Scan barcode
arwenauthor's review against another edition
4.0
Grim – an anthology
I love Grimm's fairy tales – I have an absolutely beautiful old copy at home, given to me by my grandmother, with wonderful water colour panels, still with the protective tissue intact. It is a beautiful book. And the stories are superbly dark and macabre compared to the versions we're all familiar with. This anthology definitely plays on this part – these stories are indeed 'grim.'
I didn't have my usual slightly nervous feel to be reading short stories – I'm never sure how much I really like them as a reader – fairy tales seem to be in another category of their own. They are complete, but can definitely be tampered with!
Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. It was compiled by various current YA authors, but I have actually only heard of Sarah Rees Brennan before! Much to my horror, I am apparently very behind in terms of YA authors, although this being American authors may have something to do with it. Anyway, as a whole, the anthology was just so much fun! There were a few fairy tales I wasn't very familiar with, which I looked up to be able to compare to the original, but the majority were ones I knew. There were two science fiction offerings, and I initially felt quite negatively about these – I'm not really into science fiction, and the idea of Grimm's tales being moulded into a science fiction world didn't sit well with me. Little did I know!
It turned out that my two favourites of the whole book were indeed the science fiction contributions! A Real Boy was a retelling of Pinnochio, with the character of Pinnochio being a robot with super intelligence but without a specific 'purpose' like other AI, so able to be more human. I was hooked, and really moved by this tiny masterpiece and its happy ending. I will definitely be on the look out for more written by Claudia Gray. My other favourite was Better, a retelling of the Pied Piper. Again, this was about a robot, but set on a space craft searching for another habitable planet. Now, this was chilling; Shaun D Hutchinson has done a brilliant job with the atmosphere. The end sent a literal shiver down my spine. I will also be looking him up.
Most of my favourites were the very modern retellings; possibly because I know most of the stories so well, it was only through radical retelling that the modern ones could be novel and exciting to me. There were plenty of beautiful retellings with little alteration, such as The Raven Princess, Before the Rose Bloomed, Beast/Beast and The Pink, which were fine, but they didn't excite me (based on The Raven, The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast and – what else? - The Pink).
I really enjoyed The Twelfth Girl, re-imagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and very similar to other fairy stories, such as Scottish Kate Crackernuts (which I love). Again, this was a modern retelling, with some beautiful description and a sinister ending. The first story in the anthology, The Key, was also enjoyable: this updated version of Bluebeard made a strong start to a strong anthology. There's also a brilliant version of Hansel and Gretel by Kimberly Darling, Julie Kagaua offers The Three Little Pigs updated and I really enjoyed Sell Out by Jackson Pearce.
In an anthology, there are always a few stories that don't really hit the spot for whatever reason. For me, these were Figment, Thinner than Water, Untethered, Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue and Skin Trade. This is not necessarily to say these are poorly written, just that for me they didn't work for various reasons. Interestingly enough, the one author who I have read before really disappointed me!Sarah Rees Brennan's humorous version of Beauty and the Beast just didn't work for me, although I adore her Demon's Lexicon trilogy. I could see what she was trying to do as she juxtaposed the “fairy tale world” with our own world and the amusing clash this created, but, for me, it just jarred without humour.
Overall, a great anthology – and it's given me some new names to look up! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC to read and review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I love Grimm's fairy tales – I have an absolutely beautiful old copy at home, given to me by my grandmother, with wonderful water colour panels, still with the protective tissue intact. It is a beautiful book. And the stories are superbly dark and macabre compared to the versions we're all familiar with. This anthology definitely plays on this part – these stories are indeed 'grim.'
I didn't have my usual slightly nervous feel to be reading short stories – I'm never sure how much I really like them as a reader – fairy tales seem to be in another category of their own. They are complete, but can definitely be tampered with!
Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. It was compiled by various current YA authors, but I have actually only heard of Sarah Rees Brennan before! Much to my horror, I am apparently very behind in terms of YA authors, although this being American authors may have something to do with it. Anyway, as a whole, the anthology was just so much fun! There were a few fairy tales I wasn't very familiar with, which I looked up to be able to compare to the original, but the majority were ones I knew. There were two science fiction offerings, and I initially felt quite negatively about these – I'm not really into science fiction, and the idea of Grimm's tales being moulded into a science fiction world didn't sit well with me. Little did I know!
