Book Review: Grim edited by Christine Johnson

Reviewer: Andrea

Ellen Hopkins                     Amanda Hocking                              Julie Kagawa

Claudia Gray                       Rachel Hawkins                                 Kimberly Derting

Myra McEntire                  Malinda Lo                                          Sarah Rees-Brennan

Jackson Pearce                 Christine Johnson                            Jeri Smith Ready

Shaun David Hutchinson                                                               Saundra Mitchell

Sonia Gensler                    Tessa Gratton                                    Jon Skrovan

The Review:

Parents are terrible.  That was my thought while reading these stories.  We (Yes, I include myself in that assortment.) are terrible people.  Throughout history, we have told and retold some gruesome stories to our children.  This epiphany came to me many years ago while teaching a modernized version of Little Red Riding Hood in my advanced comp class to use as a compare and contrast, but this novel reaffirms my stance.  We have utilized some intensely horrific stories to teach our children lessons about the dangers of strangers, the lure of temptation, and messing with the natural order of the universe. Granted, these are important lessons, and oftentimes the stories don’t even come close to the magnitude of the real deal.  We want to scare the heck out of our kids to keep them safe, and while I’m cringing inside at the depravity of some of these retellings, I also realize how they don’t do justice the horrible injustice of some of the very real events in this modern world.  Tales of incest, cannibalism, and rape may seems totally inappropriate to a story we would tell our kids, but that pales in comparison to the reality.

Grim is not, necessarily, meant for children. It is mature for YA audiences, but the stories these authors have chosen began as fairytales.  I made it my mission to read the original stories that are the basis for the modernized versions, and all relate back to an original tale.  Some I recognized immediately; some were much more obscure.  There are tales set in the original time period as well as some set in modern times.  There are even a few dystopian stories.  I particularly enjoyed “Beast/Beast” by Tessa Gratton, “Sell Out” by Jackson Pearse, and “A Read Boy” by Claudia Gray.  Some left a bubble of unease and disgust in my belly, like “Thinner than Water” by Saundra Mitchell, “Skin Trade” by Mira McEntire, and “Better” by Shaun David Hutchinson.  The modernization came fluidly in some while others were forced, as though the author were grabbing at straws to try to modernize it (“Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tongue” by Christine Johnson and “Before the Rose Bloomed” by Ellen Hopkins).

3.5 Stars