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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
This was definitely my favourite historical fiction read of the year. It’s a beautiful, ugly story. The intermingling of fairytale and history is unlike everything I’ve read before. And the author doesn’t shy away from how horrible people can be — even the narrators have disgusting thoughts and commit dark deeds. Krysta, in all of her spoiled little girl ways, is one of my favourite narrators I’ve read in a long time, even though there were moments where I wanted to shout at her just like Grete. Lillie is likewise fascinating, and I really love the play on Hoffman’s pliant female automatons.
I can’t talk anymore about what I loved in this book without spoiling anything, but I would say to go in completely blind. It makes the telling of the story (or stories) all the better. Definitely give this a shot — it might take a few chapters to immerse yourself in the book, but it’s so worth it.
I can’t talk anymore about what I loved in this book without spoiling anything, but I would say to go in completely blind. It makes the telling of the story (or stories) all the better. Definitely give this a shot — it might take a few chapters to immerse yourself in the book, but it’s so worth it.
Heartbreaking. A psychological, twisting story where fairytales and history are used to highlight the horrors of a young girls life.
Gretel and the Dark is set in Vienna in 1899 and alternates between two different stories every chapter, that of a young girl named Krysta and that of a beautiful young woman named Lillie. Krysta is a spoilt little girl who is sheltered by her father due to the loss of her mother. Her father is some sort of 'doctor' who works with 'animal people' whilst Krysta remains at home with her doll all day. Krysta is very imaginative girl who is always telling her doll stories, some of them are quite dark, and she frequently talks of her old minder, Greet, who used to tell these stories to her. Alongside Krysta's story we have that of Lillie, a beautiful young woman, who is discovered naked and alone in a forest. She is found and brought to Dr Josef Breuer by his young gardener, Benjamin and she is cared for in his household as they try to figure out where Lillie has come from, though she claims to not even be human and was created to kill 'the monster'.
Prior to reading Gretel and the Dark, I had read numerous reviews, all of which were extremely positive with reviewers ranting and raving about how awesome this book was. Needless to say, I had very high expectations as a result. A lot of other reviewers emphasised how this story is an adaption of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel and the title would certainly make you believe that, but the plot is actually so much more complex than that. Whilst there are indeed many fairytales mentioned, their significance does become apparent until the end of the novel, and the story of Hansel and Gretel is not the only fairytale that features in this novel. Not only that, but this story is also a subtle look at the oppression of the jews in the build up to the World Wars, something that wasn't at all apparent to me until I read that in someone else's review. This theme becomes a bit clearer as the novel goes on, but I think these references are so subtle that the average reader would miss them if they haven't been forewarned.
I have to admit that whilst I had high hopes for this novel, the book did not live up to expectations for me. It's taken me over a month to read the entire story as I didn't really have any motivation to carry on reading. Although the story is interesting and very well written, I found it very hard to get into and I never really felt like the plot was actually going anywhere. I kept hoping that the novel would pick up and the story would become clearer but, unfortunately, I still felt this way at the end of the novel. That's not to say that this story is boring or that there weren't moments when I was really into it, because there were, I just didn't feel like there was an overall movement towards some sort of finale, but instead it seemed as the majority of the novel was just setting up the world the characters were living in.
I think one of the main reasons I couldn't really get into this novel is because the two alternating plot strands seemed completely unrelated for a large portion of the book. It is only towards the end of the novel that you begin to see how the two stories may fit together and how the fairytale is relevant to the story. Krysta turns from an annoying brat to someone with an extraordinary imagination but I feel like there were certain gaps in her development and I could probably think of Krysta as a different person at each of the defining moments of her story. This is a shame because her story really is fascinating and I just wish I fully understood it. Lillie's story seemed to have much more a focus than Krysta's and yet it didn't fulfil this in the end. A lot of her story was spent trying to figure out who she is, where she'd come from and what her purpose is but I think this got a bit lost with all the other characters' stories around her.
