Like Ever After High, but make it dark and queer. THE GRIMROSE GIRLS is strangely addictive, a twisted story that challenges the classic fairytales.
At first glance, the story may not seem like much: four girls attending a prestigious boarding school, each of them burdened with their own struggles but banding together to uncover the mystery behind the death of their friend. The beginning read as generic and amateur. Little did I know. Through a writing technique that I've seen rarely before, the lines of the story become infinitely more tangled and convoluted as the book progresses. I could scarcely put it down, even when the events were menial and boring. What presents itself as plain and innocent is mangled and bloody underneath. Dark motives. A captivating mystery. And girls who are capable of so much more than what is expected of them.
The representation in this book-- *chef's kiss*--there's a disabled main character (fibromyalgia) who's literally such a bad bleep. There's an aroace main character. A fat main character. A main character who suffers from OCD and anxiety. The list goes on. These girls are so, so lovable.
My main complaints are that the POV's were hard to distinguish from one another most of the time, so I would've liked to see each character's voice explored further. Also, the mental illness of the aforementioned character seemed almost like an afterthought? There were random mentions of her counting things and fidgeting, but that's it; that's barely scratching the surface of what severe anxiety and OCD really look like, and that bothered me. The romances were enjoyable, but seemed very surface-level. There wasn't enough time for me to see any of them bond significantly enough for me to ship them too hard. There is definitely potential, but not swoon-worthy *yet*.
Overall, its faults were enough for me to dock a star, but I still enjoyed it. Beware, though--THE GRIMROSE GIRLS is not a standalone!! I had hoped it would be, but was still pleased with the ending and am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

This modern-day reimagining of classic fairytales was such a delight to read. The Grimrose Girls is a story about a group of friends who try to solve the death of their best friend Ariane.

Set in Switzerland, The Grimrose Académie for Elite Students accepts students primarily of wealthy and privileged backgrounds. When one of the most-beloved students is found dead in the lake on the school’s property, it sends shock waves throughout the school. When the police rule it a suicide, Ella, Yuki, and Rory refuse to believe it, and, together, they make it their mission to uncover the truth.

When Nani Eszes, a reluctant new student of Grimrose, replaces Ariane as the roommate of Yuki and Rory, she soon joins the girls’ investigation. Their desire to find answers sets off a chain of events involving more death, magic, and a mysterious curse.

This book effortlessly incorporates many familiar fairytales, including Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and many more. The reimaginings more closely resemble the original fairytales by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm rather than the sugar-coated Disney versions.

The chapters are short and alternate between the four girls. They all have very distinct voices.

Ella is a people-pleaser and just trying to keep her head down until she’s of age to move out of her abusive home.

Rory is a strong young woman who has led a very sheltered and private life.

Yuki is an outwardly perfect girl, but inwardly is brimming with ice-cold anger.

Nani is a lonely girl trying to connect with her father.

There is plenty of LGBTQ representation, and it didn’t seem like it was only a checkbox for diversity. There’s also disability rep without any of the cliche inspirational messaging.

I noticed after reading this that the students did almost no schoolwork and hardly mentioned their classes. I still have some questions about the curse and Rory’s background, so hopefully, the sequel will provide more answers.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for the arc provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review of Advance Reader’s eBook

A mysterious book of fairytales found hidden in Ariane Van Amstel’s closet shortly after her supposedly-suicide-drowning, stuns her friends at Grimrose Académie, an elite Swiss boarding school. Did Ariane commit suicide or was her death the result of something far more sinister? Her best friends, Ella Ashworth, Yuki Miyashiro, and Rory Derosiers, joined by new student Nani Eszes, set out on a search for the truth.

But what do the fairytales have to do with Ariane’s death? And what do they mean to the other girls?

With another death at the school, the girls’ investigation takes on even greater importance and leads to some unexpected dark secrets. Will the girls discover the secret of Grimrose Académie before another student meets her death?



This Young Adult tale, the first in a series and set in an elite boarding school in a castle in Switzerland, reimagines several classic fairytales. Told in alternating points of view by the four girls [Ella, Yuki, Rory, and Nani], each of the girls brings something unique to the telling of the tale. The angst of teenager-dom is well done and there’s a strong representation for LGBTQIA characters, but it sometimes felt as if it was lesbian [check], pansexual [check], transgender [check], asexual aromantic [check] . . . a bit like having a checklist of sexual identities to be certain to include . . . and the result was that, instead of feeling natural, it all came across as being rather heavy-handed.

