This book was dark, grim, magical, and captivating. I was so surprised with how much I loved the writing, characters, and the story. I would say that because of the constant changing POVs it made it quiet frustrating to read. Usually my maximum amount of preferred POVs is 3. Beyond that it gets too much to keep up with and takes away from my enjoyment of reading.

Thank you to Menna van Praag, HarperCollins Publishers, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this for an honest review.
I was intrigued when I read the synopsis and was really looking forward to enjoying it, but I didn't. The jumping around of perspectives felt choppy and, because of that, I found it hard to get attached to the characters; some of their perspectives were only about a paragraph long and then it switched to someone else. I stopped reading after I was about 40% of the way through because I just felt bored.

If you're looking for strong women characters, in a magical, layered world that's part of our own, this book is for you!

This was a bit of a departure for me given it's more of a sci-do / fantasy read than magical realism, but I was hooked right from the opening! It's taken me longer than normal to read only because of all the covid19 chaos & stress.

I orginally picked up this book because I loved The Brother's Grimm and those original dark fairy tales. When I read the discription of this novel I was excited to jump into a reimagining. I've decided to give this book 3 stars because it was extremely well written and the descriptions of the world transfer you right into the pages. However, the story was very slow, following the the POVs of four sisters. I would even say that the storyline was rather hard to follow and was muttled. Overall, the writing is well done but the author could have picked up the story a little.

YES!!! This was EVERYTHING I've wanted to see in a book for a while! I adored the drastic personality differences in each Sister! Plus, having the "family" be fallen angel type characters! This book blew me away! Brilliant plot twist, magic, magic, and more magic! I've already pre-ordered my copy! Thank you!!!

Unfortunately The Sisters Grimm is the latest addition to my list of books I’ve chosen not to finish. I put the book down just before the halfway mark, which felt generous on my part as the reader.

For readers, like myself, who looked forward to seeing the connection between this tale and the Grimm brothers (or at the very least, fairy tales in general), the disappointment will be hard to swallow. Wilhelm Grimm does play a part, but it seems more like the author needed a name for his minor character, rather than really wanting to make Wilhelm Grimm be part of the story.

There are some subtle nods to fairy tales, like a warning to stick to the rightful path and ignore shadows and lurking creatures (a common folkloric theme), and mothers or mother figures who are a little unclear or shady about their intentions. With Grimm in the title, though, I expected more than possible nods.

Fairy tales aside, the elemental magic and impending supernatural battle components did feed my curiosity and held my interest, for a little while. However, I think the writing style and even the characters got in the way of this book reaching its full potential.

The chapters are broken up by character, so the reader gets to see inside each person’s head. Everwhere also gets its own chapters, and it is in those especially that the tone borders on that of a classroom lecture. Descriptions were both complete yet dull; if there was ever a great example for why writers should show and not tell, it is this. The writing felt too matter-of-fact, and not lively enough for me to be able to soak in each word, sentence, and paragraph. I wanted to feel like I was in Everwhere, or right beside the characters. Instead I felt like I was gathering facts to be quizzed on at a later date.

The characters and plot are quite intertwined, which unfortunately meant they were hindered by each other. Even with the seemingly tidy breakdown of chapters, the plot felt disorganized and far too dragged out, and not enough tension was coming from the impending challenge(s). More focus was put on romantic tension and ordinary family life, which would have been fine, if the synopsis had not promised such extraordinary circumstances and the writing had more life. I wanted to see Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea realize their potential, but it was just taking far too long to get there.

This book had a promising concept. Four young women are part of a long line of young women who possess supernatural strengths based on the four elements of air, water, earth and fire. They are unknowingly locked in battle with demons and their own god-like father. When they reach 18 years old they will enter the last battle.

Sounds great. Didn’t live up to its promise. I got around 40% in and could not continue. It was a little jumpy, changing perspective, time, and voice so often it was difficult to form an attachment to any of them. In the end that was probably what killed it for me. I have to care about what is going to happen, and unfortunately this book just didn’t reach me.

There is honestly a lot more going on in this book than you would think. We have 4 half sisters who are all VERY different and have very different strengths and struggles. We spend this book in the 33 days leading up to their 18th birthdays and seeing through their eyes their daily lives and their journeys to the final battle.

First the good. I enjoyed the story itself, the idea here is honestly fantastic and I love that it is attempting to be told from all of their points of view plus another POV which I will get to in a minute. This story is dark, emotional, and confusing but in a very real life kind of way which makes it interesting. These characters had my attention, the sisters did anyway. Going through their real life struggles with them had me actually feeling for them in their hard times. I even teared up at one point closer to the end, during one of Scarlet's POV sections. I won't go into more detail in order to keep this spoiler free, but I felt for her big time.