It turned out that my two favourites of the whole book were indeed the science fiction contributions! A Real Boy was a retelling of Pinnochio, with the character of Pinnochio being a robot with super intelligence but without a specific 'purpose' like other AI, so able to be more human. I was hooked, and really moved by this tiny masterpiece and its happy ending. I will definitely be on the look out for more written by Claudia Gray. My other favourite was Better, a retelling of the Pied Piper. Again, this was about a robot, but set on a space craft searching for another habitable planet. Now, this was chilling; Shaun D Hutchinson has done a brilliant job with the atmosphere. The end sent a literal shiver down my spine. I will also be looking him up.
Most of my favourites were the very modern retellings; possibly because I know most of the stories so well, it was only through radical retelling that the modern ones could be novel and exciting to me. There were plenty of beautiful retellings with little alteration, such as The Raven Princess, Before the Rose Bloomed, Beast/Beast and The Pink, which were fine, but they didn't excite me (based on The Raven, The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast and – what else? - The Pink).
I really enjoyed The Twelfth Girl, re-imagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and very similar to other fairy stories, such as Scottish Kate Crackernuts (which I love). Again, this was a modern retelling, with some beautiful description and a sinister ending. The first story in the anthology, The Key, was also enjoyable: this updated version of Bluebeard made a strong start to a strong anthology. There's also a brilliant version of Hansel and Gretel by Kimberly Darling, Julie Kagaua offers The Three Little Pigs updated and I really enjoyed Sell Out by Jackson Pearce.
In an anthology, there are always a few stories that don't really hit the spot for whatever reason. For me, these were Figment, Thinner than Water, Untethered, Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue and Skin Trade. This is not necessarily to say these are poorly written, just that for me they didn't work for various reasons. Interestingly enough, the one author who I have read before really disappointed me!Sarah Rees Brennan's humorous version of Beauty and the Beast just didn't work for me, although I adore her Demon's Lexicon trilogy. I could see what she was trying to do as she juxtaposed the “fairy tale world” with our own world and the amusing clash this created, but, for me, it just jarred without humour.
Overall, a great anthology – and it's given me some new names to look up! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC to read and review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
nin275's review against another edition
4.0
Well I liked most of the stories since I love fairy tales and their retellings. One of my favorites was the one where the king wants to marry his daughter, it will creep me for a long time. I also liked the one called Beauty and the Chad for its simplicity, because love should be like this.
Overall, a very enjoyable read. Recommended.
Overall, a very enjoyable read. Recommended.
michellesbogsnak's review against another edition
3.0
Jeg havde faktisk glædet mig utrolig meget til at læse den her bog, men det blev en lidt blandet fornemmelse. Nogle af genfortællingerne syntes jeg var helt igennem fantastiske, mens andre bare efterlod mig med en tom fornemmelse bagefter.
Den fortolkning jeg syntes var den absolut bedste overraskede mig lidt ved at være en af Den bestøvlede Kat. Det eventyr har aldrig rigtig sagt mig så meget i sin originale form, men den her genfortælling syntes jeg var absolut fantastisk og nytænkende, og det er den der stadig hænger ved mig selv nogle dage efter at have læst den.
Andre udgaver af eventyrerne var ikke så meget en nyfortolkning, men mest af alt bare en genfortælling sat i vores moderne verden så 21. århundrede faktorer blev tilsat, for at det så skulle forestille at være opdateret. Det må jeg sige ikke fungerer optimalt, og det irriterede mig mest af alt at eventyrerne blev brugt på den måde. Hvis man skal forsøge at genfortolke et eventyr og give det et nyt spin, så kræver det altså noget mere efter min mening.
Den fortolkning jeg syntes var den absolut bedste overraskede mig lidt ved at være en af Den bestøvlede Kat. Det eventyr har aldrig rigtig sagt mig så meget i sin originale form, men den her genfortælling syntes jeg var absolut fantastisk og nytænkende, og det er den der stadig hænger ved mig selv nogle dage efter at have læst den.
