I think this book was very creative in how all the fairytales were incorporated. I feel like there was something missing in the relationships of the characters, but I just can't put my finger on what it is. I think I wanted a little more from them. I listened to this on audiobook, and the narrator did a fantastic job! I want to thank NetGalley and the author for the chance to read the ARC of the Audiobook.

Nonsensical, aimless, and lacking in originality, <i>Forest Grimm</i> is a young adult fantasy set in a world of twisted fairytales.


<b>THE PLOT OF THE WANDERER</b>

The initial pages of <i>Forest Grimm</i> are engaging. Clara is an active protagonist, sneakily adding extra names to the lottery in an effort to be the villager chosen to enter the Forest Grimm. When that plan is thwarted and she discovers a plant that will protect her from the effects of the Forest Grimm, she tricks her grandmother into doing another tarot reading and then she sneaks out of the village in search of her mother, friends in tow.

The overall driving force of this story is Clara’s search for her mother, who is the first villager that went missing within the Forest Grimm years back. Clara engaging actively within the story to reach this goal was a promising start.

However, once Clara and her friends enter the Forest Grimm, this story falls apart. The very nature of the forest is that it shifts overnight, a la a Hunger Games arena crafted by the gamemakers themselves. Because the earth is always moving away from them, the three main characters spend the entire book lost and wandering aimlessly. They are no longer able to take an active role in the story as a result. The world and the plot are now being inflicted upon them, rather than the other way around.

It was at this point in the story that I began to realize Purdie wrote herself into a corner with this book. She started out so strong with such an active protagonist, just to let this one characteristic of the setting cripple all other elements of the story.

As a result, the only way Purdie could move the story forward was for her characters to just randomly stumble upon the missing villagers throughout their lost wander through the Forest Grimm. This was an incredibly clumsy way to progress the story, since it felt like a series of catalysts that had no real impact or bearing on each character’s transformative journey (save the run-in with Axel’s jilted bride that was taken by the forest last year).

Each of these catalysts felt more nonsensical and twisted than the last. While Purdie had a lot of cool ideas, the execution was poor. The following six encounters happened throughout the course of the novel in the Forest Grimm, and with each one, the issues are clear:

🧶 🎶<b>She’s got a dream, she’s got a dream…she just wants to see her dying victims scream.</b>🎶 Yep, you read that right. In this twisted fairytale, Rapunzel attempts to ligature strangle Clara and co. with her miles of hair. She ends up being one of the missing villagers, and her hair grew that much in just a couple years because…magic.

🐭 <b>Clara and co. get lit on Cinderella’s mushrooms.</b> Ella, Axel’s missing bride, goes by Cinderella now, and she drugs our gallant trio and then attempts to trick Axel into marrying her while he’s tripping on her shrooms.

👻 <b>A little ghost child advises three near-adults on street smarts.</b> Clara can see ghosts, and converses with the ghost of Axel’s long-dead child relative. He gives them very convenient advice that basically comes down to the fact that they shouldn’t trust anyone they come across. This seems like very obvious advice that three people in their late-teens should already know. Overall, ghost boy seemed like a plot device, and the flimsy reason that we’re given for why only Clara could see and interact with him didn’t work for me.

🍽️ <b>Hansel and Gretel are cannibals.</b> One of the villagers brought their twin children into the Forest Grimm, where they rapidly grew to the appearance of teenagers in just a handful of years, but maintained the minds of six year olds. All of this is of course because…magic. Oh, and they capture Clara and co. with plans to eat them.

🐺 <b>Grandma is a wolf.</b> In the world’s most anticlimactic, worst-kept twist, the wolf turns out to be controlled via magic by Clara’s grandmother and has thusly been protecting them all along. There is no effort to transform this very obvious use of the Little Red Riding Hood tale. As soon as I read that Clara wore a red cape and there was a wolf stalking them in the night, I knew it would be the grandmother.