There is a sort of plot 'twist', or rather a great revealing, towards the end of the novel, but it was all just a little too late in my opinion. I will admit that said 'twist' was extremely clever and I definitely appreciated the ingenuity of the author in how she had constructed and written her story; however, this revelation did not actually clarify a lot of the story's events for me. I have a vague understanding of how the two stories are related, but I'm still very sketchy on the details and to be honest, if someone asked me to explain the plot to them right now, I'm not sure I could do a particularly good job.
As I said, this is extremely well written story and the language that is used is complex and compelling and very, very dark, however, there was something that just didn't quite mesh together in this novel. There were so many brilliant elements to this novel, but I couldn't connect them all which left me feeling like there were bits and pieces of brilliance floating in a river that I was trying to cross, but none of them were coming together to form a bridge for me to do so safely. This is a shame because the writing is really is very, very good, so good and complex, in fact, that I would say that this is more an adult book than a young adult book. The darker themes that are explored also make this book more appropriate for adult or mature teen readers. My only criticism of the writing would be that a few too many phrases were in untranslated German to the point where I was sometimes really frustrated that I didn't know what people were saying to each other. There was literally no way for me to figure out what the characters were saying which left me in the dark which I think was more a negative thing than a brilliant stylistic device.
All in all, Gretel and the Dark is a so-so book that had the potential to be phenomenal. I am definitely in the minority when it comes to Gretel and the Dark as most people who read this book were completely taken with it, giving it four or five stars, but I really didn't connect with the story at all. Perhaps I missed a trick whilst reading it or something, but I am still so confused about so many things about this story which is incredibly frustrating. One of my main problems with this novel is that I am still in the dark about what was real and what was imaginary. In addition, what I thought was going to be the main 'plot', was not fulfilled at the end of the novel, at least I don't think it was, which leaves me wondering - what was the point? I'd probably still recommend Gretel and the Dark though I'd recommend reading it very thoroughly and carefully to avoid ending up incredibly confused, as I am now.
Prior to reading Gretel and the Dark, I had read numerous reviews, all of which were extremely positive with reviewers ranting and raving about how awesome this book was. Needless to say, I had very high expectations as a result. A lot of other reviewers emphasised how this story is an adaption of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel and the title would certainly make you believe that, but the plot is actually so much more complex than that. Whilst there are indeed many fairytales mentioned, their significance does become apparent until the end of the novel, and the story of Hansel and Gretel is not the only fairytale that features in this novel. Not only that, but this story is also a subtle look at the oppression of the jews in the build up to the World Wars, something that wasn't at all apparent to me until I read that in someone else's review. This theme becomes a bit clearer as the novel goes on, but I think these references are so subtle that the average reader would miss them if they haven't been forewarned.
I have to admit that whilst I had high hopes for this novel, the book did not live up to expectations for me. It's taken me over a month to read the entire story as I didn't really have any motivation to carry on reading. Although the story is interesting and very well written, I found it very hard to get into and I never really felt like the plot was actually going anywhere. I kept hoping that the novel would pick up and the story would become clearer but, unfortunately, I still felt this way at the end of the novel. That's not to say that this story is boring or that there weren't moments when I was really into it, because there were, I just didn't feel like there was an overall movement towards some sort of finale, but instead it seemed as the majority of the novel was just setting up the world the characters were living in.
I think one of the main reasons I couldn't really get into this novel is because the two alternating plot strands seemed completely unrelated for a large portion of the book. It is only towards the end of the novel that you begin to see how the two stories may fit together and how the fairytale is relevant to the story. Krysta turns from an annoying brat to someone with an extraordinary imagination but I feel like there were certain gaps in her development and I could probably think of Krysta as a different person at each of the defining moments of her story. This is a shame because her story really is fascinating and I just wish I fully understood it. Lillie's story seemed to have much more a focus than Krysta's and yet it didn't fulfil this in the end. A lot of her story was spent trying to figure out who she is, where she'd come from and what her purpose is but I think this got a bit lost with all the other characters' stories around her.
