Too much mystery without enough actual understanding of why I needed to know about the mystery and the girls and their backgrounds to be able to stick with it with fidelity. I wanted to love it for the title and the cover art and what little I did know going in to it.

As I slowed down chapters into it, I went back to reread the summary and was surprised to learn a few details because I wasn't anywhere close to hearing about them in the book-- so it's taking too long to blossom into the book it should become for my impatient liking. Perhaps for another more dedicated reader.

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl is Gossip girl meets Riverdale with a slightly unhinged version of Pretty Little Liars and an odd twist on the Disney princesses. I'm not necessarily sure I vibed with this book even though I appreciated the premise of the contemporary take on Disney fairytales remained. It just felt obvious and predictable but still entertaining.

The story follows Ella, Yuki, Rory, and Nani in their private boarding school in Sweden called Grimrose Académie as they navigate the whispers of what happened surrounding the mysterious death of Ari, the best friend of the four protagonists in the book. I'm pretty sure you can fill in the rest...

A chain of grim events begins with new girl Nani Eszes enrolling in the academy as she takes over Ari's spot in the girls' dorm room and she finds a book with fairytales hidden in a fake bottom of the armoire.

The Grimrose Girls is heavily character-driven which distracted me a lot because I kept wondering what exactly about this book made me continue reading it. It felt like I was being told exactly what the characters were like instead of experiencing their character development and I couldn't really connect with any of them.

I do hope you find some connection with the Grimrose girls within these pages.♡

Thank you to the publisher for granting me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-arc of this book! First of all, the COVER. I love it so much! I did go into this with slightly inaccurate expectations, I really wanted a dark academia vibe with lots of school-centric plot. This is very much set at a school but does not actually integrate things like classes, etc, into the plot: it didn't really feel like it was set at a school, if that makes sense!

I was not expecting the super-cool fairytale elements of this story - clearly I didn't read the synposis, lol. It's basically following what seems to be a serial killer who is killing girls with deaths featured in fairytales - or is it a magical curse?

I did like the characters, but they all felt a little bit underdeveloped and same-same. I also felt this was a little bit younger YA than I prefer, so I will definitely recommend it to younger readers.

3.5!

I enjoyed this book - I wouldn’t say I loved it but it was a good read and a different theme to what I would typically go for! I have been reviewing YA fiction as a teacher this year and would definitely recommend this to my students.

I liked the plot idea, with the foie main characters and their tangents to popular fairytales and curses. It was a very Agatha Christie who dunnit style book and perfect for younger readers as each character has really likeable characteristics ! I loved the formation of relationships and the build up to a grand ball at the end of the story.

It wasn’t completely obvious who all of the students were meant to ‘be’ in terms of their related fairytales - although the author seems to have thought enough hints were given… I struggled with a few until the end as there weren’t that many parallels between the girls and the related princesses. There were also quite a few fairytales I wasn’t familiar with and I wouldn’t have been able to make those links. Despite this, the pace of their discovery was quite slow and I was left wondering whether the four main characters were a bit ditsy or just uninterested in discovering why so many girls at their school seemed to be dying!

I did wonder why the author bothered to set the plot at a school. There were hardly any classes discussed, very few teachers and no ‘school routine’ as such. There were very few adult characters in the book and it seemed very unrealistic. I

Four students at an exclusive Swiss boarding school are confronted with a series of murders of their classmates. Are the deaths tied to a mysterious book of fairy tales? Is magic at play? Told in four voices, I found the shifting back and forth to be confusing. A sequel is definitely in the works.

I absolutely adored this book. I stayed up and read it in a night because the plot moves at a brisk pace, the girls and their worries and their loves are so fun, the mystery was compelling, and the climax was amazing. As soon as it ended, I wanted to read the sequel, or read it again and again until the sequel came out. This book broke the reading slump I've been in for months and I just had such a good time. I can't wait for whatever comes next in this series.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

LGBTQUIA, Teens & YA

Magic realism meets YA meets murder mystery.

There is magic as well as mysterious death afoot at the Grimrose Académie. Like Hogwarts the Grimrose is a residential boarding school with students who are predominantly teenagers. But there the likenesses between to the two schools disappears Without there being a suggestion of ‘token individuals’ Pohl presents the reader with a cast of characters who differ in social backgrounds, financial standing, home environments, racial identification, ethnic identification, gender identification and gender orientation. There are mysteries, deaths and dangers and throughout the book the characters respond in ways that are true to young adults struggling with questions of their own identities, their relationships with friends and family and, indeed, with themselves.

