Status
Available
Series
Publication
Harper Voyager (2021), 448 pages
Description
The critically acclaimed author of The House at the End of Hope Street combines love, mystery, and magic with her first foray into bewitching fantasy with a dark edge evocative of V.E. Schwab and Neil Gaiman. Once upon a time, a demon who desired earthly domination fathered an army of dark daughters to help him corrupt humanity . . . As children, Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea dreamed of a strange otherworld: a nightscape of mists and fog, perpetually falling leaves and hungry ivy, lit by an unwavering moon. Here, in this shadowland of Everwhere, the four girls, half-sisters connected by blood and magic, began to nurture their elemental powers together. But at thirteen, the sisters were ripped from Everwhere and separated. Now, five years later, they search for one another and yearn to rediscover their unique and supernatural strengths. Goldie (earth) manipulates plants and gives life. Liyana (water) controls rivers and rain. Scarlet (fire) has electricity at her fingertips. Bea (air) can fly. To realize their full potential, the blood sisters must return to the land of their childhood dreams. But Everwhere can only be accessed through certain gates at 3:33 A.M. on the night of a new moon. As Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea are beset with the challenges of their earthly lives, they must prepare for a battle that lies ahead. On their eighteenth birthday, they will be subjected to a gladiatorial fight with their father's soldiers. If they survive, they will face their father who will let them live only if they turn dark. Which would be fair, if only the sisters knew what was coming. So, they have thirty-three days to discover who they truly are and what they can truly do, before they must fight to save themselves and those they love.… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member VanessaCW
This magical tale is about four sisters and they are not just ordinary sisters, they are Grimm sisters. They have the same father but different mothers. One sister is earth, one is fire, one is air and one is water and each one relates to a certain fairytale, all of which are fun to work out. They
I thoroughly enjoyed The Sisters Grimm. I wasn’t sure I was going to at first but the more I dwelled in this fantastical land, the more I loved it. It’s a little different, quite original and very imaginative. Beautifully written with some fascinating characters, both good and evil, it had me eagerly turning the pages for more. I enjoy stories which link to fairytales and The Sisters Grimm is an excellent example of that with all the usual mythical and bewitching elements. I’d love to visit the enchanted world of Everwhere...... who knows, perhaps I have in my dreams!
If you enjoy magical realism stories, you’ll love this one!
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met each other in Everwhere, a mystical land, when they were eight. They were separated at 13 and now at nearly 18, they need to find each other again to prepare for a battle to fight for their livesI thoroughly enjoyed The Sisters Grimm. I wasn’t sure I was going to at first but the more I dwelled in this fantastical land, the more I loved it. It’s a little different, quite original and very imaginative. Beautifully written with some fascinating characters, both good and evil, it had me eagerly turning the pages for more. I enjoy stories which link to fairytales and The Sisters Grimm is an excellent example of that with all the usual mythical and bewitching elements. I’d love to visit the enchanted world of Everwhere...... who knows, perhaps I have in my dreams!
If you enjoy magical realism stories, you’ll love this one!
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LibraryThing member Kris_Anderson
Wow. What a wonderful novel. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I will share my complete review soon.
LibraryThing member hairball
This novel seems, at times, to be aimed at a younger readership, with the we’re-sharing-a-secret language, but the story itself skews older, and the messaging is bizarre. (A series of Sisters Grimm books by a different author, definitely for a young audience, will possibly cause some confusion
This Sisters Grimm book is a weird family drama wrapped in the guise of an inspirational fairytale: mothers are absent, untrustworthy, or dangerous; men are generally going to lure one into terrible trouble; fathers are evil and must be killed. The main characters are (fairytale/earth element) archetypes. Hey, young reader, do you see yourself in this book? Take solace, because when you’re 18 you’ll come into your secret powers and kill all of those assholes who have wronged you. If didn’ of wronging in this novel; if I were on the receiving end of such wronging, I would not appreciate this novel as an example of problem-solving.
So who or what is the audience for Sisters Grimm? It’s not headed for crossover heaven, but then, I’m not sure where it was intended to hit. I doubt I’d have read it all the way through if I didn’t have to review it.
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with this book.)This Sisters Grimm book is a weird family drama wrapped in the guise of an inspirational fairytale: mothers are absent, untrustworthy, or dangerous; men are generally going to lure one into terrible trouble; fathers are evil and must be killed. The main characters are (fairytale/earth element) archetypes. Hey, young reader, do you see yourself in this book? Take solace, because when you’re 18 you’ll come into your secret powers and kill all of those assholes who have wronged you. If didn’ of wronging in this novel; if I were on the receiving end of such wronging, I would not appreciate this novel as an example of problem-solving.