🪡 <b>Sleeping Beauty is a vampire.</b> Clara’s untimely death foretold comes to pass when Briar Rose (Clara’s mom) convinces her to prick her finger on the spindle, and then when it weakens her, she takes Clara to a room of bodies where Henny is lying, and she then proceeds to drink their blood. She drains Clara, killing her. Axel finds them and drives the spindle into Clara’s heart, resurrecting her from the dead because The Magical Book told him to. Clara repeats the exact same methods on her mother, except her mother dies, the castle crumbles around them, and they have to flee, leaving her mother behind to be buried under rubble. I’m unsure what Clara’s thought process was behind using Axel’s resurrection procedure on her mother, who was alive. It worked on Clara because she was dead. How did she not imagine that stabbing her mother in her still-beating heart could have any other result than death? In this moment, Clara truly felt stupid. The logic was nowhere to be found.

So after that recap, it’s clear that a lot of my issues with the writing of each of these fairytale twists is that they are either nonsensical, rooted in a poorly constructed magic “system”, predictable because Purdie didn’t subvert the fairytale enough, or made her protagonists look foolish and dim-witted.


<b>THE THREE Cs OF ROMANCE: CRINGY, CLICHED, AND (anti)CLIMACTIC</b>

Axel and Clara’s romance did not work for me. The two are very obviously smitten with one another from the start. As lifelong friends, this is believable. However, the constant discussions about “trusting me with your heart” are worded so unnaturally and over-the-top that they are cringe-inducing. Additionally, all of the allusions to Axel being a prince come across as incredibly cliched and heavy-handed given the fairytale world we are dropped into.

As for the anticlimax of it all, the fact that Axel and Clara start the story in love and end the story in love (only having overcome the rather overblown and unconvincing obstacle of letting their walls down and allowing themselves to be together) felt very anticlimactic. I was not a fan.


<b>FINAL THOUGHTS</b>

This just didn’t work for me. The plot was aimless, the characters lost all agency once they entered the forest, and all of the fairytales were either predictable or poorly executed. Most of them lacked purpose in driving the characters toward transformation. Only (Cinder)Ella served that purpose. The rest just felt like diversions to fill up page space before the end.

I also don’t for the life of me understand why this ended on a cliffhanger. This is one of those books where it easily could’ve and should’ve been a standalone. The lack of meaningful progression in this story alone indicates to me that whatever material Purdie has left in her for book two probably should have been incorporated here somehow.

Ultimately, <i>Forest Grimm</i> needed a lot more editing before seeing the light of day, and I’m disappointed this is the state in which it’s being released to the world. It feels like such a massive disservice to Purdie that more rounds of editing weren’t recommended, considering some of her ideas felt cool at first glance (e.g. Vampire Sleeping Beauty, cannibalistic Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella the vengeful poisoner), but they didn’t work in the execution.


<b>AUDIOBOOK REVIEW</b>

Sarah Ovens’s performance is fantastic! She has a very charming voice that’s easy and nice to listen to. If you read this in any form, I’d listen on audio just for her narration.


<b>Overall Rating:</b> 1 star

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

Let me begin by saying that I have been in a HUGE book slump for the last 6 months, DNFing books left and right, and within one chapter this book fully cured it! My favorite author came out with a new book and I READ THIS ON RELEASE DAY INSTEAD! If that doesn’t show you how much I loved this book nothing else will! The writing in this Little Red Riding Hood Grimms retelling is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Not only is it filled with magic, suspense, mystery, romance and all things Grimm, the descriptions of this world and its inhabitants paint such a beautiful scenery that will sweep you away entirely. I haven’t felt like this reading a book since I last read beloved books like Caraval, Once Upon a Broken Heart and Folk of the Air. If you’ve found yourself searching for that magic realm you will want to revisit again and again, LOOK NO FURTHER!

Our FMC Clara is immediately relatable, and oh so root for-able. She’s brave, determined, loyal and fierce, you can’t help but want to tag along on her adventure into the Forest Grimm in search of answers, and hopefully salvation for more than just her doomed village, as she herself is doomed, and has lost what is most important to her. She is not alone in her quest to save what she loves, as her friend Axel is also on a quest of his own to rescue his would be bride who went mysteriously missing in the forests depths. (If you listen closely you might recognize even more beloved Grimm retellings right in this one’s midst!) While it was a retelling, it was entirely its own, in no way just mirroring anything I’ve read before. It is filled with new twists and turns with characters we know and love, fully reimagined to make it singularly unique.