The mystery plot is both fresh and deeply intertwined with more traditional stories of youngsters, primarily female. Indeed the reader will likely finish the book with an appetite to learn more about old European folk tales The multiple protagonists have clear and clearly individual voices. The ending both delivers on the quest of uncover the reasons so many students at the Grimrose are dying and leaves the reader hoping that Pohl has already written the next book, the book that takes us even deeper into the magic of the Grimrose and the lives of the characters we have met.

I am NOT the intended audience of this book but it won me over. How much more would a member of that intended audience enjoy the book? There is only one way of finding out.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for sharing the eARC with me in return for an honest review. </i>

I'm a sucker for a good boarding school mystery novel. Something about it has always pulled me in, and to learn of a book that has LGBTQ+ rep AND a boarding school mystery that's dark and alluring?

I was already in love with this book from page one.

Decribed as having "🌟4 fairytale retellings,❤️f/f romance, 🍰an acearo protagonist, 🏰boarding school shenanigans, ⚔️swords, 📚magic and murder mystery" by the author, this book certainly does not fall flat. The Grimrose Girls chronicles the story of three girls: Ella, Rory and Yuki. The three girls are suffering from the death of their best friend, Ari, and encounter a new student--Nina. Nina wants to meet her father, and the group of three quickly becomes a group of four. The story is told from the perspective of the four girls, and I quite enjoyed the differing perspectives. They didn't feel jumbled, and felt like a distinctly stylistic choice that enhanced the story.

The representation does not feel forced. It feels organic and natural, and it's just... there. It was really nice.

I also enjoyed the magical realism, and I felt it was done very well!!

The book is a bit slow at first, but it is definitely worth sticking through. It gets WAY more interesting after the first 35% or so!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I look forward to future installments in the series.


TW: mentions of suicide, death, graphic depictions of death, mentions of parental abuse, and gore

A really interesting premise told in an intriguing way but I felt the pacing was off a little bit. Story took a long time to get going and then when things started to unravel it wasn’t really clear why. Enjoyable enough especially for Disney/fairytale fans.

*Spoiler free*

A book about fairytale retellings, where there are mashed together into curses. My friend introduced me to this book, and I trust her taste, so I got excited for it. And it sounded incredible as well. I adore fairytale retellings, and a book where are bunch are put together is even better. Trigger warnings: mentions of suicide, parental abuse (physical and emotional), gore, blood

My feelings about this book are complicated. I really, really wanted to like it. I really like the premise, and there were even certain aspects that I really loved. But there were also things that I didn't love, and I think I just ended up not loving the book overall (but that's just me!).

First off, I adored the characters. Oh, I love Rory and her anger and her grit and her passion. While my love for her runs deep, I also loved all the other characters! Ella and her sweetness, Yuki and her rough edges, Nani and her quiet, but determined nature. All of them felt so full, and so real, and they all had their individual stories. I love them all.

Though, how those story intersected, and their relationship with each other sort of felt like it was just there. It was more like they were passing each other by instead of truly coming together. I also think I would have liked more development of each emotional plotline, and more development the friendship between the girls. There are four POVs in this book, so there is a lot going on. I felt like it left some aspects with very little room to breathe, and they could have benefitted from being fleshed out a little bit more. But that's just me!

Another thing I really loved was the premise of this book. Fairytales that are cursed, doomed. And it is just as cool as it seems. Girls in a boarding girl, each playing out their own tale, with murder and mystery and secrets. But, I felt like the synopsis spoiled one of the best parts of the book. I would have loved to go into it not knowing exactly what was going on, to figure out the mystery along with the characters, for the fairytales to be a bit of a surprise. I dunno, I guess that's my problem with how the book was marketed as well haha.

And speaking of the fairytales, they were so freaking cool. Bloodier and darker than the ones a lot of use know and love, they were gruesome and amazing. I was absolutely fascinated with everything to do with them.

Overall, this book has a lot going for it. It has such strong characters, and it's premise and setting are spectacular. It's dark and twisting. Though, I personally felt like I wanted more from a couple of aspects of it. I wanted a deeper mystery, and I wanted more from the emotions and the friendships. Despite this, I do think there are a lot of people who will love this book!

I need the sequel to this right now. Oversimplified, this book is A Lesson in Vengeance meets A Curse so Dark and Lonely. It's a bunch of queer teens and curses and magic and mental and physical illnesses represented in strong and realistic ways. It was so much fun to read and a;sflkj;kl I loved it so much. Check it out, and thank you to Laura Pohl and NetGalley for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love when authors are able to be so clever with fairy tales and do something new and original with them.. Grimrose Girls is definitely that! And love love love that it is so proudly and openly queer and diverse. I think maybe the fantasy element didn't work for me as well, or maybe wasn't needed? But I'm for sure going to look for the second one when it rolls around.

