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A review by malglories
Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville
5.0
exquisitely written, brilliantly conceived, and just godawfully harrowing, gretel and the dark is a marvel of a book. it follows two storylines: a doctor named josef breuer in 1899 vienna, and a young girl (and huge brat) named krysta in wwii germany, whose father works at a “zoo." josef breuer finds himself enchanted by a strange, nameless girl who claims she is a machine; krysta finds herself enchanted by fairy tales that comfort, delight, and warn her in equal turns as she faces terrible horrors and dangers.
krysta’s sections are just so well-written; you see everything from her point of view, which makes the horrors all the more horrible, because as a child, she doesn’t understand them, or she filters them through her fairy tales.
it's not for the faint of heart. but i am so, so, so passionate about this book. it's incredibly meaningful, and it had the power to both awe and frighten me. gretel and the dark is about the power of storytelling, and the beauty of it, and it's so heartbreakingly lovely and grotesque that it's impossible to put down.
krysta’s sections are just so well-written; you see everything from her point of view, which makes the horrors all the more horrible, because as a child, she doesn’t understand them, or she filters them through her fairy tales.
it's not for the faint of heart. but i am so, so, so passionate about this book. it's incredibly meaningful, and it had the power to both awe and frighten me. gretel and the dark is about the power of storytelling, and the beauty of it, and it's so heartbreakingly lovely and grotesque that it's impossible to put down.