The plot is paced so well, with no lags or leaps and I was fully invested from start to finish. I was kept on my toes wanting to read faster to see what happens next because for once I wasn’t able to decipher the plots before they unfolded (which was such a treat for someone like me who consumes so many books that I often see things coming) For me this was an unputdownable adventure I wanted to restart once I finished, and I can only hope that there is more like it on the horizon from Kathryn Purdie! I think this book is truly destined to be a best seller for YA fantasy readers, and the perfect Fall cozy read. Again, if you are looking for a book that would be perfect for fans of Stephanie Garber, Holly Black, or Marissa Meyer THIS IS IT!

Now for the audiobook, holy cow I am so grateful I got the audiobook arc folks. The narrator Sara Ovens is absolutely on point, and truly feels like the voice of Clara herself. Her voice lends well to magical adventure and she has great distinctions between characters and varied accents. It was very easy to get swept away by her voice and I know I will relisten to this book again, and again! This is one of those audiobooks that truly matches the story’s beautiful flow and feel, and exceeds all expectations for fantasy narration. I will definitely be recommending this format to others, and will be looking for other titles with this narrator as well. She brings even more magic to a story so packed full of it, that you cannot help but want run straight into The Forest Grimm itself!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review, this will be one of my top reads of the year!

I'm gonna be honest and say that this one just didn't fully work for me. The main reason being that I just couldn't get attatched to the characters or the plot. And while I was initially intrigued, the pacing was a bit too slow and there were things that either didn't make sense or weren't explained thoroughly enough.

Fairytale retelling? Sign me up!

Except... it really wasn't what I wanted. Clara seemed both too young and too old at the same time for a YA novel, Axel is just average (I feel like their friendship wasn't played up enough beforehand), and Henni was TOO childish at times. I don't understand how she and Clara are supposed to be best friends - it just didn't make sense to me.

The forest itself didn't really make sense (SPOILER - how was Clara's mom a vampire??? how did the twins age up?? Why was Ella trying to poison them??). Clara's grandma is kind of the worst, but also her backstory makes no sense to the plot. Overall, everything just felt half-hazardly thrown together and I felt bored by most of it.

I wish this had just been a standalone. There is not enough plot to turn this into a duology/series. Not horrible, but ultimately just not my cup of tea.

After seeing everyone’s reviews made me worried about listening to this arc, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yes it has a ton of different fairy tales in the book and a lot is going on, but this is one of the better fairytale retelling that I have truly enjoyed. Everyone that gets trapped in the forest becomes a different fairytale character, and they have to figure out how to break their curses, while trying to navigate the ever changing forest.

I was provided both a print and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I really liked the premise of a darker twist on some of our favorite fairly tales. I think the author did a good job of using some of my favorite tales and putting a nice twist on all of them to make them all a little bit darker and more sinister. If you have ever read the original fairy tales they all lean on the darker side in an attempt to teach children a lesson and deter them from doing certain actions or going certain places. I think the author did a good job staying true to the darker side of the original tales, while still putting her own fresh spin on them.

This follows Clara on quite and adventure to find a lost book as well as the villagers who were lost in the magical and dangerous forest that borders her village. The book holds the secrets to reverse the curse on the village and Clara is determined to find the book, save the village, and find her mother. You see Clara's grandmother is a fortune teller, and she has foretold that Clara is going to meet and untimely death in the Forest Grimm. Clara driven by the cards her grandmother has drawn, enters the forest aided by her best friends Axel and Henni to find what was lost. There they encounter a forest with a mind of it's own, dangerous creatures, and unexpected enemies.

