Grim

Title: Grim

Author: Edited by: Christine Johnson

Standalone 

Number of Pages: 474

Date Read: 5/17/14

Genre: Fairy Tale Retellings, Anthology, Short Stories

Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com)

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: 

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 Skrovon

My Review:

So this is my first time reviewing an anthology of short stories. These stories are written by some of the best well known YA authors and all the stories are retellings of fairy tales. Some are retellings of well known fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, the 12 dancing princesses, the 3 little pigs and so on. Other stories were retellings of not well known fairy tales (at least to me)like Donkeyskin, The Robber bride groom, The Pink and others. Some of the more obscure fairy tales I found myself looking up the original fairy tale, reading it, then reading the retelling. Some of the retellings follow the original tale closely, while others have elements from the original, while others are completely different. When reading some of the stories I was able to tell which fairytales it was based on while others I couldn't. There are 17 retellings in the book. My favorites were: "Beauty and the Chad", "Figment", "Beast/Beast", "The Brother's Piggett", "Untethered" and "A Real Boy". The rest were ok and I found myself not really disliking any of the retellings. Some just stood out better than others. 

The stories: 

1. The Key by Rachel Hawkins~ Retelling of Bluebeard
2. Figment by Jeri Smith Ready~ Retelling of Puss in Boots= This one was very imaginative
3. The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo~ Retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses
4. The Raven Princess by Jon Skovron~ Retelling of The Raven
5. Thinner Than Water by Saundra Mitchell~ Retelling of Donkeyskin
6. Before the Rose Bloomed by Ellen Hopkins~ Retelling of The Snow Queen
7. Beast/Beast by Tessa Gratton~ Retelling of Beauty and the Beast
8. The Brother's Piggett by Julie Kagawa~ Retelling of The 3 Little Pigs= as is Kagawa's style this had gross gore which I loved
9. Untethered by Sonia Gensler~ Retelling of The Shroud= Twist at the end I didn't expect which made me go and reread it again
10. Better by Shaun David Hutchinson~ Retelling of The Pied Piper
11. Light It Up by Kimberly Derting~ Retelling of Hansel and Gretel
12. Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue by Christine Johnson~ Retelling of Diamonds and Toads
13. A Real Boy by Claudia Gray~ Retelling of Pinocchio
14. Skin Trade by Myra McEntire~ Retelling of The Robber Bridegroom 
15. Beauty and the Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan~ Retelling of Beauty and the Beast= I liked this Beauty and the Beast retelling better. It was funny
16. The Pink by Amanda Hocking~ Retelling of The Pink
17. Sell Out by Jackson Pearce~ Retelling of Snow White/Sleeping Beauty~ While not a favorite this story was unique in that its was solely in the POV of a guy.

All in all a nice anthology of fairy tale retellings that allowed me to read some more writings of my favorite authors while also discovering new ones. 

Rating:

 B