I only read the first 3 chapters, but I absolutely adored it! You can tell from the opening scene that the author knows how to tell an intriguing story and I can't wait to read the rest when it is published.

I was a bit skeptic going into this one because at this point I've read one too many Little Red Riding Hood/Grimm Fairytale adaptations. Thankfully, I was rewarded for giving this one a try.

First of all, I got sucked in quickly. The world building is wonderful and descriptive, the added touch of magic from the book that grants a wish to villagers, and I don't know why, but I didn't see what was coming in the forest.

The way Purdie wove the tales of those trapped in the forest is fantastic and did not in any way follow the typical formats of other Red Riding Hood/Grimm YA novels I've read. I loved how Grimm's dark tales were even darker in the book. Rapunzel's story pulled me in and from there I couldn't put it down. Characters were fantastic, just when I thought I knew how something was going to turn out Purdie pushed the train off the tracks. I love how creative this was and little nods to different fairly tales in small and significant ways. This is one I would definitely put on my shelves in the fall for students who are looking for a fantasy with a dollop of darkness.

A dark and engaging take on the Grimm fairytales that captures the horror of the originals while offering a unique twist. I wish the author had gone deeper and more nuanced, but within the parameters of Young Adult conventions, it worked well. If you're looking for a fun, easy fantasy, this is a pleasant way to spend a day.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I entered The Forest Grimm with trepidation. Not just due to it’s eerie atmosphere filled with danger creeping at every corner and magic thickening the air, I needed to know what I would find with every page turned.

I needed to know what my heart would declare about entering this world and walking its path to the end.

I declare I felt adventure, urgency, excitement, fear...I felt an adventure worth taking.

I am so glad I took it.

》The Leads《

Clara, our protagonist, owns my heart. I love heroines like her— soft, vulnerable, yet determined. Fierce not in brawn but in sheer will. Her greatest wish is to save her mother and she will face all the frights in the world to do so. Even with the chronic, physical pain she has following her, she never stops going. Her determination is her true strength.

Axel, what a perfect co-lead. While we do not get his POV, I think he’s a character easy to read— even better than Clara herself did. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is a steadfast companion to Clara.

Henni. Ah Henni, sometimes she honestly felt in the way. I wanted less of her so I could see Clara and Axel without that third party watching in on them. So yes, she frustrated me, I can’t say I enjoyed her character— but I do think she helped progress the plot forward. Without her character I don’t think the plot would have been as nicely paced as it was.

》The Romance《

Oh gosh, how I desperately needed Clara and Axel’s romance! From the start I felt they were meant to be, and I rooted for them the entire way through.

I tend not to enjoy the friends-to-lovers trope, but for them, it fits perfectly. It’s heartbreaking to see Clara keep her distance due to the fear of her shortened future, not to mention her belief in who Axel’s true love is. How that plays out is predictable, but in a way that very much satisfies.

This is another reason I’m not a huge Henni fan, I felt we lacked more on-page romance due to her presence. Nevertheless, I’m content with what we did get.

》The World-building《

If you’r ever read The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford then you’re familiar with fantasy worlds that are more intimate, quieter, more contained in a way unlike a vast majority of other fantasy. This book’s world is very much like that.

There’s a subtlety there in the way magic works and in how the forest encompasses the characters. It doesn’t build out as much as it builds in— depicting how its world directly affects each character.
I enjoy this type of world-building very much.

》The Missteps《

A strength in this book is its plot, but at times it did feel it overwhelmed the character arcs, losing a bit of focus there. This is honestly a minor nitpick, I’m simply a romance reader at heart and always root for the love story to take the main stage.

I am not a fan of the set up for a sequel. This story was prime for a contained, quiet fantasy read that did not need to see Clara’s journey continue. I would have understood had Henni been postured as the next POV, allowing her to lead the next book. I just want Clara and Axel to having their happily ever after, so I’m a bit dismayed to see there could be more bumps along the way.