One of the criticisms I have about the book is that the author often repeats certain phrases over and over as if you forgot them from the previous chapters. The other thing I wasn't a fan of is that our main character Clara is an act first think later kind of person and it felt like she had no agency of her own. All of her actions were driven by what she thought was her fate based on the cards drawn for her, and I felt like she lacked common sense much of the time because of it. After some reflection, I think that means I'm not the target age group for this book. It read a bit too juvenile for my taste, and I love a good middle grade or YA book. The characters were a bit too impulsive for my taste and the book lacked the world building and character development that I personally like to see in a book despite the target age group. I do think younger readers are really going to enjoy this. The magic system isn't overly complicated, there is a decent amount of action, and the plotline is entertaining.

This is the first book in a duology from what I've read, I am looking forward to finding out where the series goes next. This does end on a slight cliffhanger, but the main storyline of this book does end and I felt we got closure on this installment and brief preview of where the next book is headed.

The Forest Grimm is.an entertaining return to a world full of fairy tales and the dark mysteries behind them. While I have seen quite a few "Fairytale Retellings" coming out this fall, this is one of the better books of its kind. I enjoyed the premise where our two main characters must venture into the cursed forest, one in hopes of saving her mother, the other in hopes of finding his finance. Both disappeared into the forest in the past and are presumed lost or dead, and the forest has taken many more from the town as the curse has grown. It is up to Clara and Axel to bring an end to the curse, but at what cost?

The story features many appearances of dark versions of fairytale characters you will recognize, but it does a good job of keeping the main characters (who are childhood friends) at the center. Their romance is sweet as they protest a bit too much to just friendship, but I enjoyed how it developed. I also found the use of tarot in the story interesting (though Clara does get a bit stuck here). This is a quick moving interesting story with some great fall vibes in a fairytale mashup.

I listened to the audiobook and felt the narrator enhanced the experience of the book in her storytelling. Her voices are distinct and she conveyed the tone well. I'd highly recommend this audiobook and am thankful to Macmillian audio and Netgalley for early access to it in exchange for this review.

I enjoyed The Forest Grimm—there really aren’t a lot of negatives, but it is not the sort of book that has done something exceptional. I would not call it mediocre, because the writing is actually good, but there was not a single moment in the book when anything the characters or the narrative did that took me by surprise or I did not predict 50 pages before. I liked the mix-and-match approach to fairytales and giving them all a sinister twist. Perhaps the book would have benefited if the narrative leaned into horror more. The Forest Grimm would have been a much more enjoyable book if it was a stand-alone with a tighter narrative.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

Clara has always been fated to die according to the fortune-telling cards pulled by her grandmother. Despite that, she makes the choice to go on a dangerous journey into the Forest Grimm to retrieve Sortes Fortunae - the Book of Fortunes - that was lost to her village years ago when someone used its magical wish-fulfilling powers to kill another. A curse befell the entire village and those who entered the deadly forest have become lost, Clara’s mother among them. Now, alongside her long-time friend Axel, Clara enters the forest to find the book, save the lost ones, and lift the curse from their village - even if it means she never returns.

Retellings are all the rage right now and this book runs with that idea in a unique way. The fairytales that we all know and love are interwoven throughout the story, in similar fashion to the television series Once Upon a Time, but with a darker twist.

A romance looms under the surface, adding another layer to the story and fairytale feel, but it didn’t overtake the main plot. Purdie’s characters were all well-written and have clearly defined goals and motivations. Do they frustrate me at times? Yes, of course they do, because they feel like real human people and real human people are frustrating. But that’s exactly how characters should feel.

Purdie crafted a world that was easy to understand while still feeling a bit mysterious. The majority of the story takes place within the Forest Grimm, which feels like a character in and of itself, adding to the entire vibe of the book. In addition, there is something that makes a story feel more like a fairytale when read out loud in a British accent and, coincidentally (or purposefully?), the audiobook is narrated by Sarah Ovens, who delivers a beautiful performance. The lilt of her voice was soothing when it needed to be, but powerful and frantic during the action sequences.

And the ending. Oh gosh, the ending. It’s not one of those earth-shattering, “scream and curse the author’s name” kind of cliffhangers, but it does leave you wanting more. I’m anxious for the next book to come and see how the story concludes for this little group looking for a fairytale ending.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this audiobook from the publisher for free and have voluntarily written this review.