Andre udgaver af eventyrerne var ikke så meget en nyfortolkning, men mest af alt bare en genfortælling sat i vores moderne verden så 21. århundrede faktorer blev tilsat, for at det så skulle forestille at være opdateret. Det må jeg sige ikke fungerer optimalt, og det irriterede mig mest af alt at eventyrerne blev brugt på den måde. Hvis man skal forsøge at genfortolke et eventyr og give det et nyt spin, så kræver det altså noget mere efter min mening.
onclout99's review against another edition
4.0
Really great book with lots of characters from multiple backgrounds and time periods. The authors all wrote amazing stories with well-done characters; I especially loved "Figment" and "Beauty and the Chad." However, there's very little queer representation. One character is genderqueer, and another is bicurious, but that's all. A little disappointing, tbh.
chasingthebibliophile's review against another edition
1.0
did not finish
decided not to continue with this collection of short stories as I feel like I'm forcing myself to continue on reading. I don't want to feel as if this was a job, I want to be able to enjoy sitting down and reading this but I just can't.
decided not to continue with this collection of short stories as I feel like I'm forcing myself to continue on reading. I don't want to feel as if this was a job, I want to be able to enjoy sitting down and reading this but I just can't.
nocturnalnerd's review against another edition
3.0
I ended up liking this a lot more than I thought I would. I think the reason why I put this off for a while is that I was a little skeptical about reading some different authors for the first time. After finishing this book, I decided that they were all capable of writing a decent story, even though I didn't like the endings to some stories. While I enjoyed some stories more than others, I found the entire book to be pretty satisfying. My favorites were The Key by Rachel Hawkins, Figment by Jeri Smith-Ready, The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo, and The Pink: A Grimm Story by Amanda Hocking. I also liked Better by Shaun David Hutchinson. I wish those stories would become actual books.
3/5 stars.
3/5 stars.
cheshirecat90's review against another edition
1.0
*1.5*
most stories were way too dark and gloomy for my taste.
most stories were way too dark and gloomy for my taste.
bookishly_faith's review against another edition
4.0
My rating is more like 3.5 stars. Some of the short stories were good, but there were a few that weren't great. And may I say, this book has the prettiest cover ever? This a strokable cover, guys! It has a wood-grain texture and some pretty pink foil for the title and graphics. There is a pink ribbon bookmark inside as well. (sorry, I had to mention that...)
The Key- Sure, it was fast-paced, but I didn't find a point to the story. There was no time to form any ties to the characters so I kinda was disappointed with this one. I didn't even know what story this was one was based on. I only found out from other reviews.
Figment- This was really cool! Why isn't this one the first short story?! This one also has a modern day setting. In this short story, everything was fleshed out nicely and made sense. I don't know what this one is based on, but I liked it! It kinda reminded me of [b:Every Day|13262783|Every Day (Every Day #1)|David Levithan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356993940s/13262783.jpg|18464379], because the main character was someone who was genderless.
Twelfth Girl-I kinda liked this one too. It put a modern twist on the classic, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
Raven Princess- This short story is set as a historical fairytale. I don't even know how this a retelling, but it was okay. This was bearable, but not one of my favourites.
Thinner than Water- I didn't like this one too much. I was really disturbed by the idea and I was so bored.... I liked the ending, but ugh....
Before the Rose Bloomed- I hated this one with a passion. The only verse I have read is Shakespeare so this format was very confusing to me. I was annoyed with how long it was and the historical feel to it drove me nuts. This short story just made me angry.
Beast/Beast- This one made no sense.... I can't even remember what happened... I just know I hated it.
Brothers Piggett- I liked it. This was very good for a three little pigs retelling. I want to say it was modernized. You'd think there is nothing left to say about the pigs, but this story might just prove you wrong.
Untethered- Another one that made no sense. None at all. how was this a fairytale again?
Better- This is a twisted fairytale. Something to do with cyborgs, so a futuristic one at that. IT WAS GREAT!
Light It Up- This was a modern twist on Hansel and Gretel. And a good one!
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tongue- I kinda liked it. It was a modern tale, but I found it also ended quite abruptly.
A Real Boy- This one was GREAT! Another futuristic one that would have been awesome as an actual full length novel. Go cyborg Pinocchio!
Skin Trade- This was pretty bad as well. Try cramming a romance in a few measly pages. It just didn't work. I didn't understand the mythology of it at all.
Beauty and the Chad-I kinda liked this one. Well, I liked it a lot better than the other Beauty and the Beast retelling. This one was a modern retelling (well kinda). It was a little confusing at points, but it was intriguing.
Pink- This short story just left me feeling meh. It felt too long, maybe because it didn't feel like a retelling. But, I don't know the actual story so maybe I'm missing something.
Sell Out- This was a Snow White Retelling. I liked it well enough, but it also was a bit abrupt at the end. It was modernized and I think it would have been great if it was longer, even as full length novel.
