The cover gave me Little Red Riding Hood/Robin Hood vibes. The story reminded me of a YA season of Once Upon Time. I personally wasn't really into this one. But if you like fairytale(ish) retellings then definitely give it a try.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with a review copy.

The Forest Grimm was not what I was expecting. Somehow, I envisioned a seamless one story novel with all of the dots connected. What I got instead was a disjointed read that attempted to associate or bridge different narratives into a cohesive novel. To me, the novel came across as a conglomeration of reinvented fairytales that wasn't seamless -- merely band-aided together.

Stories like Rapunzel, Cinderella, Oliver Twist (?) were reimagined into borderline horror stories that transformed the characters into sinister versions of themselves. Like Rapunzel is portrayed as a murderous Medusa-like creature with crawling red hair. And the reimagined Cinderella isn't the nice girl next door either. But, perhaps that was the point. Though I would have preferred that totally different characters were used in the novel. As it stands, the novel just exuded an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-like vibe.

Needless to say, I just got put off on the novel's pathway. And at 45%, I threw in the towel. An unfortunate one star DNF.

I received a DRC from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

"A spellbinding YA fantasy from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Purdie, where fairy tales come to life with dark, deadly twists.

"Tell me again, Grandmère, the story of how I die."

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book - Sortes Fortunae, the Book of Fortunes - with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother.

Years ago, when the villagers whispered their deepest desires to the book, its pages revealed how to obtain them. All was well until someone used the book for an evil purpose - to kill another person. Afterward, the branches of the Forest Grimm snatched the book away, the well water in Grimm's Hollow turned rancid, and the crops died from disease. The villagers tried to make amends with the forest, but every time someone crossed its border, they never returned.

Now, left with no alternative, Clara and her close friend, Axel - who is fated never to be with her - have set their minds to defying fate and daring to accomplish what no one else has been able to before. But the forest - alive with dark, deadly twists on some of our most well-known fairy tales - has a mind of its own."

Like a fairy tale version of this season of Nancy Drew.

**Thank you to Wednesday Books and Libro.Fm for the eARC/ALC copy in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my opinion**

The Forest Grimm is the first in a duology that reinvents the classic stories we remember. It follows Clara Thurn, a girl who has known since she was young she would be destined to die early. The village Clara lives in, Grimm's Hollow, has been cursed and has lost many villagers to the surrounding woods. Clara ventures into the forest with her friends, Axel and Henni, to recover their lost and a magical book that will grant one wish to each villager upon their coming of age.

I loved this book. I'm going to call it's probably making my top 10 or this year. I can forgive that the love interest is blonde 😂

Joke's aside, I really liked the characterization and the relationship between the three characters. Without giving away too much, there's some tension there, but it was balanced. I will also say, despite the way the cover looks, the Romance elements weren't too much. There was a nice balance between the blossoming romance and the actual Adventure plot. As far as the forest goes, the author reinvents Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Sleeping Beauty and does all of them in such interesting ways. I especially love what she did with Sleeping Beauty and lowkey, I would've loved a full book of JUST that story. I was not expecting the twist for that one at all. Purdie does a nice job of balancing the sweet side and the gory original Grimm versions of these stories (Yes, I know Cinderella wasn't a Grimm fairy tale, but still...). There's just enough of a dark side that the fans of these original stories will be pleased, I think. I can't wait to see what she does with book two and which stories she chooses to include in that.

5/5. I would (and will) absolutely purchase this for both the library where I work and my own personal collection. I would especially recommend if you liked The Bone Spindle or any of Christina Henry's retellings.

When I saw this was a dark fairytale retelling with a magic forest and a cursed town, I got so excited because those are some of my favorite elements in books. It started off promising with the line “Tell me again, grandmere, the story of how I die.” Unfortunately for me it didn’t live up to the promise of the first line.

A quick synopsis:
The magic forest gave the town a wish granting book, but when someone used the book to murder someone else, the forest took back the book and cursed the town so no one could leave, their crops would fail and their water would dry up or go bad. It’s been several years, and people seem relatively fine despite that, other than those that go missing in the forest. Clara and Axel want to go into the forest to save her Lost mother and his Lost fiancee and to find the lost book. Clara knows she will meet an early death in the forest, but the two of them find a way in.