This was a decent read! Little red riding hood with a bit of a darker twist. Clara the main character has a disability where she needs an insert in her shoe to help the curve in her spine. It’s nice to a different representation in character.

This is a YA book that I feel would be great for 12-14 year olds.

While it ends on a cliffhanger, I feel like it didn’t quite have enough to it. I felt as reading through that I kept expecting more but it wasn’t there. But once again, I feel like a younger audience would have a much better appreciation for it!

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

Would you travel into the deadly forest to save your loved one and to hopefully break the curse that befell upon the town? That is what Clara did, and she thought she would have to do it all alone but her closest friends Axel and Henni travel with her to see if they can bring home the ones that have gone missing in the forest and to break the curse.

I enjoyed this retelling of the Grimm fairy tales a lot, I found it to be close to what they were originally but at the same time different in a dark and beautiful way. I did find that at parts the plot would drag a little then it would speed up and a lot would happen. I think for me it was all the small things that were important to the ending of the story but maybe took a little too long explaining it or the reasons for feeling that way. However, even after all that I thought the book was well done.

I liked the characters in the book, even though at times I was a little confused by them. Clara, I liked that she was strong, determined and a little hard headed at times. I liked the fact that she thought of others but at the same time you can see how her thinking of helping everyone in the town by breaking the curse would be helpful until you see what she must do to break it. That would be hard for me to do if I was in her shoes, and then to find out all that work and you only break the curse a little bit would be hard to deal with but not for her. She is determined, with the help of her friends, to find a way to completely break the curse.

I thought Axel was nice to go out and help her on this mission until I started to understand more that he did because he loved her, however I felt the love connection was a little off for me. I know if it was because they were young or how they both figured out that they both care for each other. However, I did like that he was by her side through all of it even the parts that he might not have agreed with or understood. She has a real connection with Axel and that helps her to understand a lot of what she has to do for them, her town and herself.

Henni, at times I felt that she was a little younger than Clara, but she was close to her age, but then again who knows what might have happened to her friend with the loss of her sister in the woods. Henni is a great character to have in this book because she is mixing things up and making it really an adventure for this group of friends.
I also received the audiobook as well, and I enjoyed the narrating of this book. It really helped to open up what the characters might have really been feeling.
I need the next book soon though because I need those answers and I can’t wait to see what their next adventure will be in the forest.

If you enjoy retellings of fairy tales, YA fantasy, YA romance, and magic; you should read this book.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook arc of The Forrest Grimm.

I was very interested to listen to this as a subscription box I am a part of is releasing a special edition that I will be getting. I will say the US cover leaves something to be desired, so I am glad that the cover of my SE will be the UK version which is a lot more attractive.

Overall I think this was a cute and creative way to incorporate elements and story lines from classic, well known fairy tales that most of us grew up with. It was done that way it was clever, and the stories are woven into the tale was unique. My favorite character was Axel, and Clara was a solid character as well, although her best friend was a little annoying at times. I think the reason for that was she was only 15 years old.

Having the characters range from 15-19 did leave space for a sense of not necessarily knowing who this book was made for. It easily could have been a book for the 15 year old YA’s vs the older YAs. YA is such a broad spectrum especially these days, and the story itself could be appealing to many ages but specifically younger kids. It’s just that when it comes to the more lusty parts, it can then border for that more 18 year old group. “I’m trembling yearning and aching for him” feels out of place for a book like this. It could have been a book read in school if it weren’t for that.

There was a period of time within the first 30% that Clara mentions her “S curved spine” like.. 9 times, and had that continued I may have DNFd. But that did chill out as I continued. I like the voice of the narrator, she sounds like a young Emma Watson, but I did have to kick the speed up to 1.75 to keep interest.

Lastly, this did not have to end on a cliff hanger at ALL. It was already on the longer side for what it was, she could have broken the entire curse and found Ollie’s pennys.. no need to allude to another book. It isn’t that kind of story and I wouldn’t read a second one because I wasn’t left thinking “I need more of this and these characters!” I was so content with everything’s it was. Wrapping it all up after putting in so much time in this book would have been more desirable and I’d have given an additional star if that was the case.