So who or what is the audience for Sisters Grimm? It’s not headed for crossover heaven, but then, I’m not sure where it was intended to hit. I doubt I’d have read it all the way through if I didn’t have to review it.
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LibraryThing member Kathl33n
Great story line with really great female characters and the author did an amazing job of creating the fantasy world, along with doing a bang up job on creating the individual characters of the sisters. There is a past and present story, as well as this world and another world story, which I found
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to break up the pace of what I wanted to be a more suspenseful read. I thought the past story would have made a better prologue in a much condensed story line. Many thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy. Show Less
LibraryThing member randirousseau
I was very excited to read this book, but found it rather hard to enjoy. The story was very long to develop, as well as a little confusing with all the character switches, that made it hard to hold on to interest. I think this was ultimately a feminist good vs. evil tale, but while the girls are
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great part came out, the good vs. evil was a lot more muddy. Just not the epic it reached for. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rowena_
I received this as a free gift through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This is another example (like Ian McEwan) of "literary" novelists trying to write genre and failing miserably. It was a YA novel but with extra swear words to be "adult" I guess. The love interest kept telling us he
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was irredeemable so frankly served no purpose as he did not deserve any sort of a "redemption ark". Every plot device was way to easy to guess, there were no "twists" that anybody who's previously read a book previously couldn't see coming from a mile away. So sad. Donating to the library's Friends group as soon as the plague allows. Show Less
LibraryThing member WhiskeyintheJar
1.5 stars
The Sisters Grimm are daughters of air---at least they begin that way---born of dreams and prayer, imagination and faith, bright-white wishing and black-edged desire.
Melding together magical realism, fairy tales, and good versus evil, The Sisters Grimm was a young adult book that had an
If it already seems like a lot to keep track of, you are not alone, it took until around the 30% mark for me to even get close to sliding into the mode of how this story was written. The changing povs, tense shifts, and time jumps created a disjointed and disruptive pace that never flowed smoothly for me. I also thought the world building could have been much stronger; the reader has these characters thrown at them without much context to the world. Part of the lack of explanation in the beginning was probably due to keeping some mystery but even in the second half I couldn't conceptualize Everwhere. From what I could gather, the father, Wilhelm, is God and he created Grimm girls and Soldier boys to fight in the never ending Good vs. Evil, but he pulls for Evil. Soldiers are stars that have fallen to the earth while Grimms are born from Wilhelm sleeping with Grimm women. Yes, if I understood this right, incest plays a big part in this world.
Along with the Grimm girls, Leo, a soldier plays a big part as he initially is trying to get close to Goldie to kill her. While Grimm girls can travel to Everwhere in their dreams from a young age, they lose their ability to and memories at age thirteen and don't come into their powers until eighteen (hence the countdown utilized in the story, the girls are seventeen with about a month until their eighteenth birthday). Leo knows what Goldie is and senses she is the most powerful Grimm he's ever encounter (no explanation or real evidence is given as to why she's the most powerful). However, as he gets closer to her to kill her, he falls in love with her (again, as I understand it, she would be his sister, so more incest?), so we get a little bit of star-crossed lovers plot thread.
“So know your head and know your heart, sisters. Remember what lies behind you, imagine what lies ahead of you, and make your choice carefully.”
Liyana is the sister that remembers the most from when they were younger and visited each other in their dreams in Everwhere and through her, the reader gains a little insight to what is happening in regards to the magical realism. If you ever watched the show Sense 8, there was a bit of that vibe, a group of people living their lives but having these moments of connection with others, confusing at first but worth it if there is a good payoff. The ending of this didn't give me the explanations or payoff I was looking for after making my way through the story. The choosing of the sisters if they are going to go Good or Evil didn't have a lot of drama and the big battle against Wilhelm the father was, for the most part, pretty anticlimactic. While the ending gives a complete picture of what happened, it leaves the story with an ending that made me think “What was the point of it all?”, not satisfactory at all.
I would agree with this being labeled as a young adult, the leads are all seventeen/eighteen and while the girls have sex, it is only alluded to and not shown for the most part. There was however, one graphic sex scene and there were numerous trigger warnings (self-harm, the possible incest, sexual assault). The structure of this story, thin world building, lack of payoff, and ending that made it seem not worth it, will have this being more of a disappointment than a story I will fondly revisit.
The Sisters Grimm are daughters of air---at least they begin that way---born of dreams and prayer, imagination and faith, bright-white wishing and black-edged desire.
