Early in “Fairy Tale,” Stephen King points out that the original “Jack and the Beanstalk” was much darker and more violent than the version that’s popular these days. Far from just briefing us on literary history, King is foreshadowing what lies ahead.

Teenage Charlie is hired by an elderly neighbor, Mr. Bowditch, who has suffered a broken leg. It’s an easy job. He stops by the house a couple of times a day to dole out Bowditch’s pain pills and tend to his dog. In the evening, he returns, keeping Bowditch company as they watch old movies on TV. (King mentions Turner Classic Movies so many times that we wonder if they paid a product placement fee.)

For these easy tasks, Charlie is paid $500 a week, which even he thinks is excessive until he discovers that the old man has squirreled away a wealth of gold nuggets. Bowditch finally admits that a deep hole in his backyard that resembles an abandoned well actually is a passageway to a mystical land that is the source of the gold.

While Jack climbed up the beanstalk, Charlie is going to climb down the hole. And from what King said earlier, we know that when he gets to the bottom, he isn’t going to find an enchanted goose laying golden eggs.

Unlike “Jack and the Beanstalk,” it’s unlikely that this is going to be adapted for a Little Golden Book. But we suspect that King is fine with that.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. “Carrie Soto Is Back,” Taylor Jenkins Reid

2. “The Ink Black Heart,” Robert Galbraith

3. “Other Birds,” Sarah Addison Allen

4. “All Good People Here,” Ashley Flowers

5. “The 6:20 Man,” David Baldacci

6. “The Challenge,” Danielle Steel

7. “Overkill,” Sandra Brown

8. “Girl, Forgotten,” Karin Slaughter

9. “The Hotel Nantucket,” Elin Hilderbrand

10. “Babel,” R.F. Kuang

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” Jennette McCurdy

2. “The Great Reset,” Alex Jones

3. “Breaking History,” Jared Kushner

4. “The Rise of Women and Wealth,” Cindy Couyoumjian

5. “The God of the Way,” Kathie Lee Gifford

6. “Diana, William, and Harry,” Patterson/Mooney

7. “Crazy Joy,” Mary Katherine Backstrom

8. “Global Class,” McDaniel/Wehage

9. “Atlas of the Heart,” Brené Brown

10. “We Never Die,” Matt Fraser

MASS MARKET

1. “The Judge’s List,” John Grisham

2. “Where the Crawdads Sing,” (media tie-in) Delia Owens

3. “2 Sisters Detective Agency,” Patterson/Fox

4. “Sons of Thunder,” Johnstone/Johnstone

5. “Clive Cussler’s The Devil’s Sea,” Dirk Cussler

6. “Nothing to Lose,” J.A. Jance

7. “Secrets,” Fern Michaels

8. “To the River’s End,” William W. Johnstone

9. “Enemy at the Gates,” Vince Flynn

10. “The Next Accident,” Lisa Gardner

TRADE PAPERBACK

1. “Verity,” Colleen Hoover

2. “Reminders of Him,” Colleen Hoover

3. “Love on the Brain,” Ali Hazelwood

4. “Feeding Littles and Beyond,” Ali Maffucci

5. “The 2023 Old Farmer’s Almanac,” Old Farmer’s Almanac

6. “Book Lovers,” Emily Henry

7. “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook,” Ellen Marie Wiseman

8. “The Ninth Month,” Patterson/DiLallo

9. “Every Summer After,” Carley Fortune

10. “The Wish,” Nicholas Sparks