A review by hckilgour
The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl

adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5



So this really felt like a pretty little liars dark academia retelling. I really enjoyed the story, but there were some pitfalls.

It was really great to see all the diversity in the book from bipoc characters to trans and ace characters as well. But then it became kind of like “when everyone is special, no one is special”. Almost all of the characters were LGBTQ+, which on its own is great, but felt unrealistic overall when all of them were put in such close proximity.

Penelope… ugh I saw her coming from the get go. She was just very… obvious. And you could tell there was a weird ulterior motive.

The pacing of the book was… well interesting. The first half was drudgery it was so slow. So much time was spent characterizing the girls that nothing happened; much of this could’ve been parred down. Especially because much of the characterization going on was repeated in each introspective chapter. And the romance for Rory and Nani were infuriating because it was constantly like oh oh we’re gonna admit our feelings… ooh close miss. And it got a little annoying. But the ending. Holy cow.

I’m not sure how to feel about Yuki. By her name I take her to be of Japanese origin. Yet by her description she’s tall, dark hair, very pale, and has large brown eyes. Because of how pale she’s supposed to be, I feel like her Asiatic heritage gets a little lost.

Nani’s storyline also was a little lost in the weeds. Like figuring out what fairy tale she was supposed to be from was impossible until she made the connection right at the end. 

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