First published in 2022 by Scribner, the book is available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library or through the Libby App.

King weaves a spellbinding tale about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes couldn’t be higher for their world or ours. However, King’s usually slow yarn-spinning is even slower. The first two hundred pages feel like a long prologue, which bogs down the book before the action begins.

Charlie Reade might seem like a regular high school kid, baseball, football, decent student, but grief hides beneath the surface. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and his father turned to drink, so Charlie learned to take care of himself and his dad. The issue with this protagonist is how King created him. Charlie doesn’t seem to fit in time and space; he refers to black-and-white movies and old sports stars. King explains this is because of father-son time spent watching TMC and sharing stories, yet it still lacks authenticity. What really stands out is when Charlie gives up his senior year and quits the sports he loves to care for a grumpy old man after he breaks his leg and cannot care for himself.

King’s legendary storytelling captures his audience’s attention, and his book is filled with nods to horror, fantasy, and folk or fairy tales, with clever and delightful homages from Bram Stoker to Disney. The story is a full homage to the genre, showcasing charming characters and big bad villains. Die-hard fans might feel cheated by King’s quick dispatch of the villains with a weapon from our world instead of the Other fairyland setting.

Something that could have been caught during editing is how King went against his own world-building rule. When Charlie goes down the rabbit hole, through the barrier that makes his head blurry, he realizes he’s speaking another language, the language of the Other. He cannot use words for which there are no translations, and at first, King is persistent, even over-explaining this fact. However, towards the end, Charlie suddenly uses everyday words from our world, and his friends from the Other do not understand and ask him what they mean. This happens twice in quick succession. It might seem minor, when in fact, it is indicative of laziness in writing and editing.

It’s not one of King’s best works, even though he brings to life old myths in a land with two moons, a magical sundial that can turn back time, and more. The slower-than-usual pace and the first third of the book, which could have been trimmed to move the action forward, make this a 2.5-star read.