I really enjoyed the Bone Crier's Moon, so when I saw Kathryn Purdie had a new fantasy novel coming out, I jumped on the chance to read it! The Forest Grimm was such a fun reading experience that kept me guessing at every turn of the page! I absolutely adored the characters and the way she used creepy/twisted versions on classic fairy tale characters was incredible. I was equal parts fascinated and creeped out! Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am excited to read more from these characters and the world! I highly recommend!

Main characters were pretty dull, flat, and not fully fleshed out. I felt like there was no growth, and felt nothing towards the characters. That being said, I did enjoy the magic system but some of the explanations were dragged out and repetitive. It was enjoyable but not very memorable.

I enjoyed reading this book. I was hooked for the very beginning as soon as I read the synopsis. The Forest Grimm is the first book in the series and I’m looking forward to reading the story and seeing how it continues. Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books and Kathryn’s Purdie for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

"Tell me the story of how I die."
From the jump, I was hooked. I figured this book would feature some kind of fairytale retelling, but I wasn't expecting several of them put together! It reminded me of Into the Woods, a musical that I really enjoy. The retellings (Rapunzel, Cinderella, Briar Rose, and Little Red Riding Hood) were very clever. I especially liked the way the Grandmother was used.
The relationship between Clara and Axel developed beautifully, and I loved watching the two of them come to terms with their feelings for each other. I love star-crossed lovers, and I was happy with the way their story ended.
I read this so quickly, I was immediately sucked in and couldn't put it down! The idea of the Forest Grimm being cursed and the Lost people in the village was very compelling to me. The only issue I have is that the end clearly set up a sequel, and I don't love when storylines don't get wrapped up, but I am very curious and will definitely be checking out the next book (or books) in the series.
I'd rate it a 4.5 but was more than happy to round up to a full 5 stars. A very enjoyable YA read!
Thank you netgalley for the ARC.

2 stars for the Forest Grimm.

It hurts me that I didn't really enjoy this book. I think it has a lot of potential, but I just never found myself really connecting to the main character and I was getting really bogged down by the meandering plot. The pacing felt off and I caught myself multiple times skimming to see if something more interesting was going to happen. That being said I don't think its a bad book, I think it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an eArc of this book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and comments are my own.

I personally enjoyed this book a lot. I’m a huge fan of Grimm Tales and I always love reading twisted versions of fairytales. This book features Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretal, Sleeping Beauty, and I guess Red Riding Hood.

This was super fast pace for me and I found myself not being able to put it down. I wanted to keep reading because at every turn of the page something was going on. This is very action packed but not in a boring or annoying way.

I think Clara and Axel were very sweet together. I really loved how everything feel together for them.

With the way this book ended, I’m sure there will be a second one. Although I do think this book would be best as a stand alone; I am very curious how the second one is going to turn out.

4 stars!

I received this ARC from NetGalley. This story is great for those who love fairytales. The story follows Clara as she tries to save her village and her family from a curse and an evil forest. This book combines all of my favorite fairytales into one great adventure story. If you enjoy books based on fairytales, you will enjoy this book..

2.5 stars

I loved how this book started out. It had good pacing, and was building a unique world that I was very interested in.

The world is slightly dystopian, where villagers have to go into a forest to save the ‘lost’ of their village. The forest doesn’t let everyone in, but people of the village draw names to see if they’ll be the one to save the ‘lost’.

The unique part is the lost are fairy tale characters that we’ve all read about in the past, but darker. The forest also changes each day. Making it difficult to navigate.

I think my main problem with this book is the speech was very YOUNG ADULT. I think a young teenager would probably enjoy this book, but I couldn’t get into it. The love interests were not sparking any interest for me.

Why the leading lady likes Axel is beyond me. He pretty much leads her on, almost marries another chick, and he felt inconsistent with his words/actions.

I found myself losing interest at many intervals throughout the book.

Overall, a unique concept, that I think younger readers in specific would enjoy more than older readers.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for sending me this book. All opinions are honest and my own.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I had no expectations about this one, so was pleasantly surprised in how much I enjoyed it.

Seventeen year old Clara takes off on an epic journey into the lethal Forest Grimm to save her mother, save the townspeople, who has been lost for years, and retrieve the Book of Fortunes that reveals the townspeople's greatest wish.

The Forest Grimm, however, is so deadly, that every time one of the townsfolk passes beyond its branches, they have yet to return.

