’ve read. That book was The Dark Half. I haven’t discovered a book of Stephen King, including his Semi Memoir, “On Writing”. This book was no different.
Profile Image for Lenore.
47 reviews2 followers
November 10, 2023
(I only read Fairy Tale). Excellent. This really could've been part one and part two. It was probably one of my favorite Stephen King books. It was less horror and more fantastical, but there were certainly some scary elements and visions. An epic tale that leaves me satisfied but also with wonder at what the book's world will experience in the future.
4 reviews
July 28, 2023
A book that was great until it wasn’t. Nice story and mix of fantasy. Then, the ending seemed as if they met the contract page requirement and plop - dropped a poop in your lap. Disappointing because after I invested 598 pages i wanted a real ending.
Profile Image for Kel Abbott.
8 reviews
August 2, 2023
This was my first Stephen King book I have read and I am now a fan . An old friend and I had a book club and it was up on our list. Life got in the way and we’re not longer friends but I’m thankful for him introducing me to Stephen King.
Profile Image for Mary Findley.
30 reviews1 follower
October 12, 2022
A wonderful adventure that hearkens back to older Stephen King. I loved this!
470 reviews1 follower
November 14, 2022
While this is a good story; I’ve read so many more of his works that were so much better!!!!
8 reviews
December 31, 2022
I haven’t read many of Stephen Kings books but this one was very good! I enjoyed the story line but I read it through Audible and it was a longer one.
7 reviews
July 29, 2023
I read a 1 book paperback edition. There various versions.
The book wasn't my favourite of his work.
I never felt there was an element of doubt about what would happen.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Teresa Soley.
13 reviews
July 30, 2023
It is not scary but it keeps you wanting to read more. I absolutely loved it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
11 reviews1 follower
September 1, 2023
I didn’t read Lord of the flies yet…but Fairy Tale by Stephen King…man was that a great book!! Amazing
Profile Image for Beth Hall.
97 reviews
September 2, 2023
Fairy Tale…hands down one of my favorite king books…but we all know I’m a fan
Profile Image for Beth.
1,074 reviews3 followers
September 9, 2023
A little too obvious fairy tale/living in an alternate world parallels. And not everything was logical or needed - wanted to edit so many re-caps!
Profile Image for Leonhard Zeck.
5 reviews
March 17, 2025
slow pacing in the start snowballs into action after action late in the end, whereas the worldbuilding got way more complicated. fun read tho. would recommend
460 reviews8 followers
March 16, 2023
great read. i was drawn into this book right away. the fairtale part took a little for me to connect to. it really kept me on the edge of my seat trying to get it finished.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

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