This beautifully illustrated version of Hansel and Gretel has all the magic you expect from Neil Gaiman. Just wonderful!

Hansel and Gretel is a classic fairy tale, about what hunger can do to us. Neil doesn't have to do too much with the classic story, but he does immerse us in the tale of parents that leave their children in the woods. We can believe a kindly old lady will feed children, only to lock them up for food.

Neil's writing is always a treasure. We can dive into the prose and believe in a house made of candy.

One hitch is that the Kindle formatting is very wonky. Sometimes the text rearranges itself. I hope this was corrected on release, as some details were out of order.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it loved it loved it. You dont need to be a Neil Gaiman fan to enjoy this amazing tale. The artwork alone deserves more than 5 stars.

A classic story with wonderful illustrations. If you are a fan of Neil Gaiman then this is a must read!

A lovely adaption of a story we have all heard so many times before, which makes it an even more impressive feat. Gaiman manages to make this story feel new in a dark and creepy way. The illustrations perfectly match the tone of the story and really do wonders using dark/blank space as a way to tell the story. A great graphic novel for fans of retelling, creepy stories, and tales of revenge.

A wonderful installment in to Gaiman's graphic novel work! This telling of Hanel and Gretel had the perfect Gaiman spin to it with fantastic art. An excellent little book I think many will enjoy!

This is pretty typical of Gaiman's work. It doesn't actually deviate from the traditional telling of the story much but it has his attention to detail. It adds some nuance to the beginning of the story in particular. And it's well supported by the black line drawings.

As usual, Gaiman does not disappoint! This is a beautiful retelling of Hansel and Gretel and Gaiman leaves his mark clearly on this retelling. With dark and broad artwork, a creepy feel throughout the book, it brings a different element! This is a worthy retelling of a classic story.

Two masters transform the famous Brothers Grimm story into a triumph of darkness and light, dream and nightmare. While not reinventing the story wholly, they inject new life into it with beautiful language, and eerie but perfect horror-lite illustrations. A fairy tale that does now skew away from the darkness of the original.

Good heavens, but this story has always horrified me! I mean, it's awful, isn't it, thinking that parents could so easily abandon their children to the dark and unknown depths of the woods - the Grimm brothers certainly took their name seriously! Gaiman, as expected, offers a wonderful retelling of the story, doling out the casual horror in a straightforward way, as if this sort of thing happens all the time, no big whoop. Lorenzo Mattotti's art is even more the star of this book; it brings the darkness close and makes it tangible, I could see it, feel it, it swirled around me. A masterpiece of a book.

#HanselandGretel #NetGalley

This graphic novel version of Hansel and Gretel was really short and sweet and I enjoyed it. When it comes out, I will get a physical copy and put it in my classroom.

First of all I want to thank netgalley for providing me with this graphic novel.

hansel and gretel, a classic by the brothers grimm told by neil gaiman and drawn by lorenzo mattoti, here they tell us the story of two brothers, who live with their father and mother, however they go through a period of famine where each food counts, they barely have enough to survive so the parents plan for the children to die in the open, however Hansel listens to the plan and devises his own to return, however in another attempt by the parents they manage to make the children get lost in the forest where they meet a witch who decides to feed them.

The story is a classic with quite dark drawings, as is the original story, with a hopeful ending for the children but not for the mother.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the advance digital copy of this storybook!

Neil Gaiman has written an engaging retelling of the Hansel and Gretel story, the mystery of dark woodlands paired with a country gripped in famine, creates a haunting setting for the story. There was a blend of magic and realism to the story that comes from Gaiman's simple style. Lorenzo Mattotti’s ink illustrations also create a great atmosphere of shadows and mystery that draw you into the tale. This is a good version of the story to share with your children if you'd like to avoid cutesy versions of fairytales.

Really enjoyed this retelling of Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman. Have sort of forgotten how this story can affect you. And the artwork was very good too. Hopefully they will revisit more of these old tales. #HanselandGretel #NetGalley

A solid take on a classic! This would be such a beautiful book to own; the illustrations are very creepy and atmospheric, and I can imagine pouring over them as a kid trying to find figures in the dark shapes. I did find myself wishing that Gaiman had done more with this retelling, as it does not make any large changes and honestly felt like it could have been written by anyone who has read the original story. I was expecting something more transformative, because Gaiman has written really fascinating fairy-tale-inspired stories before. I also really appreciated the pages with historical information about the story's origin; I learned a lot there!