I rate it 2.5 but I will round up to 3 since I can’t give half ratings.

Even though I didn’t quite enjoy this book as much as I’d hoped to, I still don’t feel it should get below four stars for a couple of reasons. First: it’s YA appropriate. No graphic 1,000-year-old fairy and 17-year-old human sexual content. No explicit language. None of the stuff that should only be in New Adult or Adult books was in this one. Second: it’s a great Spooky Season selection for readers who like that sort of thing. Now, if I had not just read another Grimm retelling with a remarkably similar vibe (After the Forest), I would definitely sing this one’s praises. As it is, spooky, witchy, Grimm stuff seems to be the rage this 2023 Spooky Season, so it was repetitive to me and my eyes glossed over for quite a bit of it. Don’t let that deter you from reading it if it sounds interesting to you; I really did feel it was a great book objectively.

I’m always a sucker for atmospheric reads set in the woods with a little bit of spookiness to them, and The Forest Grimm ticks these marks in spades. Nearly the entire book is set in a cursed forest; stuff moves around and there are creepy cottages and towers with even creepier folks living in them. Throw in a pretty intimidating wolf running around chasing after folks in the woods and the village, and your starter recipe for a great fall reading weekend with some pumpkin spice whatever is good to go.

Clara and Axel enter these woods in order to find their missing village neighbors, including Clara’s mother and Axel’s fiancée. The whole storyline is a pretty simple, linear progression of time passing from encounter to encounter of different characters, dangerous nights, and missing stuff. Rinse and repeat several times and you have a cookie-cutter forest-setting fairytale retelling.

I’m not going to harp on the story’s simplicity too much. It is a YA. I can’t expect it to be more than it is. It wasn’t bad. It was typical YA fare. The prose was poetic and descriptive enough to complement the plot and nurture a feeling of foreboding. It has great characters (though I liked the side characters more than the main ones—why is that usually the case with me?) and great world building. I’ll definitely be giving the second book a read.

The audio experience for this one was so-so for me. I think the narration was a bit high-pitched and soft for my ears; I had a hard time hearing and had to blast it. It wasn’t unpleasant, just difficult to hear for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books (Macmillan) for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.

I was really excited to start The Forest Grimm but sadly this book was not like I expected. This book told too many different stories without bringing them together in a way that was satisfying. Everything was disjointed and no matter how long I waited for everything to come together in a cohesive ending it just didn't. I did like the near horror twist the author put on each of the fairytales. They were creepy in the best way. So while I wasn't a fan of this book I'd still love to try something else by the author.

Thank you to the publishers, the author, and netgalley for this alc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very clever and unique story! I love how all the fairytales are woven together so well. It was fun to see which one would pop up next! I enjoyed the disability rep: the FMC has scoliosis. I hope it’s portrayed well but I cannot attest to that! Sometimes it felt odd (like unbelievable things happen), or too much information dumping, but overall it was a good read! Check this out even if you’re remotely interested in it! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Forest Grimm is the first book set in a new young adult romantasy series. We follow our 17-year-old main character, Clara as she embarks on a quest into the deadly and dangerous Forest Grimm to find a magical book called the Sortes Fortunae (aka the Book of Fortunes). Typically, no one ever makes it out of the forest out alive, but she will go to great lengths to break the curse that is placed on her village and to rescue her mother. What Clara does not know as she ventures through the forest, she and her friends that tag along will encounter some well-known fairytales.

I discovered Kathryn Purdie's books back in 2020 when Bone Crier's Moon came out and ever since I have been reading some of her books which I end up enjoying. When I saw The Forest Grimm go up on NetGalley, I instantly went to request it since I know Kathryn is an author I enjoy.

When The Forest Grimm first opens up with the villagers having their names drawn to see who would go into the forest to break the curse my first thought was: "is our main character going to yell-I volunteer as tribute?!" That part just made me think of The Hunger Games and no there was no one who yelled that they volunteered as tribute with those exact words.