HOWEVER (and here comes the bad), the execution was pretty terrible. If I had not gotten so emotionally invested in the wonderfully written characters I would have given this 2 stars. While the characters are written well, the rest of this book is horribly written. The points of view are not always clear, regardless of what the break says they are not always written from that characters POV which just makes no sense. This point in particular made this book something I didn't care to pick up. If it weren't for the character's being interesting (which they were) I probably would have DNF'd this book a while back and honestly I understand why others have. Leo's POV seemed only to serve as info dump...and I really did not care about his story at all. In fact I think this entire book could have been done well without his POV and have some of the information inserted into the sister's discovery of their roots instead.

Trigger warnings: explicit language, sexual assault, child abuse, incest, violence...seriously, this should not be conssidered YA.

I received this book as an E-Arc from Netgalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are 100% my own and are in no way effected by receiving this novel free of charge.

Four estranged sisters are having dreams that feel more like memories the closer they get to their 18th birthdays. They must hurry to find each other and learn about their powers before they face the decision that awaits on their birthday.

Whenever there are characters unaware of their magical abilities I get excited, because that’s something I’ve always secretly wanted (at what point do I accept my Hogwarts letter isn’t lost in the mail?). This book had romance, strong female characters and a magical world - all things I love in a book. The chapters are broken up with each chatacers’ stories. This made the book fly by but also made me feel like I never had enough of my favorite character’s story (there was definitely one story I cared most about). My biggest complaint was that the sisters were all 17 which felt too young based on their circumstances (ex. raising a brother, running a business), I enjoyed the plot more when I pushed their ages aside.

Similar reads … A Great and Terrible Beauty (I need to reread this series), The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Luxe series (so good!)

Thank you @netgalley and @harpervoyager for providing me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review! This book will be published in just a few days (3/31)!

P.S. The author has a beautiful Instagram feed.

Great fantasy book. Flow keeps you interested. Hard to put down - couldn't wait to see who triumphed at the end!

"When you stand in the shadows you can see into the light. [...] But when you stand in the light you can't see what's hiding in the dark."

This book could have been half the length and it would still be too long.

I'm really bummed I didn't love this one, I think it had a ton of potential. The concept itself is very strong and ticked a lot of my boxes. Magical forests, coming of age stories, women discovering their power, everlasting war between good and evil... unfortunately it just felt unfinished.

It wasn't all bad. In fact the parts written in second person I absolutely loved! At the beginning of some chapters there are sections written about you, the reader, exploring Everwhere, a magical, primeval forest, forever shrouded in fog and in perpetual autumn. These parts were beautifully atmospheric and made me think of Morgenstern's The Night Circus, which is top praise when it comes to atmosphere. I only wish these sections were longer, or better yet that this writing style was consistent throughout the rest of the book.

This book was just a bit of a drag to get through and I say that as a reader that loves a slow plotline. Nothing really happens chapter to chapter and the "reveals" were rare and did little to explain anything. If this story had been more fleshed out and the book had been edited down I think it could have been brilliant which just makes it all the more disappointing.

The things that drew me most to this book was this incredible cover, the title and the description was the clincher. I have always loved fairy tales and retellings and was excited to see a female cast bringing these things together.

The style of the book with the many different voices and small "chapters" was a little hard to get used to. While I never did fully get used to it I found a rhythm to it that helped the book flow. I really loved the premise of the book and enjoyed watching these 4 sisters learn about who they are again and rediscover their powers. I thought that in general the story was pretty fascinating, and kept me engaged. Although part of it was pretty confusing and I wasn't a 100% sure how all the family dynamics worked I still felt invested enough to read all 400 pages.

Writing wise I thought that the author did a great job, had just enough description and character development to make the story flow but not too much that it felt bogged down in detail. I really enjoyed her ability to have the balance of description and story.

I felt that there were parts of the story that were shoved in and unnecessary making the book maybe just a tad too long but nothing that was too troublesome to get through. I was also a little uncomfortable with the implied incest of the whole thing. That was weird. I finished the book still feeling a little confused about how everything worked and feeling cheated about not having more of a fight scene at the end but all in all I felt this book was a 3.5 star read. I think it will make a good read for people that like something a little different than the usual fairy tale retelling. It's an all around interesting book and think that people that enjoy feeling a little off kilter will really enjoy this.

TW/CW: incest, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, sexual assault, dead mother, absent father, some violence

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Sisters Grimm drew my attention immediately due to the fairy tale allusions, even though the blurb suggested it was going in a different direction than a straightforward retelling. However, while it is a bit…odd…in places, it is a book that, if you have the patience , you’ll find it has a whimsical charm combined with a darker edge once it all comes together.