Melding together magical realism, fairy tales, and good versus evil, The Sisters Grimm was a young adult book that had an
Show More
intriguing premise but ultimately, took on too much. The reader is introduced to four girls and one boy in constant, short bursts of first person povs. Time stamps and a countdown of days start each pov and chapter, alerting that the story is building up to something. Goldie's pov was most prominent and it becomes clear that Goldilocks and earth are her ties to the magical aspect. Goldie's “sisters” are Liyana, and I think, the Little Mermaid and water for her power, Scarlet as Little Red Riding Hood and fire, and Bea as Beauty and the Beast and air. To go along with the pov jumps, there are back into the past time jumps when these four girls could visit the magical land, Everwhere, they were born from ten years ago.If it already seems like a lot to keep track of, you are not alone, it took until around the 30% mark for me to even get close to sliding into the mode of how this story was written. The changing povs, tense shifts, and time jumps created a disjointed and disruptive pace that never flowed smoothly for me. I also thought the world building could have been much stronger; the reader has these characters thrown at them without much context to the world. Part of the lack of explanation in the beginning was probably due to keeping some mystery but even in the second half I couldn't conceptualize Everwhere. From what I could gather, the father, Wilhelm, is God and he created Grimm girls and Soldier boys to fight in the never ending Good vs. Evil, but he pulls for Evil. Soldiers are stars that have fallen to the earth while Grimms are born from Wilhelm sleeping with Grimm women. Yes, if I understood this right, incest plays a big part in this world.
Along with the Grimm girls, Leo, a soldier plays a big part as he initially is trying to get close to Goldie to kill her. While Grimm girls can travel to Everwhere in their dreams from a young age, they lose their ability to and memories at age thirteen and don't come into their powers until eighteen (hence the countdown utilized in the story, the girls are seventeen with about a month until their eighteenth birthday). Leo knows what Goldie is and senses she is the most powerful Grimm he's ever encounter (no explanation or real evidence is given as to why she's the most powerful). However, as he gets closer to her to kill her, he falls in love with her (again, as I understand it, she would be his sister, so more incest?), so we get a little bit of star-crossed lovers plot thread.
“So know your head and know your heart, sisters. Remember what lies behind you, imagine what lies ahead of you, and make your choice carefully.”
Liyana is the sister that remembers the most from when they were younger and visited each other in their dreams in Everwhere and through her, the reader gains a little insight to what is happening in regards to the magical realism. If you ever watched the show Sense 8, there was a bit of that vibe, a group of people living their lives but having these moments of connection with others, confusing at first but worth it if there is a good payoff. The ending of this didn't give me the explanations or payoff I was looking for after making my way through the story. The choosing of the sisters if they are going to go Good or Evil didn't have a lot of drama and the big battle against Wilhelm the father was, for the most part, pretty anticlimactic. While the ending gives a complete picture of what happened, it leaves the story with an ending that made me think “What was the point of it all?”, not satisfactory at all.
I would agree with this being labeled as a young adult, the leads are all seventeen/eighteen and while the girls have sex, it is only alluded to and not shown for the most part. There was however, one graphic sex scene and there were numerous trigger warnings (self-harm, the possible incest, sexual assault). The structure of this story, thin world building, lack of payoff, and ending that made it seem not worth it, will have this being more of a disappointment than a story I will fondly revisit.
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LibraryThing member Kris_Anderson
The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag is a creative tale. Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet and Bea will soon turn eighteen and be in for a fight of their life. If these four sisters are to survive, they only have thirty-three days to learn who they are, where they are truly from and what specials powers they
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have as well as how to utilize them. The story is told in alternating points-of-view between Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, Bea and Leo. The four sisters each represent a different element (earth, wind, fire and air) and each possess different powers. Menna van Praag crafted a unique fantasy world and her vivid word imagery brought it alive. Unfortunately, I found The Sisters Grimm a difficult book to read with the alternating POVs (five of them and then there are the characters younger selves). The timeline counts down the days to the girls eighteenth birthday as well as going back in time to eight years earlier (can you see why it is confusing). The Sisters Grimm is a creative, original and magical story. However, it is totally confusing and difficult to read. I had to read it in small installments over a two-month period. I wish the author had written this inventive tale in the third person. The last ten percent of the book is the best part, but you need to make it through the other ninety percent first. There is a lot of repetition as each girl and Leo tells their story. While I have enjoyed Menna van Praag’s other novels, The Sisters Grimm is a miss for me because of the slow pacing, repetitiveness and alternating points-of-view. This is certainly not what I expected from one of my favorite authors. I suggest you obtain a sample to see if The Sisters Grimm in the right fit for you. The beauty of books is that each reader sees them differently. I highly recommend checking out Menna van Praag’s other magical stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member PaperbackPirate
My review is semi-spoilery because I don't know how to talk about The Sisters Grimm without sharing some vague details.
