Dark Fairy Tales
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Summary
To save his beloved dog, a seventeen-year-old boy sets out on an unknown journey, plunging into a chilling fairy tale and staking his life to rewrite its dark ending.
Translated by Yao Xianghui, translator of The Godfather and The Long Goodbye—an authentic rendering!
This is a breathtaking coming-of-age story.
Charlie Reade looks like an ordinary high school student, good at baseball and football, with decent grades. But he carries a heavy burden. When he was seven, his mother died in a terrible accident, and grief drove his father to drink. Charlie learned to take care of himself—and to take care of his father. At seventeen, Charlie meets a dog named Radar and her elderly owner, Howard Bowditch, a recluse who lives in a big house on top of a hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Strange sounds sometimes come from it.
Charlie starts doing odd jobs for Mr. Bowditch and falls in love with Radar. When Bowditch dies, he leaves behind a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe and revealing a secret he kept all his life: in the shed is hidden a portal to another world.
"The ending of this dark fairy tale—I will rewrite it!"
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers of Stephen King and of horror fiction that blends in fairy-tale elements
- Adult readers who like coming-of-age themes combined with adventure narrative
- Readers looking for a long novel with smooth pacing and a reliable translation
- Readers who can accept a dark atmosphere but value an emotional core
Not a good fit for
- Younger readers or those sensitive to horror and dark subject matter
- Readers expecting a light, comforting fairy-tale mood
- Those who only want short pieces and are unwilling to commit to a long, continuous read
Reading tips
- Go in without preconceptions and follow Charlie's perspective as the secrets of the shed and the other world gradually come together.
- Pay attention to the emotional threads between the boy and his father and between him and Radar; they are the coming-of-age spine beneath the horror.
- Read in continuous sessions; frequent interruptions will dilute the accumulating atmosphere of the dark fairy tale.
- After finishing, revisit the passages about the cassette Bowditch leaves behind to appreciate how the foreshadowing echoes the ending.
About the publisher
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 第1章 该死的桥。奇迹。嚎叫。
- 第2章 鲍迪奇先生。雷达。“疯人院”之夜。
- 第3章 医院探视。胜者从不半途而废。棚屋。
- 第4章 探望鲍迪奇先生。安迪·陈。地下室。其他新闻。医院会面。
- 第5章 购物。我爸的烟斗。鲍迪奇先生来电。面粉罐。
- 第6章 医院探视。保险箱。斯坦顿维尔。黄金贪欲。鲍迪奇先生回家。
- 第7章 第一夜。现在你知道杰克了。一个普通的樵夫。理疗。我爸来做客。奥拉帕尼。鲍迪奇先生的承诺。
- 第8章 桥下的流水。黄金的魔力。老狗。报纸新闻。逮捕。
- 第9章 棚屋里的东西。危险之地。911。钱包。一次很好的谈话。
- 第10章 破坏。里奇兰夫人。讣告窃贼。磁带里的故事。棚屋之中。磁带里的故事，继续。
- 第11章 当晚。课堂发呆。老爸出门。平行世界之井。异界。老妇人。可怕的意外。
- 第12章 克里斯托弗·波利。洒出的金豆。不怎么好。准备工作。
- 第13章 打电话给安迪。雷达的决定。炖菜。古戈尔。
- 第14章 利娅和法拉达。救救她。途中相遇。大灰狼。双月。
- 第15章 告别多拉。难民。彼得金。伍迪。
- 第16章 王国路。克劳迪娅。指示。噪声制造机。帝王蝶。
- 第17章 告别克劳迪娅。回想珍妮。储藏棚屋的一夜。城门。鬼城。
- 第18章 哈娜。风车小径。水池里的恐怖。终于见到日冕。不愉快的相遇。
- 第19章 狗的麻烦。底座。墓地。城门。
- 第20章 邪恶囚牢。哈米。喂食时间。大总管。盘问。
- 第21章 传动机。药药。一点灰色都没有。地牢时光。
- 第22章 运动场。阿米特。洗漱。糕点。煤气灯。
- 第23章 时间是心中的影子。隐晦的历史。克拉。字条。对阵表。
- 第24章 第一轮。最后一组。我的王子。“你怎么看？”
- 第25章 特餐。访客上门。灵感从不敲门。“谁想活到老死？”
- 第26章 地道和车站。抓挠。电车场。血茉莉。欢迎宴会。母亲的哀悼。
- 第27章 会议。虫王。不是迪士尼王子。王子与公主。协议。
- 第28章 进城。哀悼。哈娜。曾经歌唱的她。黄金。厨房。觐见厅。我们必须先上后下。
- 第29章 升降机。尖塔楼梯。杰夫。大总管。“安彼斯的女王将履行职责。”
- 第30章 下一站。地牢。决心。不可能存在的星辰。黑井。歌革玛各。咬下的那一口。
- 第31章 访客。白衣女王。仁慈。伍迪和克劳迪娅。告别安彼斯。
- 第32章 你们要的快乐结局。
- 尾声 提问与回答（至少其中的一部分）。最后一次去安彼斯。
- 致谢
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About the author
Stephen King, born in Portland, Maine, in 1947, is one of the most influential contemporary writers of horror and suspense fiction. He rose to fame with Carrie in 1974 and has since published such representative works as The Shining, It, The Stand, and The Shawshank Redemption. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films. His writing spans horror, mystery and suspense, and essays, and he is known for planting unease and fear in everyday settings, with tight pacing and finely drawn characters. This library holds 22 of his works, including Misery, The Green Mile, and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He has received honors including the Bram Stoker Award and the National Medal of Arts.
Yao Xianghui is a prolific Chinese translator, with 63 translated works held in the library's collection, focusing mainly on foreign literature and science fiction. His translations span a range of styles: classic novels driven by character and narrative, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather and its trilogy; science fiction including The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Illustrated Collector's Edition, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Neuromancer: Count Zero, and the Blindsight & Echopraxia set; works exploring technology and consciousness such as Mind Uploading; and popular science titles. His translations are commonly categorized under foreign literature, science fiction, classics and quality fiction, showing that he works across both genre fiction and serious literature. Public information about Yao Xianghui's personal background, education and awards is limited; he is known to readers mainly through his abundant body of translation work.