Setting off into the Forest Grimm, a red cape in town and some friends, Clara comes across a retelling of some well known fairy tells that are told in much more enticing a realistic way.

Cannot wait to read the sequel.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

The Forest Grimm is a YA fantasy that feels like the Grimm fairytales got dumped into an Alice in Wonderland forest.

Clara believes she is cursed and also believes that she needs to enter the Grimm Forest to save those who are lost.

This is a very plot driven book so you don’t get much character growth but the forest is dark, mysterious, and full of atmosphere. I really enjoyed the descriptions and feeling of the forest.

I did find the plot to move a little slow for me towards the 2nd half of the book and the main character’s best friend really irritated me.

If you are a fantasy lover, this is a nice quick read that was unique from any other books I have read recently.

It pretends to be mainly a Little Red Riding Hood story in which there's a creepy magic forest (totally my cuppa) but ends up being another haphazard pastiche of unrelated fairy tales (totally not my cuppa) set in a world where the main characters speak French but have names in other languages and France doesn't exist.

It shouldn't have been this long, and it shouldn't have ended in a cliffhanger that is clearly going to be a lead-in for a series either. There's not enough plot for it, it's aimless meandering for a story that doesn't know what it wants to be.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for sending an arc of this my way in exchange for review. This was my first book by this author and I absolutely loved it. I loved the fairy tale aspect of it, the writing is beautiful and I’m definitely adding this to my To Buy List.

Highly reccomend!

3.5 stars

Sometimes I read a book and am thoroughly confused about how I felt about it. This is exactly what happened with The Forest Grimm. Although I had trouble connecting to the characters, I couldn’t put the book down because I had to see how it ended. I enjoyed the fairytale elements and the role of fate but wanted more in terms of character development and relationships. For me, ratings are mostly gut feelings and this book was fun to read but seemed to be missing the grounding factor that makes a book 4 or 5 stars. However, it was still an enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel since there are still unsolved mysteries. Definitely pick this up if you love ya fairytale retellings that are more plot-focused.

Thank you to Wednesday books and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARc in exchange for my honest feedback. I was a big fan of the Bone Crier's moon and i love a fairy tale retelling so i was super excited to read this one. I loved how to story started out and came together, but the plot got a bit muddy in the middle. It wasn't totally clear to me what exactly happened to the Lost in the Forest Grimm and i found some of the fairy tale tie-ins confusing. It was also tricky to get on board with the romance. Eventually, it made sense but starting out it seemed the characters didn't have a genuine interest in each other and that one was already in love with someone else. Overall the story lacked the cohesiveness of her other series and i didn't feel a strong emotional connection to the characters or the resolution.

This book was so good, seriously...

Another one that I read in one day, it was engaging, and quick to read.

I love retellings and the brothers Grimm, so this was great and I can't wait for the sequel!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for providing me an eARC of the book in exchange for my honest review!

I was excited to read this book because I love retellings and bonus, it was based more on the Grimm fairytales! The book did a great job with adding some twists to these and creating an interesting world and magic system, You didn't quite know what would come next or how the FMC and her friends would escape, so you wanted to read that next chapter to see what would happen next. The overall plot is fantastic!

That being said, there were some aspects of the book that I did not enjoy. The main characters where kinda dull and not vary fleshed out. So the areas between the plots points where the characters were interacting more, just fell flat and dragged. While the FMC had a set goal, it felt like that was her main personality trait and she did not grow at all. It also did not help how oblivious she was to the MMC, which is just a personal pet peeve of mine. Also, her friend just felt tedious and only there to create more issues for the main characters.

While the magic system and lore was easy to understand and was interesting, it felt like there were times where it was overexplained or explained two too many times. The most glaring to me was the FMC explaining why the townspeople pinch the wishers and then using the same exact explanation two chapters later. Some other examples are explaining the significance of the red flower or how the book works. Again, some of the explanations just felt like they were copy and pasted over and over again.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and did genuinely want to know what would happen next. And while I don't think this needs a sequel, there are a few loose ends that I hope will be tied up in it.

Yeah so the book is not allowed to end like that when it’s going to be over a year before I can get my hands on the sequel!

I love all things fairytale so of course I jumped for joy at the opportunity to read The Forest Grimm. As the name suggests it’s heavily influenced by the Brothers Grimm, incorporating their dark and twisted tales into one overarching plot.

