As arguably the single most popular voice in the history of horror fiction, any new work by Stephen King is guaranteed to sell like hotcakes. While that’s proven to be true for the umpteenth time following the release of Fairy Tale, the legendary writer still couldn’t resist taking a shot at one of his favored political targets.
Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis has been coming under sustained fire for his decision to have certain books removed from schools and libraries, something that obviously hasn’t gone down well with the literary community. As one of the most famous authors on the planet, then, King is fully aware his global reach gives him a platform that few in the profession can match.
With that in mind, we should have expected a double-pronged assault when King took to Twitter to inform his millions of followers that not only had Fairy Tale exceeded sales of a million print copies in no time at all, but to the best of his knowledge it wasn’t available in Florida’s scholastic libraries.
Rooted more in fantasy than King’s signature supernatural shenanigans, Fairy Tale follows a 17 year-old kid named Charlie Reade, who inherits a mysterious set of keys that give him the ability to be transported to an otherworldly realm, plunging the youngster directly into a battle between the forces of good and evil.
We’re not saying there’s any thematic subtext between the content of the book and the point King is making, but we all know exactly who he was talking about, even though he didn’t refer to DeSantis by name.