While readers may feel that there’s far more exposition than action, the plot is interesting and takes several unexpected twists as the girls attempt to solve the mystery tied to their friend’s death. The story is dark and occasionally grim, but the interweaving of the various aspects of several familiar fairytales gives the narrative a distinctiveness that only adds to the mysterious aura.

But many of the fairytales are dark and end in death . . . certainly not fairytales of the Disneyesque variety . . . and most of the girls are thoroughly unlikeable, making it difficult for the reader to truly connect with them and care about them. For being best friends, there often seemed to be a great deal of tension between the girls; some background specific to the coming together of this small group might have helped clarify the relationships for the reader.

Astute readers may identify the culprit long before the surprising reveal, but the breaking of the curse and the saving of the Grimrose girls is left unresolved [for the next book?].

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley
#thegrimrosegirls #NetGalley

I loved The Grimrose Girls! Each of the pov characters had distinct voices and personalities. The mystery was engaging, and it was fun trying to tie the less obvious girls with their fairytales. All the romances were cute and fun (and even the boy/girl romances weren't straight ones). I'm eagerly looking forward to the next book!

This one was such an atmospheric read and I truly enjoyed it! The perfect blend of spooky vibes for October. This story comes complete with a centuries old castle + a school full of teenage girls & all their drama + the classic darker versions of fairy tales + a murder mystery - this book really has it all. I found it to be a super page-turner, as in I had to stay up far past my bedtime to finish this one because I just had to know how it ended.

The only true spoiler I will give you is that I still don't know how it ends...eagerly awaiting the sequel already.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

I HATE giving ARCs bad reviews, and I got this one when it was read now on Netgalley, and I thought it would be a spectacular read for October, it seems to have everything I love. It even had asexual rep! Which REPRESENT. But...it just...fell SO FLAT to me. I'm honestly struggling to put any words down to what I liked aside from the queer rep in this book. And there isn’t much to be honest.

The writing is so stilted, and the dialogue isn’t great. The writing also just doesn’t feel...good? I don’t know how to explain it. It just did not work for me on so many levels. I got 10% in and was cringing with each and every word. It feels...young. That might be the word for it.

Not only that, the characters all seem flat. They're boring – and all the POVs sound the same. None of them read as different people to me.

The pacing of the book much like the writing was stilted. It did not flow at all, I was supposed to be caring about a mystery, but the more we got into the book, the less I cared.

The plot felt contrived as well, and I didn’t like it at all. I was fed up by the time I was 30% into the book.

I ended up DNF’ing it at this point. It just ended up not working for me. I thought it would be like Truly Devious or THe Inheritance Games books, but it just fell very short of the mark for me.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for an eARC of Grimrose Girls in exchange for an honest review!

Overall, I enjoyed they one. I'm always down for a good dark academia! There's so much great LGBTQIA+ rep in this, which always melds so well with drk academia. On the other hand, I didn't know how to feel about the fantasy aspects of the story.

For me, the natural pairing with dark academia is horror or paranormal. Fantasy made it less surreal? And it made it feel younger. I'm not a hugefan of fairytales, so once that part of the story started being incorporated, I liked the obok less and less. It had been so intriguing up to the halfway mark, and the second half of the book took it down from a potential 5 star read for me.

If you like fairytale retellings, you'll probably enjoy this one, but that part just was not for me.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and were not affected by the free copy.

Ella, Yuki, and Rory, students at Grimrose Academie, just lost their best friend in what the police call a suicide. But when their new roommate arrives, the girls start looking closer into her death, and discover dark secrets they never dreamed of.

I could not wait to start this book. The Descendants meets Pretty Little Liars? Yes, please! I love murder mysteries and fairy tale retellings, so this was a match made in heaven for me. Sadly, the fairy tale vibe I got from the characters was either too on the nose (Ella) or really vague (Yuki). Thankfully, that didn't detract from the story too much for me.

This was definitely more a slow burn than full on thriller; it took awhile for anything to happen, and the pacing didn't get too much better after that. It wasn't until the last few chapters that things sped up. However, the setting and the interspersed deaths kept me going.

I loved the LGBTQIA representation in this book! I didn't shorten the acronym, because we have an Aro/Ace character and I LOVED that.