There is a sort of plot 'twist', or rather a great revealing, towards the end of the novel, but it was all just a little too late in my opinion. I will admit that said 'twist' was extremely clever and I definitely appreciated the ingenuity of the author in how she had constructed and written her story; however, this revelation did not actually clarify a lot of the story's events for me. I have a vague understanding of how the two stories are related, but I'm still very sketchy on the details and to be honest, if someone asked me to explain the plot to them right now, I'm not sure I could do a particularly good job.
As I said, this is extremely well written story and the language that is used is complex and compelling and very, very dark, however, there was something that just didn't quite mesh together in this novel. There were so many brilliant elements to this novel, but I couldn't connect them all which left me feeling like there were bits and pieces of brilliance floating in a river that I was trying to cross, but none of them were coming together to form a bridge for me to do so safely. This is a shame because the writing is really is very, very good, so good and complex, in fact, that I would say that this is more an adult book than a young adult book. The darker themes that are explored also make this book more appropriate for adult or mature teen readers. My only criticism of the writing would be that a few too many phrases were in untranslated German to the point where I was sometimes really frustrated that I didn't know what people were saying to each other. There was literally no way for me to figure out what the characters were saying which left me in the dark which I think was more a negative thing than a brilliant stylistic device.
All in all, Gretel and the Dark is a so-so book that had the potential to be phenomenal. I am definitely in the minority when it comes to Gretel and the Dark as most people who read this book were completely taken with it, giving it four or five stars, but I really didn't connect with the story at all. Perhaps I missed a trick whilst reading it or something, but I am still so confused about so many things about this story which is incredibly frustrating. One of my main problems with this novel is that I am still in the dark about what was real and what was imaginary. In addition, what I thought was going to be the main 'plot', was not fulfilled at the end of the novel, at least I don't think it was, which leaves me wondering - what was the point? I'd probably still recommend Gretel and the Dark though I'd recommend reading it very thoroughly and carefully to avoid ending up incredibly confused, as I am now.
I don't know what to say. I read this book mainly because the reviews had me convinced the book would have a giant reveal at the end that would change my mind about everything I had read up until then. Nah. Not really. We have two stories here and one I liked reading very much (Krysta and Greet) and one I felt I had to slug through (Joseph and Lillie) to get back to the other narrative. I guess my imagination is WAAAAYY wilder than I thought because I started to create amazing endings for both of these tales that would completely defy logic. So by the time I got to the reveal I was sorely disappointed. There is not much more I can say that isn't a spoiler, but I wanted to give people the head's up that there is nothing here we haven't seen before and the strongest parts of this book are the fairy tales and how they relate to the reality of the characters. This is very much a case of reviews ruining a book for me, but catch 22. I probably would not have read it if it weren't for the reviews and then the reviews pumped it too much, in my humble opinion, and I was let down. Overall, not a BAD book, it just wasn't what I wanted it to be.
I had such high hopes for this book. I love fairy tales and stories from WWII, so it seemed a perfect book for me. However, the characters were so unlikable, that I just couldn't get through it. I hate giving up on books. There are only a few I have given up on because I find it frustrating to do so. However, it's more frustrating to continue to read a book you just don't like, especially when it's a book you were looking forward to reading and I just really didn't like this book. It was due back at the library and I still had over 100 pages left in it. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the late fee and returned it without finding out how it ended. To me, it just wasn't worth it to read about the characters who I didn't like.
The characters are despicable, the plot details confusing, the timeline difficult to keep straight. Maybe that's the point, and I just missed it, but this was really not an enjoyable read at all.
This book was so interested and had me hooked from the beginning. I loved the way the story is told. Don't start this book just before bed...you won't want to put it down! A well written story with an interesting plot and characters that just grab a hold of you. Would absolutely recommend this book!