Well paced Stephen King but god bless this was long. I loved the lead in with Mr Bowditch and Radar the dog, and the sundial turning ages back - that was all very creative. But then Charlie goes down the staircase and things got, well, ho hum. Lots of references to other "fairytales" (Cthulhu, Little Mermaid, Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Rumpelstiltskin) but the drama of the Knight Soldiers and Gladiator style battle scenes with a Jabba the Hut onlooker felt a bit...redone. I've read other fantasyland books - and while I'm not knocking King for his creativity - this kinda felt like more of the same. Hannah and Red Molly were pretty grotesque, the Gray disease reminded me of Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, but a bit more on the Margaret Atwood side. I love Stephen King in general, but he has written better books. I'm not if I'm comparing him to himself or to other books in the fantasy genre. Either way, not bad, but not super memorable either.