Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an earc of this book.
The Sisters Grimm is a magical realism novel set in London and a dream world called Everwhere. The premise of the book is really interesting – anyone could be one of the sisters Grimm. There are thousands of them, all “born out of bright-white wishing and black-edged desire”, but we follow the story of four of them in a thirty-three-day-long countdown to their 18th birthdays. Nothing was really given away in any blurbs I saw for the book, other than the fact that one of them would die, and this had me intrigued. I had no idea what it was going to be about, but the ‘Grimm’ aspect and my love fairy tales had me excited. I have never read anything by the author before, but magical realism is one of my favourite genres, and this book didn’t disappoint.
The first thing I have to say is that this is a beautifully written book. There was a lot of gorgeous imagery to be found here, both in Everwhere and in London. It made me want to visit all the places that were mentioned – eat in the cafés, explore the gardens, find the gates, lose myself in the magic that was woven into the real life. The descriptions of the city made it feel like there really could be magic just around the corner. The book wove a lush tapestry of enchantment and really captured the way there are elements of magic everywhere in real life if you look closely.
As there were five different points of view (six if you count one that is a few snippets throughout the book) and five main characters to get to know, I did find that meant it was difficult to learn as much about the characters as I wanted to. As time went on, more knowledge is gathered about them and you see more aspects of their daily lives, but in the beginning it meant it was hard to make a connection. However, this did mean I was kept guessing about a lot of things, and it did mean I wanted to keep reading to find out more so it did work as a hook! I liked that we got snippets of the girls lives, and how they were entwined despite being completely unrelated, but I did have a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the book. I wanted to learn a lot more about the girls and their father, which was touched on, and there were snippets of other information, but I would have enjoyed more background on this, as I found it one of the most interesting bits of the story! I can’t mention a lot of the things I was curious about as I don’t want to give too much away, but though I have things unanswered, I really enjoyed the journey and world contained within the pages.
One of the best things about this book was each of the characters growing in strength and realizing their self-worth, and how strong they really were. As we learnt more about them, and as they developed, they became much stronger, both in terms of character and also in themselves. They stood up for themselves more, or did things they wanted to do for themselves. Being on their journey of self discovery was really exciting, and watching them ‘remember’ themselves and be who they truly are, was empowering, and it was this that made me connect with the story so much more strongly. I also enjoyed the fact that The Sisters Grimm showed a range of family relationships, as well as found family, rather than just a stereotypical family background. All the girls have such different lives, backgrounds and experiences, yet they are all connected and have such strong connections with each other. I definitely found the friendships far more interesting than the romances, which for the most part felt a little ‘instalove’ to me, which I’m not a fan of, but the rest of the plots made up for it.
I will definitely be reading more books by this author in the future, as I really enjoyed the writing style, world building and how beautiful the book was. There were a few really surprising twists and turns that kept me gripped, and wanting more. The magical realism aspect of the novel was really well done, and I would love to read more set in this world, or one like it!
Eldritch Fae 