I liked quite a few of this, but I was a little disappointed that other stories weren't touched on. I mean, there was a few repeated so my question is, could no one write about something different? Like Red Riding Hood or Cinderella or rapunzel? I mean come on! Something cool could totally come form that!
The Key- Sure, it was fast-paced, but I didn't find a point to the story. There was no time to form any ties to the characters so I kinda was disappointed with this one. I didn't even know what story this was one was based on. I only found out from other reviews.
Figment- This was really cool! Why isn't this one the first short story?! This one also has a modern day setting. In this short story, everything was fleshed out nicely and made sense. I don't know what this one is based on, but I liked it! It kinda reminded me of [b:Every Day|13262783|Every Day (Every Day #1)|David Levithan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356993940s/13262783.jpg|18464379], because the main character was someone who was genderless.
Twelfth Girl-I kinda liked this one too. It put a modern twist on the classic, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
Raven Princess- This short story is set as a historical fairytale. I don't even know how this a retelling, but it was okay. This was bearable, but not one of my favourites.
Thinner than Water- I didn't like this one too much. I was really disturbed by the idea and I was so bored.... I liked the ending, but ugh....
Before the Rose Bloomed- I hated this one with a passion. The only verse I have read is Shakespeare so this format was very confusing to me. I was annoyed with how long it was and the historical feel to it drove me nuts. This short story just made me angry.
Beast/Beast- This one made no sense.... I can't even remember what happened... I just know I hated it.
Brothers Piggett- I liked it. This was very good for a three little pigs retelling. I want to say it was modernized. You'd think there is nothing left to say about the pigs, but this story might just prove you wrong.
Untethered- Another one that made no sense. None at all. how was this a fairytale again?
Better- This is a twisted fairytale. Something to do with cyborgs, so a futuristic one at that. IT WAS GREAT!
Light It Up- This was a modern twist on Hansel and Gretel. And a good one!
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tongue- I kinda liked it. It was a modern tale, but I found it also ended quite abruptly.
A Real Boy- This one was GREAT! Another futuristic one that would have been awesome as an actual full length novel. Go cyborg Pinocchio!
Skin Trade- This was pretty bad as well. Try cramming a romance in a few measly pages. It just didn't work. I didn't understand the mythology of it at all.
Beauty and the Chad-I kinda liked this one. Well, I liked it a lot better than the other Beauty and the Beast retelling. This one was a modern retelling (well kinda). It was a little confusing at points, but it was intriguing.
Pink- This short story just left me feeling meh. It felt too long, maybe because it didn't feel like a retelling. But, I don't know the actual story so maybe I'm missing something.
Sell Out- This was a Snow White Retelling. I liked it well enough, but it also was a bit abrupt at the end. It was modernized and I think it would have been great if it was longer, even as full length novel.
I liked quite a few of this, but I was a little disappointed that other stories weren't touched on. I mean, there was a few repeated so my question is, could no one write about something different? Like Red Riding Hood or Cinderella or rapunzel? I mean come on! Something cool could totally come form that!
denizyildiz's review against another edition
3.0
This took me only 10months to read... well, I read at first one story a week... wrote reviews for each.. then I kinda put it aside and never got back into it. Till one day - well today actually - I decided that this was ridiculous and I read the entire thing in one go.
So why did it take me this long?!
I love anthologies. I have a fondness for short stories. They like the little treat in-between, the unexpected surprise in the middle of a work day.
Still I found this difficult to get through.
I think part of the problem was that I did this the wrong way and the other I have this in the wrong format.
I strongly recommend others to get a hardcopy of this. Because in my opinion this should be a coffee table book. It does look pretty enough for starters. But also as I said, when you relaxing and feel like a tidbit of reading this might be your mini-fix. If this would be the case my other advise flip the book open and read the stories randomly at your on pleasure.
So since I don't have an hardcopy and I got the ARC of this, I found myself never doing said procedure, which is a huge part why this took me so long.
The other reason was simply I set myself a too high goal writing a review for each and every short story- meant I didn't pick this up because I had no time to review it straight after... simply to ambitious of me
Now the book itself has some seriously good stories in them and some that I didn't like.
Since this is written by different authors this was to be expected.
I actually should confess that I am always always really skeptical when there is a fairytale retelling involved. Because frankly when Disney went a called a movie Rapunzel that had absolutely nothing AT ALL to do with the original fairytale - which happened to be on of my favorites when I was a child, by the way- I was beyond disappointed. I could simply not like the film. So now I am always always wary.
