Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Grimrose Girls

It was gripping but the characters were flat, I didn't care for any of them, the whole magic thing came out of nowhere and felt weird (and hopefully it gets explained on the second book because it wasn't on this one), and the representation was done very poorly: Ella's "OCD" is nothing like real OCD, Rory, Nani and Yuki's sexualities felt very stereotypical, and Yuki being so cold and emotionless is a harmful aroace stereotype, far from the truth (even tho it can be explained by the fact that she was been brought up to be perfect, perfect can still show emotions), and while I don't think the author was trying to say trans people are beasts, making the only trans character The Beast/Adam from Beauty and the Beast was still a poor choice (because we see that the characters and their stories from the book aren't modern versions of their fairy-tale counterparts that follow exactly the same paths, like Micaeli, I think what the author wanted to do was make Svenja's transition represent Adam going back to his real form after being freed from the witch's curse, without being literal to the story and making it all "oh I found love and that's what made me strong enough to be my true self"). I'm debating between reading the second one (partly because I'm a scaredy cat and this made me sleep with my lights on lmao) and just finding the most spoilery review possible to find out what happens

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stewartj0421's review

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

The concept of this book was intriguing from the get-go. I am always a fan of modern retellings of classic stories. However, there were a number of issues that impacted my enjoyment of this book.

Firstly — and this is no fault of the author — I think I am past the stage of enjoying YA. There were elements of the story that simply came across too undeveloped-frontal-lobe for me. However, I must also say that the highest quality YA books should be enjoyable for adults. The quality of this book did not meet that standard.

My second issue is with the editing of the book. There were lots of errors throughout the story that caused me to believe it was poorly translated, at which point I read the author’s biography and confirmed that she is Brazilian, which likely affected some of the composition and structure of the sentences. While I have great admiration for an author who writes in many languages and/or in a language that is not their first, a poorly written or translated story does not make for an enjoyable reader experience. There were just too many awkwardly phrased sentiments for my taste.

Lastly, I struggled with alternating between four different character perspectives. While I understand the purpose was to

familiarize us with each of the main “princesses” of the story individually

, in effect it made it more difficult to keep track of everything that was happening.

Despite my criticisms, I am a huge fan of the concept and I think the author is commendable for taking on such a concept in the first place. While I will not be reading the second book, I do hope that some of my issues are improved upon in future publications by this author, because I think she has the potential to be a great storyteller.

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fallandfox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Após a morte misteriosa de sua melhor amiga, Ella, Yuki e Rory viraram o assunto do momento em sua escola de elite, Grimrose Académie. A policia esta considerando a morte de Ariane como suicídio e o trio esta determinado para descobrir o que realmente aconteceu. Quando Nani Eszes a nova colega de quarto de Yuki e Rory chega uma serie de eventos começa a ocorrer e com isso elas descobrem que Ariane não foi a primeira garota a morrer de forma estranha em Grimrose e como contos de fadas e velhas maldições então envolvidas nisso.
Eu acabei pegando o ARC do segundo livro para ler e quando comecei estranhei a forma como a autora descrevia eventos como se fosse para eu ja ter conhecimento e entrei e descobri que estava na continuação infelizmente.
Acabei já entrando com a revelação de quem mandou a mensagem para a Ariane mas isso não atrapalhou minha leitura por ter o prazer de começar a conhecer de verdade as personagens e seus objetivos.
Fazia um tempo que eu procurava uma nova fantasia com contos de fadas e aventura no meio e esse livro foi um belo acerto.

Eu li esse livro por meio de audiobook, para poder terminar ele logo, e achei a dubladora incrível na caracterização das personagens. A autora do livro fez um ótimo trabalho de escrita e eu senti em um bom tempo uma conexão com personagens e o desenvolvimento da historia.

Todas as personagens foram incríveis para mim e os relacionamentos delas com os outros mas eu adorei principalmente a relação de amizade da Yuki com Ella e como elas agiam para proteger uma a outra.

A escola fica localizada na Suiça e é exclusiva para os mais ricos e poderosos atenderem. O cenário descrito da escola e de tirar o folego e me deu uma vibe Dark Academia quando era descrito o castelo por dentro e suas varias escadas (numero tão grande quanto de garotas mortas na historia dela).

Eu queria ter mais gente para poder falar sobre ele e as personagens, foi uma leitura tão incrível para mim e quando eu ouvi falar que vai ser lançado no Brasil ja comecei a me preparar para comprar e poder reler!

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meaghancook's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really really wanted to love this one. There were just too many characters for me to keep straight, but they weren’t fully fleshed out as individuals. Considering they’re supposed to be direct parallels to fairy tale characters, it took me far too long to figure out who they were. And that ending was so rushed and outta nowhere. I may give the second one a shot but probably not any time soon.

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17kmcollins's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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thebooknook180's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Honestly I think this book just fell victim to my reading slump. Characters were decently developed and distinct from one another. The storyline as unique and definitely mysterious. Unfortunately it just took me forever to get through, so I was struggling actually wanting to read this particular book. I think it’s a duology and I’ll most like pick up the 2nd to see how the story wraps up.

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jekisah's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There were some typos but overall it is a great story!

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