Synopsis

This is pretty much the creepy, Brothers Grimm version of the tale all of us know wich Neil Gaiman's immersive prose and the captivating art of Lorenzo Mattotti. It is, quite simply, a stunning edition of the book.

My Overall Thoughts

I do not think this story is for modern children of the age that the original story targeted. I don't think that's a bad thing, either. Children today, at least Western children, are mostly ignorant of the horrors of poverty that Hansel and Gretel faced. This is a story that older children and adults are more equipped to handle and will enjoy for nostalgia's sake and for its rich language and beautiful artwork.

What I Didn't Love

I don't think anyone is not disturbed by this version of the story. Please don't share it with actual young children. This is not for them. If it were first written today, I wouldn't give this book a second glance.

Potentially Offensive Content

Poverty trauma

Child abuse and neglect

Violence

Cannibalism

What I Loved

I felt that Neil Gaiman fully captured the darkness of the Grimm version of Hansel & Gretel. This isn't an adaptation. It is almost exactly the unsanitized Hansel & Gretel we know. Gaiman doesn't try to adapt the tale at all. He simply uses his uncommon skill with the written word to evoke a lingering dread in the reader, while reminding us of the simple times when we heard this story for the first time.

I love Neil Gaiman so when I saw this retelling of a popular classic, I was excited to dive in. The story is creepy, sad and warrants an important lesson. I love the dynamic between Hansel and Gretel. I think this story teaches some important lessons to children.

The illustrations are simple, yet spooky. The illustrations truly tie into the atmosphere giving a creepy, eerie experience. My children absolutely loved this retelling. It was quick paced, easy to read and not overly childish. Definitely a good experience and a take we will read many times again throughout the years.

“Hansel and Gretel” is a fairytale so pervasive that it’s safe to say everyone knows at least one version. The house made of gingerbread shows up in cartoons, video games, and even television commercials. The ubiquitous nature of this story, long-ago popularized by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm, makes it ripe for retellings and variations to bring it to a new audience yet again.

This edition of HANSEL AND GRETEL (TOON Books, 2023) sees Neil Gaiman taking his turn at retelling the tale. Gaiman, well-known for SANDMAN and AMERICAN GODS, seems perfectly suited for such a dark story. This is not his first time tackling a darker form of children’s story, and he does a fine job of contextualizing the malice in the tale. Traditionally, both of the parents were perfectly willing to abandon their children in the forest to save themselves from death by starvation - Gaiman takes the more modern route of having the father be only a reluctant participant in the evil stepmother’s scheme.

Accompanying Gaiman in this retelling is artist Lorenzo Mattotti. The artwork consists of dark splashes across the pages, with shadows shifting into depictions of the scenes like a Magic Eye painting the longer you look at them. Considering Mattotti’s own history with scribbling out the witch’s face in the illustrations of his childhood copy of the fairytale, this stylistic choice makes perfect sense - so frightened and betrayed was he of that seemingly kindly old lady.

In addition to the fairytale retelling, this book includes the history of the fairytale itself - and its likely origins during the Great Famine of 1315. The history includes a discussion of the woman who shared the tale with the Grimm’s, and some of the variations of it that have come into existence over the years. There is a small bit of speculation as to why this fairy tale in particular continues to appeal, given its dark content.

While not particularly a particularly novel retelling, Gaiman proves a delightfully ominous narrator for the tale. Gaiman’s distinct voice, coupled with Mattotti’s eerie art, is sure to terrify the younger readers and become a fast favorite for the more morbid of adults. The history of Hansel and Gretel may very well create a new generation of curious folklorists in much the same way the SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK series did for my own generation.

With this reinterpretation of the fairy tale, Neil Gaiman has disappointed me enormously. In my opinion, it is not even a reinterpretation of the fairy tale. The plot is almost 1:1 the original. In addition, I find the illustrations terrible. I don't like them at all. They are just black pages with few accents that create a certain atmosphere but are not beautiful at all. I didn't like looking at the pictures either and am just disappointed.

A classic telling of Hansel and Gretel with the add of wonderfully haunting artwork! This was a quick read for a graphic novel, but it's always lovely to revisit Grimm classic fairytales and German folklore.