Read Write Edit Play Repeat vol. 37
How Good is Fairy Tale? Let’s Make a Stephen King Top Ten
How Good is Fairy Tale? Let’s Make a Stephen King Top Ten
If you scan social media about the reactions to Stephen King’s Fairy Tale, you will see the near universal approval of the work. I don’t remember the last time a Stephen King work has gotten that level of reaction, even among Stephen King fans. This novel is clearly something special.
Several people have mentioned that this book would go in their top ten list of Stephen King novels. That’s a hell of a statement on the book. I think after reading every one of his releases up through this one, it is time for me to release my top ten list.
Each title is linked to the article I wrote about it, if you want to read more.
So, here goes:
1. 11/22/63 – There are several King novels I’m happy to read multiple times. This one holds almost all its power in the first reading. Based on that first time reading experience, I place this as his best work.
2. The Green Mile – This is a very close second. This may be the closest he has come to writing a perfect novel.
3. The Stand – This is actually my favorite novel and the one I have read the most times. It has the best lines by quantity and power. Every time I read it, I wish it was longer.
4. Fairy Tale – This novel was very good. I kept waiting for something to go wrong, to diminish its power, but the quality held strong all the way through.
5. It – This was the first Stephen King and the first horror book I ever read. Over the years, I started to think it was not as good as I remembered. Upon rereading it, it was better than I remembered.
6. Joyland – This is a hidden gem in Stephen King’s catalog. It benefits from being short. Characters, setting, tone, etc. are all perfect for the story.
7. Mr. Mercedes – The whole trilogy plus is good. The characters are the biggest strength of this book, but the action is amazing too.
8. Billy Summers – This one didn’t wow me in the same way Fairy Tale did. Enough people didn’t like it that I started questioning myself. Upon reflection, despite its flaws, I think it still deserves a spot in the top ten.
9. Revival – This book ties together divergent themes better than anything he has written, maybe aside from Fairy Tale. Faith healers, carnival side shows, rock stars, electricity, science, magic, the afterlife, and the Frankenstein story. It all comes together. This also has the wildest cosmic dark ending of most any book he has ever written.
10. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon – There are plenty of books not on this list that I love more than some of these. In picking the best, I focused on which were objectively the best-written stories, as objective as I could be. This book benefits from being short. It was a direct and focused story line. There was enough left to the imagination that the reader must decide the true nature of the pursuing threat.
Here are some things you might be interested in:
Honoring the Legacy of J.F. Gonzalez
by Jay Wilburn via LitReactor
Talented author J.F. Gonzalez, Jesus to those close to him, died from cancer on November 10, 2014. The loss to his friends, family, and readers was immense. The broader loss to the horror genre and literary world was the equivalent of deleting a storehouse of knowledge and all the future storytelling potential that came with it.
His was a legacy worth preserving, and Gonzalez’s dear friend, fellow author Brian Keene, would be charged with that stewardship, for Jesus’ family, his fans, and future generations of readers. A Herculean effort, because Gonzalez cast a wider shadow than many might realize…
“Live Long Enough”
by Jay Wilburn
The creature’s claw struck Sir Raiden in the breastplate, lifting him off the horse and launching him…
Instructional Video on using Trello to Create a Story Archive
In discussing literary legacies, this video shows how I use Trello as a story archive. Watch it here!
31 and 31
31 stories on my Patreon page in October and 31 stories written live on my Twitch channel.
Thanks, Everybody
Find past newsletters here.
Not a bad top ten. I have not read a few of those, including Fairy Tale. I was not big on The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, despite being a huge baseball fan and a fan of Tom Gordon in particular. Here are my top ten at this very second (because we know opinions can change quite quickly and easily):
1. IT
2. Pet Sematary
3. Revival
4. The Body (I know this novella was part of a collection, but I don't give a damn)
5. Wizard and Glass
6. Night Shift
7. The Shining
8. Dreamcatcher
9. Doctor Sleep
10. Song of Susannah