All in all, not the best book I've read, but I will probably read the sequel, it held my attention enough.

Such an interesting, twisty book with strong fairytale vibes!

The Grimrose Girls centers around four girls after a friend's death that the school and police think is a suicide, but the girls think there's something more at play. I really enjoyed the way fairy tale stories were interpreted and reimagined as part of this story.

To be honest, I still don't know if I 100% "got" all the plot elements. There were a bunch of characters and subplots to keep track of and the story is told in alternating POVs of the four main girls. I am sure author Laura Pohl is just setting the stage for future books in the series and I'm definitely interested to see where this one goes!

The setting was so immersive, the boarding school set in a castle really helped the story comes to life with a dark edge to everything. There was a lot of really great queer representation, where you get to know each girl a bit more. The lead girls are definitely not cookie-cutter characters, which I thought was really well done.

I was definitely intrigued by will be keeping an eye on this series to see what comes next for the Grimrose Girls!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an advanced copy of this and the opportunity to share my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl has such an interesting concept which is total Fab catnip – it made it onto my October hype post even. But, I struggled to even finish it. It ended up being more of a rage read than anything else. The story follows four girls at an elite boarding school after the death of one of their own as they slowly figure out that they’re actually set to repeat fairy tale tropes and their destinies are set. The concept is great, but that is pretty much the only thing the book has going for itself. The writing isn’t great – and in a crowded YA fantasy market, clunky writing is really something that does put me off. The characters were bland and because they fell into stock tropes, not characterised deeply enough. I didn’t feel like I got a proper sense of any single one. And while the book as a whole had a sense of casual queerness, I was rather upset to realise that the Beauty and the Beast insert characters included casting the only trans character in the book as the “Beast”… which is certainly a choice. I was quite excited when I realised that the book was set in Switzerland – and quite close to where I grew up too – but that soon turned to dismay when I realised that the setting was not well crafted, but relied on stereotypes and a lack of basic research. All in all, this is a book that I found underperformed in all aspects and would not recommend, as tempting as the premise is.

A friends mysterious death is only the beginning. This is a story full of fairy tales (and not necessarily the happy kind). I devoured this book in a day. I found the premise super intriguing and couldn't stop reading.

It has a diverse cast of characters that I loved. The covers also quite beautiful, I liked a lot of things about this book.

Admittedly some events did happen to be a bit predictable, but that's okay. It was still a super fun, enjoyable read and I'm eager for the second book.

Do pick this up once it hits shelves!

I was a little confused starting the story, but was quickly drawn into the plot! I loved that the traditional fairy tales were involved, but you were still left questioning who was next or how it would manifest. I thought the characters were interesting, and I wanted to know more about them. I was so upset to read the cliffhanger at the end of the book, but I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series!

(Originally appeared on Goodreads)

3.5 stars.

Boarding School + Buzzfeed "Which Disney Princess Are You?" Quiz + A Dash of Gore = The Grimrose Girls.

Thanks to NetGalley for a chance to read this before its official release date.

This was a fun read. It was a little slow, just a lot of exposition really. It reminded me of the pilot episode of a TV series in that it set up a lot of things and introduced characters and storylines that will play a part in the series as a whole. Since "The Grimrose Girls" is "Grimrose Girls #1," it is obviously setting up a larger story that will play out over several books. As a result, there are some storylines that aren't resolved by the end of the book, but all the more reason to read book #2 when it comes out.

I'm a sucker for a boarding school setting and it was a lot of fun to imagine being a character at an uber-exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. I enjoyed diving into the world of the four main characters and their desire to solve the mystery of their best friend's death. Was it suicide or something more sinister?

Aside from being a little slow, I'm not sure if I really enjoyed the multiple points of view. Each chapter is told from the POV of one of the main characters and while they are distinct in personality, appearance, etc. I still had trouble keeping track of who was telling the story. I felt like they kind of blurred into one person and despite their differences. Aside from one character swearing more than the others, their voices were very similar.

I did very much appreciate the diverse cast of characters featured within the book. I feel like modern YA is the best at showcasing a wide range of characters who best represent the world that I live in, especially when they are the main characters and not just supporting characters.

All that to say, this was a fun book that has me curious about what is going to happen. Fantasy isn't my favorite genre (or is it magical realism?) so I'm not sure if I would seek this book out on its own, but I don't regret reading it and it was a fun weekend read.