》The End《

I was not sure what to expect when I began this journey, but I'm so glad I took it. I don't know if I will continue onto the next book, but I will absolutely be purchasing this one.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank-you Netgalley for the eARC. This was an adventure of a girl trying to save her mother and her town. She enters Grimm Forest to save her mother and find a book that grants wishes after her town is cursed. It is a fast paced adventure that weaves into it different fairytales I’ve grown up with but they are darker than the ones I know. I enjoyed the darker aspects of the fairytales. It includes a beautiful slow burn romance. Really enjoyed this tale and can’t wait for the next one.

This is my favorite quote from the book. “Love is stronger than death, stronger than fate.”

The writing from the very first line marks it as YA. Stopping at 4% in. It has very little crossover potential for adults, so it won't be a good fit for our libraries. This could even be a good fit for middle grades, depending on how the rest of the book plays out.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for a copy of this ARC.

I'm sad to say that I had to DNF this book. I found the writing to be extremely basic and all over the place. The characters had no depth to them and the story didn't feel believable for a fantasy story. I liked the idea of this book, a forest capturing the lost when they try to find their love ones. A girl with a red hood to find them and save them and their town. The magic in the lore. All of it usually is right up my wheelhouse. Unfortunately, the lack of depth and thoughtoutness was just too much for me to want to keep reading.

Thank you so much St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I was so excited to be approved for this ARC, as I adore fairytales and have enjoyed them for as long as I can remember. I thought the mixing of familiar storybook themes in “The Forest Grimm” was truly clever and the writing was positively engaging. However, I wasn’t as invested in this particular tale as I hoped to be. I do believe that there will be a dedicated fan base for this book, and think that anyone who watched “Once Upon A Time” should give it a read!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. It had a strong start, however I felt as though there were too many elements competing for attention. It seemed like it was going to be a Little Red Riding Hood retelling, but then pieces from other fairy tales were included as well. I also did not expect it to be book one of a series. The FMC was overly focused on one thing throughout the story (which is a completely fine plot line) to the point where it made her feel one dimensional. Overall, not the book for me.

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie
Publication Date: September 19, 2023

Clara enters the forest against her Grandmother’s advice to search for a missing grimoire to remove the curse on her village and hopefully bring back the missing townspeople, including her mother. There’s some obvious magic interwoven into the story but also some fairy tale reimaginings, if the gorgeous cover didn’t already give that away.

I’m always down for anything fairy tale and the promise of a dark, creepy forest and a romance had piqued my interest. In those aspects the book certainly delivered. The thing that kept this from being more than just a good book for me was that there was an absence of an overarching villain. The forest itself was a kind of villain I guess but then every other chapter they would encounter an individual and a situation would ensue. The encounter usually happened because of a failure of trust between the trio. It was a bit repetitive and also made the stakes unclear. I was approaching the end of the book and I still didn’t see a clear path forward for the characters to overcome their problem of locating the missing book. They also seemed to have their own individual goals counterproductive to the others. It felt kind of endless because of the lack of build-up in terms of stakes. 

It was filled with so many good YA tropes it ended up taking on the feeling of a good comfort read.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. The following opinions are my own.

I jumped at the opportunity when I found this title on netgalley. I usually love fairytale retellings and I thought since I haven't read a little red riding hood one in a while this one might intrigue me. Sadly it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. There was a mash of other fairytales mixed in. It also felt very long.

A fun retelling of several fairy tales woven together. While the story is held together by the main characters' journey through the forest, it ends up feeling a bit muddled. I'm left wondering what the story is trying to say about fate and individual agency. I think 7th-10th grade students who like stories about magic would like this book.

The Forest Grimm reads like a fairytale in which the forest gifts a village a magical tome, but once someone uses that magic for harm to another, the forest curses the village with misfortune and residents of the village also disappear. 17 year old Clara has been fated an untimely death and in an attempt to rid herself of her fate and to also find her mother who disappeared, she and a friend decide to enter the forest and find the magical tome that was taken back by the forest itself which proves to be harder than she had imagined. This was an interesting story that had its twists and turns, and some very dark moments thrown in. Although this is a YA book, it did read a lot younger than I was expecting. Overall this story was very interesting and enjoyed following Clara on her quest to find a way to reverse the forests magic and change her fate.

