The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shuman

Snow fell hard: big, sticky flakes that got under my coat collar where the top button was missing. The weather had delayed my subway, and I was worried I would be late for class.

Republished by Oxford University Press in 2012

Pages – 352

Summary

In downtown Manhattan there's a very special place. It might not look like much from the outside but if you enter and make your way down to the basement, you'll find something so amazing you won't believe your eyes. The Grimm Collection. It's mysterious and powerful, and in the wrong hands could be devastating ...

******

Hi, I’m shallow and I buy books with pretty covers… C’mon who could resist this gorgeous cover? Aren’t you tempted to search out your old Berol felt tip pens to colour it in? You know the ones, that you used to colour your Doodle Art posters in?

Sorry, I’m going off on a whole different thread I know.

The idea behind this book was a delight. Imagine being able to access the Grimm Collection of Artefacts, that would allow you to converse with the mirror from Snow White, or eat at the table with never ending food.  But you have to be the right type of person to use these artefacts, because if they got into the wrong hands, then everything could go really wrong.

The story was quite magical to begin with and I did feel like I was stepping into a mysterious and exciting place, which desperately needed to be explored. Unfortunately, half way through the book, I found that feeling had worn off and I  kept losing interest.

The characters let the book down a little for me too. I struggled to warm to them as I always felt they had ulterior motives, so I didn’t trust them either. Elizabeth came across as very innocent and naive when it came to her new friends. She was way too trusting of the other characters and believed everything they said.

There appeared to be a lot of loose threads appearing in the story and as the book neared the end, I found myself getting completely confused about what was actually going on, which is a real shame because I really enjoyed the first few chapters.

On the whole, the first part of this book was really good. Unfortunately the second half let it down and probably would have faired better with a little more editing.