The Grimrose Girls is a dark academia fantasy about 4 girls trying to solve the mysterious death of their friend. It's a fun read with a great diverse cast, girls dying in strange accidents, a fairytale curse, a Winter ball, and a bit of romance. It's the first in a series, but has enough resolution to feel like a whole story. I really liked trying to put together which characters match what fairy tale and how diverse the characters are, (it's got gay, trans, ace, disabled, and a wide spectrum of socio-economic statuses.) I'm interested to see where the story goes and will definitely be picking up the sequel

“Studying at Grimrose was a guarantee of your future. When you studied at Grimrose, nothing could ever go wrong. Except that on the eve of the first day of school, one of the Académie’s most exceptional students had drowned in the school lake. Alone.”

The premise for The Grimrose Girls is downright titillating. Best friends and classmates Ella, Yuki, and Rory return to their elite boarding school missing the fourth member of their squad, Ariane, who died on school property under mysterious circumstances. While the police—and most of the student body—believes it was a suicide, her friends aren’t so sure. Determined to get to the bottom of Ariane’s death, the trio—some willingly and others not—start hunting for clues. When the new girl, Nani, unwittingly becomes part in that investigation and people at the Academy start dropping like flies, the girls will have to close ranks to stop the killings.

Dark academia vibes? A mysterious murder? All the queer and mental illness rep? Yes, please!

The cast of characters for this story drew me in from the get-go. What I really admired about the four girls was the range of emotions we got to see. There’s definitely some unresolved tension between the girls and especially Yuki and Rory seem like fireworks that are just waiting for the right spark to light up the sky—or burn everything to the ground. Meanwhile Ella seems so well-adjusted, but we learn that this façade comes at a high price and often isolates her from making true connections so others won’t find out about her complicated living situation. There’s also mental health rep for OCD and anxiety in here that felt accurate and authentic. Beyond that, we have a delightfully queer cast of characters and while some of them are repressing their feelings, others are secure in their sexual identity. Though I wish more focus had been put on these aspects, I’m hopeful that later books in this series will elaborate on that.

Every girl added something different and unique to The Grimrose Girls. That being said, it’s always a hit or miss when it comes to portraying so many POVs and somehow, this landed in the middle of that spectrum. The four girls definitely have their own view on things and their opinions, personal struggles (with mental illness, with their sexuality, with fitting in and with their overbearing families) and personal lives were showcased so vividly in their respective POVs that I could really get a grip on who they are and what makes them tick. But while I enjoyed the diversity and the different “voices,” the constant changing of the perspectives also slowed down the pacing immensely. There were some chapters that felt almost inconsequential (especially if you guess the culprit early on) while other times, chapters would basically start with a recap of the former chapter, just to include the emotions of said POV. Which obviously makes sense because you do want to have the insight but at times it felt like I’d read the same chapter twice and that took away some of my enjoyment. The same unfortunately goes for the reveal of the culprit – every girl comes to the conclusion on their own, but it felt redundant the way it was repeated in every POV, which made the reveal fall a bit flat.

Where The Grimrose Girls truly shined is when it came to the setting and the interweaving of fairy tale elements. Pohl creates the perfect creepy, mysterious setting and all the little tidbits we get about Grimrose, its curriculum and student body as well as the places like the library and the landscape, paints a vivid picture in your mind. Beyond that, the way that Pohl incorporates these fantastical elements will excite fans of urban fantasy. To find a way to include such well-known fairy tales seamlessly into a contemporary setting without losing the “credibility” of it all really speaks to Pohl’s talent as a writer. Evidently, some connections are more obvious than others—i.e. Ella, for example, is clearly Cinderella—but others are more difficult to figure out and it’s a fun time trying to come to the right conclusions before the girls do. While I take some issue with Yuki’s fantastical counterpart because it feeds a bit into the stereotype of ace-aromantic people being cold, abrash or downright robotic, I did love that we got this magical touch (I won’t say more because of spoilers) added to the plot and I’m excited to see where that will be taken in the sequel.

All in all, The Grimrose Girls is a contemporary take on classic fairytales with a haunting setting, and a ruthless mystery at its core—perfect for lovers of dark academia vibes, fairytales with a twist, or mini-Sherlocks in the making!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I must say I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. The plot was just perfect and it kept me hooked. The fairytale retelling aspects, the diary or the book and the twists in the story just kept me hooked till the last page. I highly recommend these to YA thriller readers. mysterious elite boarding school, fairy-tale retelling, a queer cast,magic check check and check everything you could want.

