Jessica

I did a lot of crying while reading this book. The window into the loneliness of damaged souls.

“Even in memory she will find this moment unbearably intense, and she's aware of this now, while it's happening. She has never believed herself fit to be loved by any person. But now she has a new life, of which this is the first moment, and even after many years have passed she will still think: Yes, that was it, the beginning of my life.”

There was a time (a thousand years ago) when I could claim to have read everything that Stephen King had written. Generally, horror is not my genre, but his writing is so clear and easy and even though the stories are sometime monstrously long, you never seem to get bored. As a writer, King does not ever waste your time. Fairy Tale is no exception. You forget (if you ever knew) just how fine a line there is between horror and fairytales. Fairy Tale will remind you. A nice follow up to Starling House. 4.5 stars really. Definitely a very satisfying read. If you don't read King because you think of him as only horror, but you do love modern fairy tales, this book was written for you.

Chomped through that like a stone eater. Very stressed about the imminent conflict. On to #3.

Wow. 6 stars.

Pleasure :: 1 Purpose :: 3 Plot :: 3 Prose :: 4 Personal :: 1

Avg → ⭐️⭐️ ½ rounding down

This won the Pulitzer in 2022 for autobiography/memoir. It was fine. It did some things well -- speaking to the Asian immigrant experience (though not as well as *How Far the Light Reaches*) and recalling the solipsism of college students.

But it steps all over itself with the relentless pretension-ness of that same self-centered college student. It feels like the author is still in that space. Perhaps he is.

I def would have def'd it had it been any longer... It was well-written though -- had very high hopes at the outset, for sure. I guess that Harvard PhD was worth it.