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A review by ceebee86
Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville
3.0
A well written historical fiction set between two time periods. It's a story about the power of storytelling.
I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed the entire premise of the book but there are well enough gripes for me to give this an average 6/10 rating.
This story manages two major things: having a good plot and having every single character be unlikeable. Every character. Growth? Amicability? What's that?
Granville didn't do a good job of making me sympathise with the two main girls unfortunately.
Krysta is the poster child of insolence and doesn't really get any better than that so you'll have to deal with that for her entire plot line. Lillie is a little better only because she expresses less and is viewed through a third person perspective whereas Krysta is first person. Literally everyone else is horrible for the sake of being horrible. Don't really get that part.
The writing style was captivating only just. It does get confusing especially during sequences of action. If the character is turning a doorknob the paragraph might go off topic as the character reminisces about brass cleaning or something. There's also a significant amount of metaphors during Krysta's POV because she's a child and describes things not entirely as they are. The bad part is that her metaphors don't always hit and I don't know what she's referring to.
This book is quite dark, as one would expect of anything with nazis. It's got about every phobia and -ism you can think of -- anti semitism, misogyny, racism, ageism, classism, homophobia, transphobia etc. etc. So if that is something you really don't want to deal with I'd advise you to put this back on the shelf.
There's one MAJOR problem with the writing style and it's the constant insertion of German (and Polish and Swedish etc). It happens constantly and I'd understand if it's German words that English has borrowed or whatever like "Baumkuchen" or "Heil Hitler" but it's not. It's just whatever Granville feels like. There's no rhyme or reason and it's, for the lack of a better description, shitty communication skills. It disrupts the flow entirely and adds nothing to the story 99% of the time. I can read German and Swedish and even I was put off. You don't have to say "Schmiss" instead of "scar" Granville, that's just fucking absurd.
Anyway the plot is good enough to make you stick it out to the end. I can't really describe it for fear of spoilers but it gets really good when you start to find the hints on why Lillie and Krysta have related stories. It's small details scattered about that you'll get if you followed close enough and I like how well that was handled.
Overall 3/5 stars. Solid enough if you're into that dark history stuff.
I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed the entire premise of the book but there are well enough gripes for me to give this an average 6/10 rating.
This story manages two major things: having a good plot and having every single character be unlikeable. Every character. Growth? Amicability? What's that?
Granville didn't do a good job of making me sympathise with the two main girls unfortunately.
Krysta is the poster child of insolence and doesn't really get any better than that so you'll have to deal with that for her entire plot line. Lillie is a little better only because she expresses less and is viewed through a third person perspective whereas Krysta is first person. Literally everyone else is horrible for the sake of being horrible. Don't really get that part.
The writing style was captivating only just. It does get confusing especially during sequences of action. If the character is turning a doorknob the paragraph might go off topic as the character reminisces about brass cleaning or something. There's also a significant amount of metaphors during Krysta's POV because she's a child and describes things not entirely as they are. The bad part is that her metaphors don't always hit and I don't know what she's referring to.
This book is quite dark, as one would expect of anything with nazis. It's got about every phobia and -ism you can think of -- anti semitism, misogyny, racism, ageism, classism, homophobia, transphobia etc. etc. So if that is something you really don't want to deal with I'd advise you to put this back on the shelf.
There's one MAJOR problem with the writing style and it's the constant insertion of German (and Polish and Swedish etc). It happens constantly and I'd understand if it's German words that English has borrowed or whatever like "Baumkuchen" or "Heil Hitler" but it's not. It's just whatever Granville feels like. There's no rhyme or reason and it's, for the lack of a better description, shitty communication skills. It disrupts the flow entirely and adds nothing to the story 99% of the time. I can read German and Swedish and even I was put off. You don't have to say "Schmiss" instead of "scar" Granville, that's just fucking absurd.
Anyway the plot is good enough to make you stick it out to the end. I can't really describe it for fear of spoilers but it gets really good when you start to find the hints on why Lillie and Krysta have related stories. It's small details scattered about that you'll get if you followed close enough and I like how well that was handled.
Overall 3/5 stars. Solid enough if you're into that dark history stuff.