Ella, Yuki, and Rory are returning to their elite boarding school, Grimrose Académie; however, this year they will begin the year with a funeral for their friend Ari. Ari was found drowned in the lake by the school just before the semester began. The girls don't believe Ari's death was a suicide like the officials say. Ella, Yuki and Rory don't make any headway in finding a cause for their friend's death until a new girl, Nani arrives. Nani finds a book of fairy tales with a list of names that Ari had been taking notes in along with a threatening note. The girls piece together that the deaths at Grimrose seem to follow the endings of fairy tales. But, are the deaths at the hand of a human killer or a curse upon the school?

The Grimrose Girls is a young adult murder mystery combined with a little magical realism. The writing drives directly into the mystery as the girls attend Ari's funeral. Each of the girl's personalities were well developed and evident from the beginning. Yuki strives for perfection in everything, Ella has a need to please everyone around her, Rory wants to be herself, despite her parents best efforts to make her someone else and Nani needs to find her place within this strange group of girls and discover why her father sent her to Grimrose. I loved the incorporation of the fairy tales around each girl's situation. The suspense built as fairy tail deaths begin to find their matching students. The line between magic and reality was easily blurred as the girls were pulled into their fairy tales and seemed to play out their tragic stories. Even more than the mystery, The Grimrose Girls is a story of friendship, coming of age and self-discovery. Each of the girls takes on figuring out who they are without Ari, the glue of the group. They also find who they are in relation to their fairy tales and decide if they want to play into their fate or change it. With a diversity of characters and a wonderful storyline, I can't wait to read the next book.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Firstly, I’d like to thank the author and NetGalley for the eBook in exchange for an honest review. I’m sad to say that I really, really, really dislike this book, especially since murder mystery is one of my favorite sub-genres and I love the private academy setting. Truth be told, I only managed 55 pages before giving it up because the more I read it, the more I hated it and regretted the time I was spending reading it. The only reason I’m giving it two stars instead of one, and the only thing I like about it, is the great LGBTQIA+ representation and that representation doesn’t feel forced or like it was an afterthought.

Although this does feel like a Pretty Little Liars and Descendants crossover, it took only the worst elements of each, filling the book up with badly executed cliches. First of all, attempting to mesh together so many fairytales retelling in such a short narrative does not seem to me like a smart choice seeing as the author has limited space to develop each character’s storylines. Furthermore, the parallels to the princesses and princes were so obvious and followed the original stories so much that the book becomes laughable. Just because your novel is a retelling it doesn’t mean you have to make the names so painstakingly obvious, honestly, naming your character EDRIC??? Really? (In case you couldn’t figure it out, this is the stand-in for Ariel’s romantic interest, Prince Eric). Ridiculous names aside, three of the four main characters are virtually unlikable and, once again, fall deep in the cliche pit, I won’t give any specifics due to not wanting to spoil anything, but suffice to say that they were each annoying in their own way. Oh yes, the author also has the school dance have a masquerade ball theme, just one more predictable cliche to add to the never-ending list.

This story was great in theory, but the execution leaves much to be desired and it’s safe to say I won’t be finishing this book, let alone continuing with the series.

Marina Garrido.

I was very intrigued by the description of this book and the actual contents did not disappoint. I was pulled into this story, this dark retelling of classic fairy tales with their modern counterparts. Each of the girls has a strength of her own and each has her own secret she hides. There are interesting characters, parallels to well known fairy tales, victims and heroines, magic and mystery. A bit of horror and gore but it fits the dark premise of the fairy tales gone dark themselves. What happens when the happy ending twists to something not so cheerful?
A very entertaining book that I read over the span of 24 hours.
I found each main characters interesting and loved how it switched POV by chapter, so that each of them had a role in the narrative.
I enjoyed putting together the pieces to see which fairy tale corresponded to which girl--some were very apparent and others were revealed with time.
A thoroughly engaging book and I am looking forward to a sequel!

From the start I found myself enveloped into the setting, mysterious elite boarding school, fairy-tale retelling, a queer cast,magic just SIGN ME UP. Laura Pohl did a fantastic job of pacing and timing by sprinkling small reveals throughout the story, keeping me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. I
Overall, this was a lovely and entertaining read.
ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.