I was immediately pulled into the story - fortune-telling and a girl fated to die. A magical book that grants wishes and a sentient forest. That’s exactly the recipe for a dark and enchanting fairytale. The setting is so unique - a magical forest has turned its back on the villagers it used to bless after its magic is used to harm. The villagers need to make amends in order to lift the curse that’s fallen over their land. I absolutely adored our cast of characters - Clara, Henni, and Axel all have their own strengths and weaknesses, but are bound together by their desire to bring their loved ones and the rest of the lost villagers home. The slow-burn romance was also a highlight of the story.

This is one of the first books I’ve ever read with scoliosis representation. I loved the simple mentions of Clara’s S-shaped curve and the modifications to her shoes to help take some of the pressure off her back. This is not something you often read about, especially not in fairytales, and as someone who has two minor curves of my own, I appreciated the inclusion.

Overall, The Forest Grimm is a beautifully written and fast-paced story. The author did an amazing job taking the tales we’re all familiar with and turning them into an enchanting story of her own. I’m already eagerly awaiting the next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Clara and her best friend/love Axel must venture into the midnight forest to breal a curse on her village. It's a bit dark but love the twists on the fairy tales. It's a fun read. The characters are great. Brave and smart and fun. A fun read overall.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

I received an email from the publisher with a link to read it, and so I did. Maybe I shouldn't have, given that I doubted I would like it. But one can dream that their first impression might be wrong. Unfortunately, my initial reaction was sound, and it was about what I feared – another average poorly written YA.

The writing is juvenile and frankly reminiscent of the average teenage fanfiction. The action scenes in particular are awful; they are clunkier than wooden clogs.

<blockquote><i>I take up the knife. Cut the last blades of grass. Clamber after Axel. Not fast enough. Roots whip my backside. I push to my feet. Axel darts back for me. He grabs my hand.”</blockquote></i>

There's some significant info-dumping in the beginning. Clara says she's got a plan, and then goes into an info dump for 8 (e-book) pages.

Clara and Axel (separately, together) are so bland. They have no spice, no seasoning, no flavor. Clara obsesses about fate, and Axel is a man-boy that smells like “air that is clean with green wood and sharp with mountain pine...subtler notes, honeyed and musky like beeswax, but also earthy like cedar oil rubbed into leather.” Their romance isn't compelling, and a kiss is described “a lengthy, heated gnawing on my lips”. That isn't sexy, I'm sorry.

Some of the fairytale aspects were interesting, but mostly it felt lacking. The red rampion and the Grimm wolf had the most nuance to them, but the other aspects felt like just fairytale hopping.

The whole premise of why the Forest took the Book of Fortunes away was weak. A villager wished for the murder of one of the other villagers, and the Book told them to...stab the man in the back? Why would they waste their ONE wish on that? So then the Forest whisked the Book away, but left a convenient note to tell them why it was taken and how to get it back* The murder aspect felt like a poorly constructed plot device that needed more work. At least make how the man died something unique! I'd even accept a strange poison. But a knife in the back?? No.

*Clara tells us the inscription/riddle for how to get the Book back. It's VERY simple prose, and she takes the time to explain the verses, like we're stupid or something.

This book should have been a standalone. I say that about a lot of books, but this one definitely deserves it. The ending could have sufficed for an ending with maybe a few tweaks, and it's not until the last 4 pages or something that you know there's a sequel planned.

In chapter 27, location 2868, Clara refers to the boy and girl as Hansel and Gretel, even though they don't find out their names until a page or two later.

I'm hoping that some of these issues, especially the action wording and the goof with Hansel and Gretel (since those are most easily fixed), will be addressed by the time this gets published.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin Press for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

4/5 stars

I enjoyed this YA retelling of Grimm fairytales mixed with some changes. I also enjoyed the optimism that Clara had with changing her fate. I thought it was a good theme throughout the book of not giving up!

I enjoyed that the Grimm fairytales were more sinister and made up of the villagers that Clara knew. Made it slightly more personal. They each were twisted and I enjoyed seeing how Clara and her friends got out of it!

Clara and Axel were definitely a slow burn. I enjoyed that it wasn’t over the top in yearning. They each had their own story in a way before they got together.

The world building was great! I loved that the forest moved and the different areas they discovered. It was interesting to read about the forrest quirks. As well as the spin on little red riding hood!

My only complaint is that the characters seemed a little under developed. I wish we knew more about Henni and the other villagers they found.

Overall I really enjoyed the plot for this book! It made sense it didn’t wrap up so quickly and think how the author ended it was perfect. Looking forward to book 2!