Faerie Tale is a novel by Raymond E. Feist, published in 1988.
Screenwriter Phil Hastings and his wife Gloria move back to his hometown with his teenaged daughter Gabby and their twin sons Sean and Patrick, where he hopes to focus on his efforts as a novelist. Gabby is initially upset to be pulled away from California to the backwoods of upstate New York, but a handsome neighbor begins to change her mind, while Sean and Patrick are thrilled by the woodlot and wilderness nearby to explore.
As the family settles into their new home, however, strange things begin to happen, and evidence piles up that the previous owner was involved in mysterious happenings. Now the pact that holds the Faerie Court in check is nearing its end, and unless the Hastings family can learn what's happening and how to renew it, they will be the first victims.
This book provides examples of:
- Break the Cutie: This is the Shining Man's plan for Patrick and Sean. He managed to this to The Bad Thing, who wasn't always a monster. After this reveal, Sean is horrified and even more determined to get themselves to safety.
- Changeling Tale: Patrick is taken away by "the shining man" and replaced by a changeling. The family takes the false child to the hospital, and there is a chilling description of the changeling's behavior, and how modern medicine attempts to explain it (that his brain was damaged by fever, that they don't understand how his brain could look like it does under an MRI)
- Chekhov's Gun: At his birthday party, Phil receives a silver letter opener, which later is fashioned into a dagger and used against the Shining Man.
- The Dreaded: Entity known as The Fool (or the Shining Man as Sean dubbed him) has a fearsome reputation. Barney doesn't even mention his name in the stories he tells the boys, because that would scare them too much. Other faeries are terrified of him as well. Extra bonus points for this trope: he has the ability to induce fear, and at first the threat, that he poses remains unexplained.
- Exact Words: Sean speaks the true name of the Shining Man Amadan-na-Briona and commands him to let his brother go and to not follow them. When boys reach the Hall of Ancient Seasons, they find Shining Man inside. Sean calls him a cheater, but as the Shining Man says, he was forbidden to follow them not to ride ahead of them and wait for them there.
- Fearless Fool: Patrick often confuses stupidity with courage - a crowning example of this is when he tries to cross a stream in the rain, something he had been warned about. As a result of this action he nearly drowns.
- The Fair Folk: Drive the plot. The good elves are dangerous and the evil ones are planning a genocidal war, and the Hastings' new home is at the center of it.
- I Know Your True Name: Speaking name of the faerie gives you some power over them. However, there's a catch: you can command them only once, and if there's any way they can get around your command, they will.
- Kick the Dog: The Bad Thing kills Hastings' family cat Ernie.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Subverted. The guy who figures out what's going on expects to be killed, but the Ancient Tradition people tell him not to be so melodramatic and give him Laser-Guided Amnesia instead.
- Kneel, Push, Trip: Sean and Patrick use a variant to defeat the Shining Man: Sean gets on hands and knees behind the Shining Man, and Patrick, who is a star Little League pitcher, grabs a handy baseball-size item and throws it at the Shining Man as hard as he can. The Shining Man stumbles backward from the impact, then falls over Sean and through a magical doorway, and becomes trapped on the other side.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Faeries and the Magi have power to alter people's memories. It takes a lot of effort for Gabbie and Jack to remember their encounters with the faeries, and Mark have to record a voicemail for himself so he wouldn't forget.
- Silver Has Mystic Powers: Only weapons made of silver have the ability to wound a faerie.
- Tragic Monster: "The Bad Thing", was once a child.
- Would Hurt a Child: In general, there is the fact that the Hastings children are stalked by people who want to hurt them. Gabbie is nearly raped by the "shining man" and it's heavily implied that he wants to do the same with Patrick and Sean.