This book has multiple perspectives: first person, second, and third, and jumping between the past and present. The main thing I found jarring is the difference in Goldie’s first person narrative and the third person of the other sisters and the soldier Leo. And the second person segments seem primarily evocative, for the purpose of transporting the reader to Everwhere, but there was no real reason for it to be written that way.

The romance between Goldie and Leo also felt incredibly toxic, given his motivations, and the fact that the revelations does not sway her emotions proves that love truly is blind to reason. And given the trauma in her past, I’m doubly disappointed to see her fall for someone so unworthy of her.

However, I did enjoy the mystical connection between the sisters, and the way it began to become clearer as the book went on how they’re connected and taking on their destinies. I was bummed at the way it was all tied together so quickly. However, it does seem to be only the first in a trilogy, so I have hopes things will improve from there and am willing to give this series another chance (or two) to see if it gets better.

This book has a fun premise, but it took too long to truly get started then ended too soon. I do think this is a fun book for what it is, and it does feel Gaiman-esque, as the blurb suggests. So, if you like that style of fantasy, then maybe this is the book for you.

I had high hopes for this book, but I am so sad to say that I didn't enjoy this at all.
The premise of The Sisters Grimm was an interesting one, one where Wilhelm Grimm holds god-like status and fathers daughters with extraordinary powers. This is the story of one set of these sisters who must master these powers and survive confrontation with their father. I enjoyed the sisterhood aspect of it, and thought the premise promising. Also, the writing style itself is lyrical at most points.
That is where it ends. The Sisters Grimm confused the heck out of me. For 90% of this book, I had no idea what was going on. The plot shifted back and forth so many times I felt dizzy. Parts of this book dragged on and honestly it was hard to keep track of the overreaching plot Honestly, I would have DNF'd this book if I didn't have to review on Netgalley. Maybe it's a taste thing, but unfortunately this book was not for me.

When I saw The Sisters Grimm pop up on my kindle, I was just so excited just because of the name Grimm and the eerie, wonderful faerie tales of my youth But what I read was something all the more different, a little more fantasy, than fairy tale to my dismay. BUT, I really did enjoy this book with the tale of 4 sisters, who sadly are separated and forget each other for years until they turn 18.

These 4 sisters represent the elements. There's Be a (my least favorite) who represents Air, a hard worker with a controlling mother; Goldie who represents Earth; Liyana, who represents Water and an injury to her leg, ruins all her hopes of being a great Olympic athlete ( and she has a girlfriend, which I thought was pretty cool); and Scarlett who represents Fire 🔥 of course, who works at a cafe and takes care of granny that has dementia. I feel for you girl, my mom has dementia :(.

Altogether a lovely, spellbinding, magical book with interesting character development and fantastical uniqueness, but the different POVS left my head spinning, going back and forth between the girls as youngsters and now and then there's also a male POD as well. The timelines blend and get a little confusing but for a fantasy book, I enjoyed it.

The 4 girls dream of a magic all place where they finally meet after dreaming of this mystery place, but danger awaits. I won't give it away you will just have to read where it all winds up if you put your mind to it and get past the time jumping.

I gave this book 4 magical stars even though fantasy goes over my head like a rocket leaving my hair in a perpetual state of Doc's hair wig in Back To the Future! Lovely, I am.

A special thanks to Harper Collins Publishing and Harper Voyages for my ARC copy in exchange for my honest reviiew. Also a special thanks to NetGalley and Menna van Praag for this unique book!

Rating: 2/5 sisters with shitty Dads

Format: paperback. I’d like to thank NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What it's like: It reminded me of Practical Magic in some ways, with sisters coming together and trying to help solve each other’s problems, and the basic dilemma for these characters is the same as Sabrina (Netflix show), where they must make a choice between good and evil, protecting their sisters, or themselves.

To sum up:
This story features four sisters by the same evil Dad (Wilhelm Grimm), each bestowed with control over an Earthly element (earth, air, water, and fire). The sisters grow up in different families with different mothers, but they are able to get to know each other and their abilities in the magical world of “Everwhere” which they access during their dreams/when they are asleep. When the girls turn 13 however, they lose all memory of Everwhere and spend the next 5 years living their lives and vaguely trying to remember what they lost. Their powers rarely manifest during this time in the real world, but then start to intensify the closer the girls get to their 18th birthday. Will the girls remember each other, and their powers, before they must face their father in Everwhere, and choose once and for-all between a life of Evil or death?

What I loved:
The descriptions in this book were really lovely. I enjoyed the diversity of the girls’ personalities, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. I also generally enjoyed the themes of sisterhood and elemental magic.