My thoughts:
I found the worldbuilding to be lacking. Clara and her grandmother speak French, despite France not seeming to exist. Her grandmother is also the only person in the whole town able to use magic, and it’s never explained why she has it and others don’t. The lore of the forest is nonexistent, and once they've entered it, the characters themselves seemed to forget that the forest is magic and can change on them, despite the fact that it physically barred the villagers from leaving it by throwing them back with roots and dirt.

The characters feel flat and don’t seem to follow any kind of logic. Even when everyone in the forest is actively trying to kill them, they repeatedly follow voices and try to find people insisting that this one will be different. Meanwhile, they seem to go days without food, water and sleep, then are fine to run through the forest for hours. Clara refuses to tell Axel her future that’s been foretold, even though he’s a part of it, and later we find out that he’s withholding big information too. In terms of the romance, there was very little chemistry between the main characters and the premise under which we see the romance play out made me cringe.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday books for providing me with this e-arc.

Mixing tarot and the Grimm tales, this is an ok mashup. There's a town formerly blessed (with a wishing book) and now cursed by the forest, and Our Heroine is convinced she can find the book and her mother, and fix the town. She teams up with Our Hero, who is looking for his long Lost love, Ella ("Lost" = someone who wandered into the forest and is, well, Lost) and Ella's younger sister.

The Grimm stories here are definitely darker and weirder than anticipated, but the plot is fairly predictable. And then there's the whole question of why this is mostly Germanic in feel... or perhaps that area of France-thats-sometimes-in-Germany? Editorial shears were needed to keep things moving along. And why is this going to be a series? No idea.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

I really enjoyed this book. It was so twisty and creepy. I thought I knew what was going to happen next but it kept surprising me. The world building was really great. I loved the mystery of the forest and the history of the town.

4.5/5⭐️

This YA fantasy was a spin on various dark folklore stories from the Brothers Grimm. It’s centered around the Forest Grimm, a magical forest that turned malevolent when a murder was committed in the neighboring village. The Book of Fortunes, which provided one wish to each 16-year-old, disappeared and so did various town members when they ventured into the forest to find the book that would save their desolate community.

Clara, a 17-year-old girl, is determined to enter the forest and rescue her mother who is among the missing. Along with her friend Axel (whose fiancé is also missing), they face mysterious creatures, a malicious forest and the desperation of finding the book that could return their loved ones (and save their souls) along with their town’s future.

I really enjoyed this book…terrific world-building, cheer-worthy characters, a sweet bit of romance and a bittersweet but hopeful ending. Very well done.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing the early arc of The Forest Grimm for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Well there was just a heck of a lot going on in this book. A lot of cliches, a lot of predictability. I feel like I’ve been moving away from fantasy a lot lately but this one intrigued me. Even though I say there were cliches and predictability the story line itself did have some originality. The outcome is not what you think it might be and I blame only myself to not see this was a first in a series. I don’t think I will feel compelled to read the next one.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was such a great read!! The plot was so full of adventure and intrigue that I devoured the book in one setting. The author did an amazing job developing relatable characters and keeping the story going without it lagging. It was such a great read that I will be recommending this book to everyone.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read an advanced eARC!
I guess I was totally oblivious going into The Forest Grimm, because I had no idea this wasn’t a stand alone. Let me tell you I was FLABBERGASTED with that cliff hanger! I need the next book asap!
Each of the fairytales had a nice twist on the originals! I enjoyed the pace of the plot. There were a few slow moments, but it was a quick easy adventurous read!

This book worked so well for me. I gave me massive once upon a time vibes but the early seasons. It also hard a darker twist with the both the forest and the tarot elements. I also really liked the main characters all thrree of them and the various quests that made up the whole story!! I also really binged this book and loved all the subtle nods to fairytale characters!! Def excited for book 2!!

Very typical YA storyline. I was hoping it would have more of a wolf-ish background….but no luck. The writing is easy, but at times very dull?

Nothing memorable about this story….

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie follows Clara, a seventeen year old girl who lives in Grimm’s Hollow. Her village is being plagued by a curse after someone tries to use a magical book for an evil purpose. In desperate need to save her village, Clara embarks on a trip into the Forest Grimm to find the book. The only probably is the forest is cursed and everyone who enters it is lost forever.

