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mkesler14's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I loved this books take on Grimm fairytales! Fairytale stories meet murder mystery. The book is mainly character driven for the first 2/3 of the book in my opinion, the overarching plot of the murder mystery really doesn’t happen until the last couple of chapters. I think the intent of the book was to set up the characters and story to start a series. Intrigued to see where the sequel of this series takes us. I love the spin on each of the characters as they relate to characters we know and love. A unique concept for sure, and lots of LGBTQ+ content too! My friend and I read together in our book club, it was really fun trying to figure out who was who based off context clues.
My only thing is since this may be setting us up for more, there’s a good chunk of loose ends/plot holes. I also wish we could’ve seen a little more plot development in the first two parts.
Last thing: Ella Stan for Life ✌🏼
My only thing is since this may be setting us up for more, there’s a good chunk of loose ends/plot holes. I also wish we could’ve seen a little more plot development in the first two parts.
Last thing: Ella Stan for Life ✌🏼
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Murder
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
mysamcatfan's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-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? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Murder
amandamarie04's review against another edition
Pretty Little Liars meets fairytales.
1.) There's too many characters and names and useless backstories. I don't care when this random person came to the school, I don't need to know entire histories. Just stop
2.) It's really hard reading about a character with OCDc guilt, and a dead best friend - it hits too close to home and I relate far too much than I care for.
3.) I love YA but this is the textbook definition of YA - it feels like a clear rip off of Pretty Little Liars and the personalities of these characters are too on the nose for their fairytale counterpart.
I made the mistake of finishing PLL I won't make the same mistake again.
1.) There's too many characters and names and useless backstories. I don't care when this random person came to the school, I don't need to know entire histories. Just stop
2.) It's really hard reading about a character with OCDc guilt, and a dead best friend - it hits too close to home and I relate far too much than I care for.
3.) I love YA but this is the textbook definition of YA - it feels like a clear rip off of Pretty Little Liars and the personalities of these characters are too on the nose for their fairytale counterpart.
I made the mistake of finishing PLL I won't make the same mistake again.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Toxic friendship
kalira's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Cursing, and Violence
faduma's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Domestic abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief
rissaread's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Gore, and Death of parent
lunep's review
dark
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Death of parent, Abandonment, Transphobia, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Deadnaming, and Mental illness
stewartj0421's review against another edition
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.
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
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Fatphobia and Suicide
itzbrianna's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
The Grimrose Girls was a classic tale of whodunnit while intertwining grim fairytales. Despite the very slow start and inmemorable characters, I kept reading to find out what happened to Ari. The idea that there’s a curse which certain students at grimrose have lives that intertwine with a fairytale is a good concept. In fact, that’s what gave me high hopes for this book in the first place.
The story falls short of truly catching me and had I not been reading this as part of a book club, I would’ve DNF it. None of the characters were interesting and the purpose of the book took until the very end to get even remotely interesting. Loved the idea of where this was going but the execution just wasn’t my cup of tea. If you enjoy slow paced novels with little to no character development then this might be for you.
The story falls short of truly catching me and had I not been reading this as part of a book club, I would’ve DNF it. None of the characters were interesting and the purpose of the book took until the very end to get even remotely interesting. Loved the idea of where this was going but the execution just wasn’t my cup of tea. If you enjoy slow paced novels with little to no character development then this might be for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Suicide
aiplusyou's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
this book was way more pretty little liars and less fairytale than i expected. to be clear, this is not a bad thing! i think the main mystery and everything is extremely compelling and the book is excellent, but just be aware that it's very much mystery first, fairtytale second.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gore
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Transphobia