Book Review: Grim

"Grim" edited by Christine Johnson

Publication Date-February 24, 2014

Genre-Young Adult, Short Stories, Fairy Tale Retellings

ARC Paperback Edition-476

Rating-4/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend it? Yes
No Spoilers!!

Hey guys. I feel like it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. I've still been reading, but I didn't want to review the last couple of books I've read and I just dnf'd a book. Today I am reviewing "Grim". This is a YA Anthology about fairy tale retellings written by Young Adult authors. I got this book from Harlequin Teen years ago and never got to it. I finally read this book and it feels so good that I'm done with it. I did enjoy it, it was pretty good. Let's get on to the review.

I am going to rate each story individually. 

"The Key" by Rachel Hawkins-4/5 Lily Pads

I really liked this one. I never read a book by Rachel Hawkins but I like her writing style. This short story was good but it was too short for me and ended abruptly. I wasn't attached to the characters but that's okay because it was only 34 pages. Overall, I liked this one but it was kinda weird. 

"Figment" by Jeri Smith-Ready-5/5 Lily Pads

I really loved this one! I loved her "Shade" trilogy so I was really excited to read her story and it didn't disappoint me. I'll admit that I was confused in the beginning but it started to make sense soon after that. I really liked the "Puss in Boots" retelling and I really liked the main guy, Eli. He was a good guy and I loved that he was a musician. I loved Lyra and "Figment the cat". Overall I really loved this story, it was very cute. The character development was really awesome and it ended really well, but I wish it was a full novel because I would love to see more with the characters. 

"The Twelfth Girl" by Malinda Lo-5/5 Lily Pads

This is my favorite story so far out of the first three. I liked the main character, Liv even though she was naive. I love the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" story. I liked the plot and the setting at the boarding school. 

"The Raven Princess" by Jon Skrovron-5/5 Lily Pads

This one is my new favorite so far. I loved this story! The plot was awesome and the character development was amazing! I wish this story was a full length novel. I wanna read more about these characters. 

"Thinner Than Water" by Saundra Mitchell-1/5 Lily Pads

I didn't care for this story. It was weird and I didn't like the incest in it, I thought it was gross. I was also bored while reading it, and I don't even remember how it ended. 

"Before The Rose Bloomed" by Ellen Hopkins-2/5 Lily Pads

This one was ok. I didn't love it and I hate books in verse so that's probably why I didn't care for it. She does have a pretty writing style though so I gave it a higher rating than the last story. 

"Beast/Beast" by Tessa Grafton-5/5 Lily Pads

I really liked this story! It was really good and I loved the characters. It's Beauty and the Beast, how could I not love it?

"The Brothers Piggett" by Julie Kagawa-5/5 Lily Pads

I loved this story! Julie is one of my favorite authors so of course I wasn't disappointed. I loved all the characters, especially Percival. He was so cute and I felt so bad for him. 

"Untethered" by Sonia Gensler-1/5 Lily Pads

I'm not sure how I feel about this story. It was confusing and it was only ten pages long so there wasn't really a plot. There wasn't any character development either. It was just meh, and it probably would've been better if it was longer. 

"Better" by Shaun David Hutchinson-DNF

I couldn't finish this story. I didn't care for it. It was boring and I didn't care about the characters. 

"Light it Up" by Kimberly Derting-5/5 Lily Pads

I loved this story! It's a retelling of "Hansel and Gretel" and it was really good! I loved their relationship and the character development was awesome. I honestly wish the story was a full length novel. This story is one of my favorites now. 

"Sharper Than A Serpent's Tongue" by Christine Johnson-5/5

I really liked this one. I love the close sister relationship between Clara and Dina. The story was very creative. 

"A Real Boy" by Claudia Gray-5/5 Lily Pads

This is by far the most beautifully written story in the book. Her writing style is gorgeous. I loved Blue and Rowan, they were great characters and Rowan is such a sweetheart. 

"Skin Trade" by Myra McEntire-1/5 Lily Pads

I'm not really sure how I feel about this story. It was weird and wasn't that great. It was also very short and had insta-love in it. 

"Beauty and the Chad" by Sarah Rees Brennan-4/5 Lily Pads

This story was pretty good. It reminded me of "Mulan" because Belle disguised herself as a boy. I liked that the author made the beast a good guy and he was a really nice person. 

"The Pink" by Amanda Hocking-3.5/5 Lily Pads

I love Amanda's books so I had high hopes for this one. This story was good. The first half kind of bored me, but the second half was a lot better. I loved Brenn, Dianthus and his parents. The ending was really cute. 

"Sell Out" by Jackson Pearce-2/5 Lily Pads

I really like Jackson Pearce's books but I wasn't a fan of this one. It was boring and the plot wasn't very good. 

Final Thoughts

I gave this book an overall rating of 4/5 Lily Pads. A lot of the stories I really liked, but there were some I didn't care for. This was my first anthology and I can't wait to read more of them in the future. If you love retellings, you should definitely read this book. 

So yeah that was my review. Thank you so much for reading and have a great day. Happy reading! :)