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A review by andotherworlds
Grendel by John Gardner
4.0
this was read for school
i enjoyed this more compared to it's source material, Beowulf. it simply may be just because i myself am more drawn towards villainous narratives over the "chosen one" hero trope. it could also be the fact that this is written in a more traditional novel format. regardless of reasoning (which is a strange thing to write during a review) this book was better than Beowulf in my humble opinion. it added an interesting voice and a captivating backstory to the more previously two dimensional character we had received in Beowulf. if you have read Beowulf i would recommend picking this up if you are in the mood for a book the show's another side of the story (the premise of this is similar to the musical Wicked; strange correlation, yes i am award, but excluding the characters and different plots, they share the same arc of giving a "villain" a backstory that paints them in a different light).
i enjoyed this more compared to it's source material, Beowulf. it simply may be just because i myself am more drawn towards villainous narratives over the "chosen one" hero trope. it could also be the fact that this is written in a more traditional novel format. regardless of reasoning (which is a strange thing to write during a review) this book was better than Beowulf in my humble opinion. it added an interesting voice and a captivating backstory to the more previously two dimensional character we had received in Beowulf. if you have read Beowulf i would recommend picking this up if you are in the mood for a book the show's another side of the story (the premise of this is similar to the musical Wicked; strange correlation, yes i am award, but excluding the characters and different plots, they share the same arc of giving a "villain" a backstory that paints them in a different light).