Kathryn Purdie does such an amazing job setting up this world and the atmosphere. She really draws you in and makes you feel like you are in this dark, bleak forest with odd run ins with fairytale characters. I should note that these fairytale characters are not the Disney ones that a lot of us know but the darker ones that we encounter with the Brother Grimm Fairytales. You can expect Cinderella, Hansel + Gretel, Rapunzel, and a few other characters to appear in this book. With that being said I really enjoyed seeing the different characters and how they are portrayed as well interact with the main characters and the world.

When it comes to the characters, I for the most part enjoyed them but did find Henni and Clara to be aggravating at times. But I did love the friendship and the even more than friends' dynamic between Clara and Axel.

The pacing for the most part was great and fast but there were areas that felt like it dragged out. I was very engaged in this story and curious about what was going on and what would happen.

I've been seeing a lot of mixed reviews on The Forest Grimm about it feeling too young as well as other things. To put in perspective: I will be 28 this fall, and I did not find it juvenile or targeted for a younger range. To me this felt like a good, clean (no smut) romantasy retelling that I would have encountered when I was a teenager. Everyone does perceive things differently, so it is all good if people find this too young, but I just wanted to say for me it felt fine and I think many people who want a clean YA romantasy, a dark fantasy retelling, or to feel reminiscent of YA a decade ago then you'll enjoy this.

3.5 stars
This book had a fun premise, but was missing the wow factor for me.
I did enjoy it, it was very atmospheric and the plot was fun. Villagers get lost to the Grimm Forest and every so often, people get chosen from a lottery to enter the forest and try to save the person they love most. Main character Clara wants to save her mother. She sneaks her name into the goblet more times than it should be in there, but her friend Axel is chosen instead to find his fiancée. Despite the fact that the forest is supposed to turn you mad or something if you enter it, Clara finds a way to enter anyways and goes with Axel. In the forest, they meet different fairy tales who happen to be people that were lost to the forest previously. Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel. They were twisted versions of the fairy tales, much closer to the Grimm fairy tales than Disney for example. While picking out the individual fairy tales and finding out how they had been twisted was fun, it felt a little bit mishmashed as well.
I liked the characters, though none of them really stood out and the romance felt weird and forced. I think the fairy tale characters were my favorite because they were so twisted and detailed.
The writing style was ok as well, it was very easy to listen to, but felt a little bit juvenile in some parts.
The ending was actually not at all what I was expecting and it was a pleasant surprise because it was kind of shocking.
The narrator Sarah Ovens was great. She had a British accent, but had a very pleasant voice and did a wonderful job with the characters and narration parts.

Oh, how I wanted to love this book! The concept is nostalgic and fun but unfortunately it felt like a slog by the end. The enchanted forest troupe is one we have seen many a time in YA, perhaps it is for that reason that I had some hefty expectations going into this one. I felt like The Forest Grim read like a detailed outline of a book I might enjoy, sadly It just never delivered enough of any one thing to interest me. I felt no connection to the characters and the plot felt a bit disjointed and drawn out. My biggest complaint is that the atmosphere was lacking. When I read an enchanted forest book with GRIMM in the title I expect atmosphere for days and it juts didn't deliver. This one might appeal to the younger readers of the YA genre but I didn't find it well suited for someone who is wanting some depth within their stories. ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Clara lives in a village next to the Forest Grimm. Despite the name, it has always been a magical place to live, and each villager is granted a magical wish at the age of sixteen - so long as they do not share this wish with anyone. Someone, however, has used their wish to kill another villager, which curses the village and causes villagers to begin disappearing. One of the first to vanish was Clara's mother. The Forest Grimm follows as Clara attempts to save her mother from the forest and to break the curse on her village.

This book has extremely mixed reviews, so I went in with very low expectations. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised to enjoy this! The people Clara meets during her time in the forest are characters we all know from fairy tales, though they are much more similar to the Grimm versions of their characters than the Disney ones. While this book is YA, there is a creepy feeling there that I don't think I would have enjoyed as a young teen. The US cover of this book is a bit misleading from that aspect, in my opinion.

No, this is not a book that will change your life, but I think any lover of fairy tale-adjacent stories will find this to be a fun, easy read. I particularly enjoyed the audio, and would recommend that format for this book!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!