And while Grim is really fabulously done, I am still not convinced it is my favorite genre. I think I prefer new stories... or maybe I just grew out of fairytales? Who knows?
Still this a great gift for lovers of anthologies, the genre and books.
And in fact I shall procure a hardcopy for those cold days in front of the fire when I feel like a little treat.
So why did it take me this long?!
I love anthologies. I have a fondness for short stories. They like the little treat in-between, the unexpected surprise in the middle of a work day.
Still I found this difficult to get through.
I think part of the problem was that I did this the wrong way and the other I have this in the wrong format.
I strongly recommend others to get a hardcopy of this. Because in my opinion this should be a coffee table book. It does look pretty enough for starters. But also as I said, when you relaxing and feel like a tidbit of reading this might be your mini-fix. If this would be the case my other advise flip the book open and read the stories randomly at your on pleasure.
So since I don't have an hardcopy and I got the ARC of this, I found myself never doing said procedure, which is a huge part why this took me so long.
The other reason was simply I set myself a too high goal writing a review for each and every short story- meant I didn't pick this up because I had no time to review it straight after... simply to ambitious of me
Now the book itself has some seriously good stories in them and some that I didn't like.
Since this is written by different authors this was to be expected.
I actually should confess that I am always always really skeptical when there is a fairytale retelling involved. Because frankly when Disney went a called a movie Rapunzel that had absolutely nothing AT ALL to do with the original fairytale - which happened to be on of my favorites when I was a child, by the way- I was beyond disappointed. I could simply not like the film. So now I am always always wary.
And while Grim is really fabulously done, I am still not convinced it is my favorite genre. I think I prefer new stories... or maybe I just grew out of fairytales? Who knows?
Still this a great gift for lovers of anthologies, the genre and books.
And in fact I shall procure a hardcopy for those cold days in front of the fire when I feel like a little treat.
frogggirl2's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not a huge short story fan, but I like retellings and I needed a book with a pink or purple cover for the Winter Readathon.
The Key - 2/5 cool concept of mindreading in a very specific place, decent writing, meh story, too short and no real ending.
Figment - 5/5 reminiscent of a flipped "The Monkey's Paw" with compelling characters.
The Twelfth Girl - 1/5 Yawn.
The Raven Princess - 5/5 this is just nice. A classic fairy tale feel.
Thinner Than Water - 4/5 grotesque and emotionally gutting.
Before the Rose Bloomed - 3/5 a telling, not a retelling
Beast/Beast - 5/5 lovely, sad, emotional and beautiful
The Brothers Piggett - 1/5 Weird - I felt like I what's supposed to be on the witch's side? I wasn't.
Untethered - 2/5 Not sure how this is a fairy tale retelling. Meh.
Better - 5/5 An outstanding sci-fi story that functions as a stand alone world that I'd happily read more about.
Light It Up - 3/5 gruesome but straightforward Hansel & Gretel
Sharper Than a Serpents Tongue - 1/5 Weird, pointless.
A Real Boy 2/5 - sickly sweet YA AI romance
Skin Trade 1/5 - Random, incomplete instalove nonsense
Beauty and the Chad 3/5 goofy
The Pink: a Grim Story 3/5 standard fairy tale
Sell Out 3/5 - A bit rote
The Key - 2/5 cool concept of mindreading in a very specific place, decent writing, meh story, too short and no real ending.
Figment - 5/5 reminiscent of a flipped "The Monkey's Paw" with compelling characters.
The Twelfth Girl - 1/5 Yawn.
The Raven Princess - 5/5 this is just nice. A classic fairy tale feel.
Thinner Than Water - 4/5 grotesque and emotionally gutting.
Before the Rose Bloomed - 3/5 a telling, not a retelling
Beast/Beast - 5/5 lovely, sad, emotional and beautiful
The Brothers Piggett - 1/5 Weird - I felt like I what's supposed to be on the witch's side? I wasn't.
Untethered - 2/5 Not sure how this is a fairy tale retelling. Meh.
Better - 5/5 An outstanding sci-fi story that functions as a stand alone world that I'd happily read more about.
Light It Up - 3/5 gruesome but straightforward Hansel & Gretel
Sharper Than a Serpents Tongue - 1/5 Weird, pointless.
A Real Boy 2/5 - sickly sweet YA AI romance
Skin Trade 1/5 - Random, incomplete instalove nonsense
Beauty and the Chad 3/5 goofy
The Pink: a Grim Story 3/5 standard fairy tale
Sell Out 3/5 - A bit rote