“Studying at Grimrose was a guarantee of your future. When you studied at Grimrose, nothing could ever go wrong. Except that on the eve of the first day of school, one of the Académie’s most exceptional students had drowned in the school lake. Alone.”

The premise for The Grimrose Girls is downright titillating. Best friends and classmates Ella, Yuki, and Rory return to their elite boarding school missing the fourth member of their squad, Ariane, who died on school property under mysterious circumstances. While the police – and most of the student body – believes it was a suicide, her friends aren’t so sure. Determined to get to the bottom of Ariane’s death, the trio – some willingly and others not – start hunting for clues. When the new girl, Nani, unwittingly becomes part in that investigation and people at the Academy start dropping like flies, the girls will have to close ranks to stop the killings.
Dark academia vibes? A mysterious murder? All the queer and mental illness rep? Yes, please!
The cast of characters for this story drew me in from the get-go. What I really admired about the four girls was the range of emotions we got to see. There’s definitely some unresolved tension between the girls and especially Yuki and Rory seem like fireworks that are just waiting for the right spark to light up the sky. Meanwhile Ella seems so well-adjusted, but we learn that this façade comes at a high price and often isolates her from making true connections so others won’t find out about her complicated living situation. There’s also mental health rep for OCD and anxiety in here that felt accurate and authentic. Beyond that, we have a delightfully queer cast of characters and while some of them are repressing their feelings, others are secure in their sexual identity. Though I wish more focus had been put on these aspects, I’m hopeful that later books in this series will elaborate on that. Every girl added something different and unique to The Grimrose Girls. That being said, it’s always a hit or miss when it comes to portraying so many POVs and somehow, this landed in the middle of that spectrum. The four girls definitely have their own view on things and their opinions, personal struggles (with mental illness, with their sexuality, with fitting in and with their overbearing families) and personal lives were showcased so vividly in their respective POVs that I could really get a grip on who they are and what makes them tick. But while I enjoyed the diversity and the different “voices,” the constant changing of the perspectives also slowed down the pacing immensely. There were some chapters that felt almost inconsequential (especially if you guess the culprit early on) while other times, chapters would basically start with a recap of the former chapter, just to include the emotions of said POV. Which obviously makes sense because you do want to have the insight but at times it felt like I’d read the same chapter twice and that took away some of my enjoyment. The same unfortunately goes for the reveal of the culprit – every girl comes to the conclusion on their own, but it felt redundant the way it was repeated in every POV, which made the reveal fall a bit flat.
Where The Grimrose Girls truly shined is when it came to the setting and the interweaving of fairy tale elements. Pohl creates the perfect creepy, mysterious setting and all the little tidbits we get about Grimrose, its curriculum and student body as well as the places like the library and the landscape, paints a vivid picture in your mind. Beyond that, the way that Pohl incorporates these fantastical elements will excite fans of urban fantasy. To find a way to include such well-known fairy tales seamlessly into a contemporary setting without losing the “credibility” of it all really speaks to Pohl’s talent as a writer. Evidently, some connections are more obvious than others – i.e. Ella, for example, is clearly Cinderella – but others are more difficult to figure out and it’s a fun time trying to come to the right conclusions before the girls do. While I take some issue with Yuki’s fantastical counterpart because it feeds a bit into the stereotype of ace-aromantic people being cold, abrash or downright robotic, I did love that we got this magical touch (I won’t say more because of spoilers) added to the plot and I’m excited to see where that will be taken in the sequel.
All in all, The Grimrose Girls is a contemporary take on classic fairy tales with a haunting setting and a ruthless mystery at its core - perfect for lovers of dark academia vibes, fairy tales with a twist, or mini-Sherlocks in the making!

If you love creative fairy tale retellings, do not miss The Grimrose Girls. Classic tales are spun into a YA thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The premise of this novel is what brought me to request an advanced reader copy. I'm a murder mystery fan, and reimagined fairytale characters set in a boarding school? Yes please. This was something I felt would be right up my, and my students', alley.

The basic premise of the book is that four girls who attend The Grimrose School - Ella, Yuki, Rory, and Nani - are drawn into investigating a fellow student's death. The death had been quickly ruled a suicide, but the girls aren't so sure that is the case. Through their investigation they quickly learn there are stranger forces at play at Grimrose, and not everything is what it seems.

