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Hansel and Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel

By: Stephen King, Maurice Sendak
Narrated by: Stephen King
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About this listen

 The classic, haunting tale of two brave children lost in an eerie and dangerous forest, reimagined by literary legends: Stephen King and Maurice Sendak.

Let Stephen King, global bestselling and award-winning author, and Maurice Sendak, beloved creator of the Caldecott-Medal winning Where the Wild Things Are, guide you into this most deliciously daring rendition of the traditional Grimm fairy tale. But will you find your way back out?©2025 Stephen King Adaptations Classics Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths Literature & Fiction

Critic reviews

Masters of their craft
A modern classic - superb
Gorgeous, Blakean images
Don't get gobbled up. That primal warning is the central thread that glitters darkly through many of the best children's stories... [A] new version of Hansel and Gretel...by Stephen King no less...Yes, please.
Sendak loved the poet and artist William Blake...and his hero's influence illuminates every page of this gorgeous hardback
King's punch-like prose and Sendak's haunting drawings make for an immensely absorbing book: Hansel's nightmarish visions brilliantly project the readers' anxieties. And, as with Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak's drawings tease with their beauty as much as with their menace.
[A}fascinating curio for the horror fan who has small kids
[A] joy from start to end
If your young reader likes fairy tales with a gleefully Gothic edge, this is the book for them
[T]his glorious picture book features King's reimagining of the late illustrator Sendak's beautiful opera set and costume designs for the Humperdinck opera based on Hansel and Gretel. The result is a thrilling book brimming with the menace
A story filled with both darkness and light, traditional and modern storytelling, illustrations that will carry you into the dark wood
A cracker
All stars
Most relevant
only a master of horror could give this story the horror we come of expect

the voice of Stephen King

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Short story but good listening and retelling. Stephen King reads this and his voice is good for storytelling as one would imagine.

Fab story

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This is a cynical production and can only be there to milk the loyal King fans who would purchase anything he writes. I was disappointed with the length of half an hour! and more annoyed with myself that I didn't notice this.
More over this is Stephen King reading a fairy tale, supposedly a re-imagining/re-telling of a classic but to my ears there was no discernable difference to the original, a waste of time and money.

Don't waste your money

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My fault I guess for not noticing that this is just one short story. 30 mins long and it is a fairly standard retelling of the H&G story. Nothing particularly noteworthy so I wonder what the point actually is.

I read somewhere once that SK could have his shopping list published if he wants, as there is such demand for his writing. This feels like a cynical release, to dupe those of us that will always preorder a new SK NOVEL. A whole credit for one lack lustre short story is nuts.

I had pre-ordered this having noticed it was a new release from SK and I THOUGHT it said 30 hours, not minutes. I was looking for an immersive long, tangled tale from the master storyteller.

I am annoyed I wasted a credit on on this. I feel I could have told this well known story myself out loud and it would have been as good. Nothing particularly new or noteworthy here!

I have been a constant reader since Carrie was released in the 70s but I am somewhat baffled by this

Pointless

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Firstly, I didn't notice that the whole thing is only 31 minutes long. I purchased the title through Amazon, and this was not made obvious. Secondly, About half of the 31 minutes is taken up by the preamble and end notes, so the very pedestrian story itself is very short. Thirdly, and I'm actually a big King fan (I think he's one of our best living authors), the story added nothing to the fairytale - I could have told it from memories of reading the original as a child. As per the title of this review, very disappointing

Very disappointed

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