I'm sorry but this book wasn't for me. The beginning felt a bit like an info dump and throughout the book I felt there was too much exposition and not enough action. The whole storyline with the cards felt unnecessary and like nothing needed to change about the story if it was taken out, besides giving Clara more agency. Another thing, the romance felt a bit too much like cheating for me to really care or root for them. The entire conflict with Ella and her lingering feelings for Axel as well as Axel's secret about their wedding day seemed too convenient and resolved too quickly. Finally, I thought the worldbuilding was lacking. The curse and why it happened and what it's function was could have explained more clearly. Why did Clara's mom turn into a vampire?

I think the best thing about this book is how it subverts all expectations.

When you see the cover you assume little red riding hood, and yet there's so much more woven into the meat of the story.

And what is woven in is twisty and dark and not what you'd expect.

A very good read for those with a love of fairy tales. I would give this one to Marissa Meyer fans for sure.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC.

If you like fairytales but a little more dark then this is the book for you. I found this book very enjoyable, fun and easy to read. It is definitely more on the younger side of YA not guitar middle grade but not quite YA just somewhere there in the middle.

Most of your childhood fairy tales but throw in an odd, dark twist and you have The Forest Grimm. You meet Clara, daughter of one of the first lost people and granddaughter of a fortune teller who is set to finding out what happened to her mother and other people who got lost in the forest.

For a while I was going back and forth on what to rate this book. I ended up settling with three stars. While I did enjoy it there were a couple of elements that bothered me throughout which is a shame bc the prose is good and so is the concept of this dark forest full of twisted fairy tales. For starters, the main character frankly was a little obnoxious. She kept emphasizing the meaning of the cards and why the curse existed which became repetitive and frankly annoying very quickly. Also the amount of times she mentions having an S Curved spine really got on my nerves. I know the author was probably trying to implement disability representation but as someone who has a form of scoliosis we don’t think like that. All of those mentions could have cut out the words “S curved spine” and left it at my spine twinged in pain or something.

The Forest Grimm is wonderful for those who love fairy tales! While I did enjoy it overall, I did struggle to like Clara (she comes off really immature and annoying at times) and found the pacing to be a bit all over the place.

Clara's grandmother reads fortunes using tarot cards, and every time she has read Clara's fortune, it has foretold Clara's premature death; Clara repeatedly asks for her fortune to be read, hoping for a different result. However, Clara is also resigned to the fact that she will have an early death. But before that happens, she hopes to save her mother, Rosamund, who shares the same fate. Grimm's Hollow, the village where they live, was blessed with the magic of the Forest Grimm, in the form of the Book of Fortunes. Once a villager was of age (16), they could call upon the magic of the book once in their lifetime, and their wish would come true. However, they had to keep their wish secret -- if they revealed their wish, it would be reversed.

Unfortunately, before Clara reached age sixteen and could make her wish to save her mother, the forest's magic turned on the village. An unknown villager used the Book of Fortune to commit murder. As a result, the Book of Fortune disappeared. Even worse, sixty-seven villagers, including Rosamund, have wandered into the forest, never to return. The village has created a monthly ritual called Devotion Day, where one villager is chosen to try to enter the Forest Grimm and find the lost villagers and the Book of Fortune and reverse the curse. When the Book disappeared, a single page remained with a riddle with a clue as to how to reverse the curse. However, the forest typically immediately rejects the chosen villager, including Clara when she was chosen.

But Clara is determined to enter the Forest Grimm, find the Book of Fortune, and find her mother. She will discover an unexpected way to enter the forest, with her friends Axel and Henni, and with the aid of a special red cape that her mother created (and which Clara's grandmother had hidden away). What they find in the forest is not what they expected. They will find some of the "Lost Ones", but these individuals have changed considerably, and give new meaning to some classic fairytales - Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, etc. Clara with her red cape is an homage to Little Red Riding Hood. Clara will also discover that her fortune and her future is not as straightforward as she believed, with profound changes for her and her friends.