Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

As this is a complete collection of fairy tales, it's a very mixed bag. Some of them are witty and funny, and others incredibly repetitive and confusing. And often similar tales follow each other, so basically it's the same story twice.

A modern reader can pick up elements that would nowadays be considered problematic: women are treated as prizes, the ugly and overweight are often presented as evil, and there is some antisemitism as well.

About 15 % of these stories are actually good, 35 % fulfil the need for nostalgia for those who grew up listening to these stories. And the rest… Well, frankly I could have done without.

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stacylaughs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny sad medium-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

4.0

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apalershadeofwhite's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative medium-paced

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

3.0

This collection as a whole was pretty middle-of-the-road. There were some tales I really enjoyed, some I didn't like at all, and some that weren't bad but were pretty forgettable. It was especially a bit difficult to want to read in the middle, where a lot of the tales were pretty repetitive, but it did pick up a little towards the end.

So many of the tales in this collection were basically the same story but wrapped in a different package! There was an insane amount of repetition with the content within the tales and most often had the same ending, just with differently named characters and a different locale. It made the reading process a bit monotonous.

Don't get me wrong, though, there was still some good writing in here! They just felt a bit like finding a pearl in the sea haha. I specifically liked the focus on symbolism and metaphors as I'm a sucker for these in any narrative I read. Although, there were a lot of grim (ha) inclusions in the tales that sometimes were a bit odd. There was, on the other hand, quite a few really funny bits within this collection. I'm unsure if they were all intentional, but they made me laugh either way so it's a plus.

There were, however, massive racist undertones. The tales often talked of women being "black and ugly as sin" but other being "white and beautiful" which was awful to read, to be honest. And I felt like all of the messages to girls in these tales were to just sit and be pretty.

I found that the overarching morals throughout the tales were: honesty versus deceit, selfishness versus compassion, jealously, and equality and equity.

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purplehulk713's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Jacob and Wilhelm certainly loved their tales of horror. I was rather relieved to be done, honestly, because even though I enjoyed it, it felt very repetitive with many similar plots and tropes. But the sinister and at times evil nature of the tales is spooky and tantalizing. Classic and familiar, this was quite enjoyable, but often so in small doses as one might grow tired of similar tales. But it is a cultural staple, and it gives so much more significance to these stories’ successors. It’s something everyone should read.

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chloelj27's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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marissasa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted

2.5

I originally planned to read over 101 days, reading one short story a night before bed, but ofc that didn't happen and I instead would read a bunch at once and forget for weeks. In the end I finished in 103 days, and ranked every story from 1-5 stars coming to a final average of 2.5 stars. Many stories were short, repetitive, or basically the same as other stories with different magical objects or different settings so most of those got ranked lowly. There were 5 favorites that I gave 5 stars, being "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids", "The Bremen Town-Musicians", "Little Snow White", "The Dog and the Sparrow", and "Clever Gretel". Overall I'm glad I read these classic fairy tales and it definitely gave me more insight into the notoriously dark origin of the well-known adaptations in media today, as the evil characters in the stories would often perish either cruel deaths or injuries and banishment. I can also see how the standout stories that weren't repetitive or re-skinned copies of the others were the ones that got reimagined as Disney movies or as their own children's books. Some of the stories, especially those mentioning religion or religious people, felt preachy, but I get the purpose of the fairy tales was to entertain and warn children about the consequences of behaving badly.

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thirdtimesacharm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

3.25

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sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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dark medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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