Sounds great, right? Like I said, the plot is what drew me to the book initially.

There is some incredible representation in this story. More than one token POC character, a f/f romance, a trans character who plays a key role, atypical bodies, and more than one main character who identifies as queer. It's amazing. It's the kind of representation you love to see in a young adult book.

However, that's about where my positive impressions end, unfortunately.

The style the book is written in was hard for me to get through. The constant flipping between narrators and seeing the same scenario from multiple points of view at times really dragged down the pacing and made it hard to get through. It felt like a slog at times, and others it felt like there wasn't enough time spent on something important.

I also feel like this author fell into the trap of telling readers what was happening, and describing the minutiae in detail, rather than showing the reader. There were descriptions of character's physical appearances, hallways, rooms, tapestries, that went on for full paragraphs at times. It was something that took a lot of getting used to, and played into the pacing issues I mentioned previously. The descriptions were also ham-handed at times. The most obvious was in the description of Yuki as having "snow white skin", "jet black hair" and "lips as red as blood" multiple times throughout the book. It felt like one of those moments where it could have been established early, and then moved on from.

My biggest issue, however, is it felt like nothing happened. The girls were investigating Ariane's death the entire novel, but at the end I had a very "...wait. That's it? Really?" moment. It was clear this was written as the start of a series, and that more information will play out later, but even giving more breadcrumbs to follow in this novel to make me want to read beyond it into the series would have been nice. There was so much exposition and so little payoff.

While I am so grateful to both Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC, unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this book to many people unless they are someone who reads with a slightly less discerning eye and can look past the pacing and plot problems.

The Grimrose Girls is a refreshing twist on the popular style of fairytale retellings. I greatly enjoyed reading the perspective of each girl while trying to guess which fairytale they belonged to ( I only guess 2 right). This isn't just the everyday retellings of Disney fairytales. Laura Pohl is able to give all main characters depth and individual personalities even to the put that I became frustrated with characters because their attitudes were so well written. I was happy to read that many of the characters are not heterosexual and there was a large inclusivity of different race, size, and other physical characteristics. This is a series I'm really looking forward to and it will be a top recommendation from me!

DNF @ 40%
thank you to sourcebooks fire and netgalley for the digital ARC! :)

'the grimrose girls' is a murder-mystery with fairytale retelling aspects. it follows four girls - elle, yuki, rory, and nani - shortly after a fellow student's mysterious death. the death was ruled a suicide but the four girls aren't so sure, which leads to them investigating the death. as they investigate ariane's death, they realize that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this mystery.

this plot was what originally drew me to the book. if you don't know, i love mysteries. and i especially love them when they're set in a prep school. to add on, the story has some fairytale aspects, another thing i absolutely adore. however, this book personally wasn't for me

+ the representation in this book was a huge plus. there's a f/f romance and an acearo protagonist, as well as POC characters. it's portrayed in a way that's very natural and the characters' struggles with their identities is were handled well.

the initial plot is an amazing idea. the idea of real life imitating the deadlier parts of fairytales is something that's really intriguing. it was fun (but easy) to piece together exactly who was what fairytale.

- my biggest problem with this book was the writing. it personally wasn't for me and it really lessened my enjoyment of the book. the writing felt really clunky and made the story drag more than it should have.

the author told me things instead of showing me. they told me what each character looked like, often dedicating whole paragraphs to it. they told me how each character felt instead of showing me. this is a personal bookish pet peeve of mine and it was really hard to look past when reading. i did get used to it around the sixth chapter or so, but it was still something that hung over my head like a cloud.

i also found the characters to be really bland. for the first few chapters of the book, i was struggling to differentiate between them and it wasn't until i was actively trying to read that i remembered who was who. it was really hard to connect to all of them and i couldn't find myself caring for them.

i would not recommend this book to anyone unless they can look past the writing style. that was ultimately my biggest problem with the book and what lead to me DNFing it. this story had so much promise but ultimately did not deliver.

This was a fairytale inspired novel combined with a murder mystery. In a boarding school. The girls all seem perfect little "stepfords" until the suicide of one of the them causes her friends to decide to start their own investigation. What they uncover, the secrets they learn, are leave the reader impressed by the darkness the author imbued to the classic fairy tale. Loved it.

Unfortunately this is a DNF for me. I think this story has a lot of potential, but it just fell flat for me. I love the idea around it, with reimagined fairytale characters - but the descriptions were just too on the nose and the dialogue felt unbelievable. The queer representation is the book’s biggest strength, and I hope many teens and young adults find themselves within the characters of this story.

Three stars because of the wonderfulQueer representations