I didn’t like Fairy Tale either, for most of the reasons you mention. King has never written a word he didn’t love, so frequently we get dull, drawn out preambles, usually about an alcoholic in some fashion, and lame endings.

He writes without a plan, makes it up as he goes. Most of his post-accident work is built upon the same blueprint, with new character names and an “interesting” hook for each book.

He wrote better books when he was high on cocaine and Schlitt’s, 70’s - about ‘88. They’re not perfect, but they’re everything the stuff from ‘99 on isn’t - scary, dark, gross, and passionate. He wanted to gross you out, to scare you with the darkest sides of humanity, to make you squirm. There’s a chapter in The Stand that’s only about nice, normal people dying in the saddest, grossest ways. IT is the same way - my favorite book of his. Misery reads like a stream of consciousness fever dream.

There’s so much value to his current stories - the Hodges trilogy show he’s a master of all genres. Revival is a fantastic read. But in his youth he wrote from a place that he’s spent the last 30 years trying to put behind him.