Books › A Tale Dark & Grimm (A Tale Dark & Grimm, #1)
A Tale Dark & Grimm (A Tale Dark & Grimm, #1)
264 pages
A delightfully gruesome, fourth-wall-breaking romp through the original, blood-soaked fairy tales where happily ever after must be earned with a sword.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting around a campfire with a gleefully morbid storyteller who insists on sharing the bloody, unvarnished truth behind the stories you thought you knew. The pace is brisk and episodic, pulling you through a dark forest of interconnected tales with a narrator who constantly interrupts to warn you of the impending doom and to make sure you appreciate the gore. It balances genuine spookiness with a sharp, irreverent wit that keeps the mood light even when heads are literally rolling. Perfect for readers who have outgrown sanitized bedtime stories, it offers a delightfully macabre texture, ultimately delivering a surprisingly heartfelt journey about siblings learning to survive a hostile world together.
- Mood
- spooky
- gruesome
- whimsical
- adventurous
- Tone
- irreverent
- witty
- darkly comedic
- conversational
- meta-fictional
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- sibling loyalty · loss of innocence · forging one's destiny · facing childhood fears
- The writing
- Highly conversational and theatrical, featuring an intrusive narrator who frequently breaks the fourth wall to issue dire, humorous warnings.
- The arc
- Begins with naive vulnerability and moves through a series of gruesome, darkly comedic trials toward empowered self-reliance.
- Who it's for
- Middle-grade readers with a taste for the macabre who delight in snarky narrators and fairy tales that do not shy away from the blood.
Content notes
- fairy tale violence
- child abandonment
- gore
- dismemberment
About the book
Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm (and Grimm-inspired) fairy tales. An irreverent, witty narrator leads us through encounters with witches, warlocks, dragons, and the devil himself. As the siblings roam a forest brimming with menacing foes, they learn the true story behind the famous tales, as well as how to take charge of their destinies and create their own happily ever after. Because once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.
Description from Open Library.
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