What was meh:
Initially what I struggled with the most was the length of the POVs. We hear from all four sisters, as well as a handful of other characters, and sometimes each POV is only a paragraph. I think the longest was at most a few pages, but they were usually around a page in length, which for me was super frustrating. I hated constantly being pulled out of a POV to be forced into another one so quickly. It made the writing feel really choppy and disjointed.

I also had a problem with the pace and plot. The entire book takes place over a relatively short period of time (33 days to be precise, there is a countdown), and in that time there is very little plot and a whole lot of flashbacks that tell us the same things over and over again. The girls have power. They’ve forgotten they had it. I don’t need to be told 23 times this is the case. Their personal lives in the present are all very turbulent and falling apart, but it’s not really clear what each of them needs, other than to remember each other. So why do I care if one of them loses her grandmother’s cafe, or another one loses her job? Why would that affect whether or not she remembers her past? The majority of details the author gives us about their present really don’t matter to the overall arc of the story so they just feel like a waste of time. Even when we find out characters have been placed in each of their paths to betray them, I just want the story to hurry up and get to the betrayal or to be convinced better why we care if they are betrayed.

Also, even though it says on the back flap that their father birthed them to corrupt humanity, it ultimately seems pretty trivial to the overall story. This big choice they have to make that is looming for the whole book is something the reader knows, but the characters don’t know until the last like 20 pages? So it just felt like there were no stakes. Why do I care if they choose evil? What does choosing evil even look like? I still have no idea. We don’t really know anything about their father Grimm, except that he was absent for their whole lives and generally acts like a huge creep (visiting them in their bedrooms randomly and then at one point kissing them on the lips and talking about a reward? Uhhh huge nope.

Generally, there was a theme of abuse, both physical and verbal/emotional across the backstories, which at a certain point started to feel tacked on and callous. I feel like the backstories she gave to some of these characters were so awful and ultimately, it was just used to justify their amoral behavior and later seen as strength to their father. I mean, there are so many things wrong with that. I see many stories using the idea of trauma as a source of transformation and power but this just felt disconnected to me, and wrong. I think maybe it was because the girls never really face their own darkness, never really accepted their pasts in a satisfying way to really feel inspiring or hopeful. There was really very little to feel hopeful about in this story overall. There is a whole lot of tragedy and then they face their father in the last 20 pages and it’s over. How the outcome of this final battle ultimately affects their world is not explained so why it’s important is still unclear to me.

Trigger warnings:
Sexual abuse of a child, rape, incest, emotional and physical abuse of a child.

The Sisters Grimm was a dark tale that fans of Holly Black or Melissa Marr might enjoy. A coming-of-age story surrounding four girls, all daughters of Wilhelm Grimm, this book brings attention to one of the greatest set of questions of humankind: is there good and evil and which one am I? The story follows the lives of Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea as they reach their 18th birthdays and realize that they have magic powers and now must fight for their lives in a battle that will determine whether they are good or evil. And in the midst of all the magic, they also have to deal with real life challenges such as poverty, debt, and death of loved ones.
I appreciated the format of the novel as it jumped between character perspectives and time. However, this is not my favorite format to read, so I think I may have enjoyed the book less than I otherwise might have because of it. For those who like that type of format, I think this book will be phenomenal.

The cover alone made me want to read this book.... I really should not judge books by it's cover. While it was a fun little elemental twist of a little brothers Grimm stories it just kind of falls short for me. You get to follow four "sister" who have a power of an element, but forget it after they turn 13? Only to remember when they turn 18 to (spoiler alert) fight for their life....and pick if they want to be good or evil. I do enjoy that this book centers around finding yourself and never forgetting it even when people try to make you be less than what you are, buttttttttt they is also a lot of repeating in this and it kind of muddies up the story and makes it drag.

I wanted to love this book. I just could not get into it. I love that it was clear who’s viewpoint you were reading from but they changed too often. Not only between character, but between worlds. I found myself having to go back too often. If they viewpoints had changed every chapter it may have been an easier read. The writing, however, is beautiful and descriptive. I may try again in the future. Just a side note: this may be my most favorite book cover ever.

I think most of us grew up reading Grimm's fairytales. I know I have a special place in my heart for it, so I was very excited for this book. Considering most fairytales registered by the brothers Grimm were women's, passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, the idea of Sisters Grimm instead of Brothers makes perfect sense.
The book follows four sisters who forgot about their power and each other overnight and years later have to piece together their life from washed away memory. It's a good concept, we have elemental sisters, stars in human forms and demons. But it's not explored as it could be. It's a very confusing read and hard to get into. You have too many narrators - some of them are in first person, others in third person and even an omniscient second person narrator. Overall I expected more but still an interesting read.