This book had such a good premise but I feel like it failed at every point. Having a forest with Grimm’s fairytale creatures could have been so amazing! This story was some how convoluted but also very surface level. I never connected to any of the characters. The romance felt weird and unnatural. There was really no point in the book having the fairy tale characters it had. I feel like that added too much on top of the story about the cursed village. Nothing really got the opportunity to shine.

The good thing about this book is that it is easy to read. I didn’t dnf this book because I was just along for the ride to see where it went. It looks like this will be a series in which case I don’t plan on continuing.

The Forest Grimm was a fun YA mish-mash of traditional fairy tales. There were elements of Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and more all within a magical forest. The MC, with the help of two friends, is determined to find her mother and other townspeople that have disappeared, but what they find is altogether monstrous. Overall, I enjoyed the mysterious and plot driven elements of this tale, but I found myself bored at times. The main story has resolution, but be warned this is not a standalone.

This book was hard to put down.

We follow Clara, a teen girl who knows she’ll die if she enters the forest on the outskirts of her village, but believes she must anyway in order to save the village and the people who have been lost. Up until recently, the village used to have a book they could wish on, but when one villager wished for someone to die, the book disappeared, and the forest slowly began taking villagers, including Clara’s mom.

I was very surprised to see the different ways fairy tales were used in this book. It felt almost like a game to try and figure out which character was which tale I already knew: the main character wears a red cape, so she must be Red Riding Hood, but does that mean the girl in the tower with long hair and a creepy, spider-like ability to move around is Rapunzel? What about the girl who has a large collection of poorly taxidermized animals?

I can definitely say that I had no idea where this book was going to go, and I was really surprised by the ending! Despite having fun playing a fairy tale version of Guess Who?, the actual plot of this story is a teen girl going into a dangerous forest in order to find her mom, and while I won’t spoil the ending for you, I will say that I was devastated by everything Clara had to give up in the hopes of saving her mom.

However, I also didn’t get as into the characters of this book as I wished, and I think that negatively impacts the book’s sequel hook at the very end. While there are still mysteries to be solved and things to do in this world, this book wraps up it’s own story a bit too well. It feels perfectly fine as a standalone, and I don’t care for these characters enough to want to see more in this universe.

I have to start off by saying how much I love anything having to do with fairy tale retellings, in particular the tales of The Brothers Grimm, so when I had the chance to read and review The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie, I jumped at it. I was immediately drawn to the cover, followed closely by the title itself and then the book's description. I love stories where villages or towns are isolated for some reason from the rest of the world, usually because of a curse, and the quest to break the curse by the main character of the story. I'm happy to say that this book did not disappoint! The characters were likeable, the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, and the myriad of fairy tale characters our MC, 17 year old Clara, meets in the Forest Grimm were very interesting to say the least.

In summary, I enjoyed this book very much and can't wait until the next book in the series becomes available.

5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Kathryn Purdie for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This enchanting new novel from the New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Purdie sets a new standard for the fairytale mashup.

Villager after villager start to disappear when a murderous wish on the magical Sortes Fortunae poisons the nearby woods. But despite a grim tarot reading from her fortune-telling grandmother, Clara is determined to rescue her mother, lost to the Forest Grimm years prior.

With the help of her childhood friends, Axel and Henni, Clara vows to bring home each of the souls lost to these treacherous woods.

All your favourite fairytale characters are here: Rapuzel, Cinderella, and even Hansel and Gretel. But they may not be quite as you remembered them.

"The Forest Grimm" is a twisty tale full of adventure, terror, and romance, and is entirely unputdownable from beginning to end.

ARC provided by NetGalley & the publisher.

I have only read the Bone Grace series, which I enjoyed! I like fairytale retellings, so I thought I'd like this. I got to about 32% and I just wasn't invested in the story. There is nothing wrong with the writing, it is solid and good writing.

I just felt it was rather boring, so I skimmed a bit more, and the mashup of all the fairytales was just not working for me. And I felt that there was a lack of character development.

I wasn't invested in the story at all, and while there is some action and the book proceeds at a clip, it just wasn't working for me personally.

Overall, this book ended up not being for me, but I definitely think this is going to appeal to people who love fairytale retellings.

Love the idea and premise of this book but i think the exaction was lacking in my opinion. I really liked the story and characters for the most part but the writing wasn’t my favorite and hard to get into