The Forest Grimm

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The Forest Grimm (The Forest Grimm #1)

Kathryn Purdie

358 pages | Published by Wednesday Books

The Set Up: For years, Clara’s village had been gifted by the magical Forest Grimm with a book that can grant each person one wish, but that gift is taken away when someone uses the book to kill. Now, their village is cursed and the people begin to become Lost within the forest - the first being Clara’s mother. Now that Clara is of age to make her one wish, she is determined to go into the forest, find the book, and break the curse, but what she and her friends find within the forest is much more sinister than they could have imagined.

The Forest Grimm was much creepier than I anticipated! The forest was home to some very sinister villains - the murderous Cinderella and her menagerie of dead animals comes to mind. It was fun to see the twists on classic Grimm characters like Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel.

These weren’t some of my favorite characters I’ve ever read, but I think a lot of that has more to do with me being a 32 year old lady reading books about 17 year olds than the characters themselves. They felt young and naïve to me, but they ARE young and naïve. I admired Clara’s courage and Axel’s optimism. Henni is who I struggled with the most - her complaints annoyed me, especially since she forced herself into this entire situation.

I thought the writing was a bit simple and the story could have benefited from a more descriptive style. The conclusion left me slightly confused, and I’m hoping that maybe in the second book of this duology we’ll get a bit more of a clear understanding of the curse and how Clara’s magic works.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced e-book!