I really wanted to like this book. It has the components of a good girl power story mixed with the supernatural, but unfortunately most of the story is spent in the natural. I
I'm thankful to have received this book as an Early Reviewer, so I wish I could have written a nicer review, nevertheless I have to be honest and suggest you pass.
I really wanted to like this book. It has the components of a good girl power story mixed with the supernatural, but unfortunately most of the story is spent in the natural. I
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wanted the bulk of the story to be about the sisters bonding and exploring their superpowers, however most of time the sisters were apart in the real world doing real world things. I expected there to be a big payoff at the end, but the climax was brief and unoriginal. I'm thankful to have received this book as an Early Reviewer, so I wish I could have written a nicer review, nevertheless I have to be honest and suggest you pass.
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LibraryThing member mt256
Menna van Praag has been on my watch list for a while. I've read and enjoyed several of her books including The House at the end of Hope Street and The Dress Shop of Dreams. And I love fairy-tale retellings. Especially Grimm fairy tales. So I was doubly excited to read The Sisters Grimm by Menna
The things that worked were the diversity of characters. Four Grimm sisters:Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea. Each sister represents a different elemental magic. Sisters that share the same father, who may be the devil or just a demon. The sisters have forgotten each other and must figure out who they are before they turn 18, because on their 18th birthday they must choose between good and evil. The book begins with a countdown; they have 33 days to do so.
The things that didn't work for me were the multiple point of views. There were too many of them, and it slowed the pace way down. Not to mention a bit of repetition because of it. Also, the character flashbacks were a bit much. I also would have liked to know more about Everywhere. The description seemed vague, and since it was a big part of the story, I felt it needed more attention.
In the end I think this book might have took on too much. It has it strengths, such as strong female characters, as well as its weaknesses, such as it needed better world building. Overall it was an okay read, but it didn't live up to its predecessors. However, there were some surprises along the way that did intrigue this reader. Overall, it's hard to talk about this book without giving away too many spoilers. I really hate that I didn't love this book the way I wanted to, but there's always next time.
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van Praag. And while I liked this novel, I didn't love it like I did the author's previous novels. Some things worked well for me, while others didn't.The things that worked were the diversity of characters. Four Grimm sisters:Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea. Each sister represents a different elemental magic. Sisters that share the same father, who may be the devil or just a demon. The sisters have forgotten each other and must figure out who they are before they turn 18, because on their 18th birthday they must choose between good and evil. The book begins with a countdown; they have 33 days to do so.
The things that didn't work for me were the multiple point of views. There were too many of them, and it slowed the pace way down. Not to mention a bit of repetition because of it. Also, the character flashbacks were a bit much. I also would have liked to know more about Everywhere. The description seemed vague, and since it was a big part of the story, I felt it needed more attention.
In the end I think this book might have took on too much. It has it strengths, such as strong female characters, as well as its weaknesses, such as it needed better world building. Overall it was an okay read, but it didn't live up to its predecessors. However, there were some surprises along the way that did intrigue this reader. Overall, it's hard to talk about this book without giving away too many spoilers. I really hate that I didn't love this book the way I wanted to, but there's always next time.
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LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
The cover is lovely but I'm not sure the book is for me - just read the first chapter but hasn't given me a spark. I think back to the library for now.
LibraryThing member NeedMoreShelves
I really wanted to love this and just couldn't quite get there. I think the novel was incredibly ambitious, and perhaps the author overreached in what she was trying to do. I think there are seeds of a great idea in there, and parts that felt really exciting and made me want more, but overall the
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reading experience was not one of my favorites. Show Less
LibraryThing member mnleona
This is a fantasy book about four half-sisters, Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea. "Goldie (earth) manipulates plants and gives life. Liyana (water) controls rivers and rain. Scarlet (fire) has electricity at her fingertips. Bea (air) can fly."
I won a copy from LibraryThing and was hoping for a good
I will give it a 1 star.
I won a copy from LibraryThing and was hoping for a good
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read. I like a good fantasy read. Not so. It (in my opionion) is not a teen read. I have tried twice to read this book and cannot get past the language. I will give it a 1 star.
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
448 p.; 7.9 inches
ISBN
0062932470 / 9780062932471