Book Review of A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz.

     Once upon a time. NO, NO, NO. Cut. Those are the most boring words ever. Let's try again. Long ago in history fairy tales WERE boring until the times of the Brothers Grimm and Adam Gidwitz who imagined fairy tales from a whole new aspect and made it better for all generations to read. Now imagine, who would want to read a boring old book about two random kids going inside a gingerbread house and boiling a witch who tried to kill them alive. But, would you not want to read a book about two kids whose heads were cut off by their own parents which is a thing that would never actually happen but seems cool. Now that's a story everyone would relish.

Welcome Back to my blog and as you might have guessed from my Introduction this is the book review of "A Tale Dark & Grimm".

A Tale Dark & Grimm is a book by Adam Gidwitz which reimagines the world of Fairy Tales especially the Kingdom of Grimm where Hansel and Gretel are born. The story starts with the grandfather of  the siblings, the king, dying after making his most trusted servant, Faithful Johannes give him a promise.  Johannes promises that he  will be loyal to the king's son like he was to the king. So Faithful Johannes shows the new king around the whole palace except for one room. After the king continuously asks Johannes reluctantly shows him the room. The king sees a picture of a beautiful queen and wants to marry her but Johannes tells him about how whichever king the queen lives with dies. But, the king is ready to accept those consequences. They go to the queen's kingdom and arrange for them to get married. The queen also decides to give marriage one last shot. On the way back to the kingdom Faithful Johannes heard three ravens taking to each other. He overhears about how the king and queen would die in different ways and how to stop it. Here are the ways they might die as mentioned in the book and how they can be stopped. 

#1-A beautiful chestnut stallion will be waiting in the dock for the king to ride. But if he mounts it, he will be thrown from its back and shall die. But he can be saved if someone kills the stallion. If someone did it and told why he did it he would be turned to stone from the tip of his toes to the knobs of his knees.

#2-a beautiful bridal gown, made of pure gold, will be laid out on a bed of purple flowers. The princess will want to wear it, of course. But if she touches it she will be consumed by a ball of fire and burn to a cinder right there on the spot.

#3-When they are married and begin the wedding dance, the new queen will swoon, and fall to the floor, and die. If someone were to bite the new queen’s lip and suck three drops of blood from it with his mouth, she would live. If someone did it, and told why he did it, he would be turned to stone from the core of his heart to the top of his head.

Faithful Johannes decides that he will do all this to save the king and queen. But finally when he bites the queen's lip he is accused of treason and is put in jail. Johannes tells the king why he did all of this and ends up turning into stone.

Many years pass and the king and queen have two children named Hansel and Gretel but they never get over the death of Faithful Johannes. One day suddenly, the stone body of faithful Johannes starts talking to the king and he says that he can be brought back to life only if the king cuts the heads of his children. The King cuts the heads of his children without thinking. Faithful Johannes comes back to life and reattaches the heads of the king's kids back. The King tells the queen, but later at night Hansel and Gretel decide they should runaway as their father cut the heads of them and their mother agreed too, all for an ugly old man. If you thought that was the whole story, well you are wrong. It is just the first chapter. I know you must have enjoyed the story till now but imagine, this is just the starting and it gets better as the story goes further. The rest of the book is about the adventures of Hansel and Gretel. 

I enjoyed the book thoroughly and was anxiously wondering what would happen next. I also admit that I was tricked by the first The End and thought each chapter was about different people but later I realized that the number of The Ends keep going on infinitely. I loved the part where Hansel goes to meet the devil and pretends to be the devil's grandmother as it was captivating and kept me wondering whether the devil would find out or not. I also enjoyed the part where they slay the dragon. Most of all, I loved the way that boring old fairy tales were imagined into fun exciting stories. I would compare this with another one of my favorite book series named the Land Of Stories as they both have reimagined fairy tales in different ways. Overall, A Tale Dark & Grimm is a must read story and is my new favorite fairy tale.