Laura PohlCritiques

The Last 8 started strong but ultimately fell flat for me.
The characters seemed rather shallow which made the whole power of friendship/found family stuff towards that became prominent near the end feel unearned and cheesy. Some character motivations also felt underdeveloped. It wasn't that any of their actions were completely unexplainable or stupid, but the lack of depth or insight into the character's emotional states and motivations made some of their actions read very much as plot contrivances more than what would make sense for them in-universe.
I was also disappointed in the sci-fi elements. Certain aspects of the alien species and technology seemed pure fantasy with no attempt at a justification, while some of it tried for more sci-fi. It didn't come together well for me, but other's might not mind. The invading alien species were also very intriguing in the beginning, but ultimately became shallow, uninteresting villains.
As the book got close to its conclusion it really lost steam and I could tell it wasn't going to have a satisfying conclusion. A reveal that one of the characters had the potential to develop reality warping abilities immediately made me suspect that any consequences for the characters actions in the finale would be erased before the end of the book. It took any and all tension out of the rest of the book. And rightly so, because lo and behold a character commits suicide and is revived seconds later, all the bad guys are erased from existence no problem, and we're off to a nice neat little happy ending that feels entirely unearned.½

2.49
i had high expectations for this and they were not met AT ALL. its a disgrace to pretty little liars that this book is compared it, because not only is it NOT SIMILAR TO PRETTY LITTLE LIARS AT ALL (it literally takes a fantasy turn

If I had to choose a character from The Grimrose Girls I most resemble, I’d have to choose Ella, because I spent so much time trying to match up all the characters in the book with their fairytales, I failed to see what was right in front of me.

The Grimrose Girls is the perfect read for folks who like light mysteries entwined with light fantasy, boarding schools, and fairytales come to life. It’s a little dark – it’s a little like Pretty Little Liars. And I’m okay with that! Ella, Rory, Nani, and Yuki are far more likable than the PLL crew. I chose this book because I wanted a dark fairytale retelling, and I got something in that range. It’s not focused on a single fairytale – it’s focused on a little bit of a lot of them. It’s interesting and fun to predict, and the rotating POVs kept things fresh.

I am a little disappointed Pohl focused primarily on commonly known fairytales. I get it – as a writer, it’s important to engage the reader. Internationally familiar fairytales (read: the ones turned into Disney movies) are an easy choice. With the exception of “The Juniper Tree“, all referenced fairytales will be very familiar to a diverse audience. I generally enjoyed Pohl’s writing, but there were certain characters I wished had been more tied to their stories. Some, like Ella, were very close. I would have liked more consistency across the board.

There is a lot of diversity and representation in The Grimrose Girls and I’m undecided how I feel about it. Typically I’m very excited for a breadth of diversity and I still am… but it also felt a bit contrived. Each character had a different race and a different sexuality. So, on the one hand, there is a lot of representation. On the other, I’m just cautious about the intense variety of it. There were a couple other little things that bugged me as well, including the whole “scholarships for employee’s children” angle that got Nani into the school in the first place. Some things lined up a little too perfectly without sensible in-world explanations.

As a whole, I really liked the book. Despite my uncertainty about the wealth of representation, I do want to nod to Pohl for taking the time to let Nani express frustration about Hawaii’s colonialism. It was a brief moment, but it stood out to me.

This was a good nighttime read, a good “what’s next” and “whodunnit” read. I’m a big fan of books that keep me analyzing and thinking – The Grimrose Girls did an amazing job of that.½

Predictable. I just looked at the title here and realized it's a series?? I guess I should have paid more attention to the ending than I did.

Take four girls who have formed a tight group at an exclusive private boarding school located in a Swiss castle. They have secrets, so does the school, not to mention hidden passages and an equally hidden series of deaths. When one of the four becomes the next dead girl, the official word is that she killed herself, but the other three don't believe it. When they begin to dig for answers, more tragedy occurs and they're joined by a new girl whose presence they resent at first, until she begins to make them see her usefulness. Slowly, ever so slowly, the intrigue builds while more about their friend's death, and the secrets surrounding the school, are revealed. Readers are left with answers that just may create even more questions, leading to a sequel.

Review of Advance Reader’s eBook

A mysterious book of fairytales found hidden in Ariane Van Amstel’s closet shortly after her supposedly-suicide-drowning, stuns her friends at Grimrose Académie, an elite Swiss boarding school. Did Ariane commit suicide or was her death the result of something far more sinister? Her best friends, Ella Ashworth, Yuki Miyashiro, and Rory Derosiers, joined by new student Nani Eszes, set out on a search for the truth.

But what do the fairytales have to do with Ariane’s death? And what do they mean to the other girls?

With another death at the school, the girls’ investigation takes on even greater importance and leads to some unexpected dark secrets. Will the girls discover the secret of Grimrose Académie before another student meets her death?

This Young Adult tale, the first in a series and set in an elite boarding school in a castle in Switzerland, reimagines several classic fairytales. Told in alternating points of view by the four girls [Ella, Yuki, Rory, and Nani], each of the girls brings something unique to the telling of the tale. The angst of teenager-dom is well done and there’s a strong representation for LGBTQIA characters, but it sometimes felt as if it was lesbian [check], pansexual [check], transgender [check], asexual aromantic [check] . . . a bit like having a checklist of sexual identities to be certain to include . . . and the result was that, instead of feeling natural, it all came across as being rather heavy-handed.

While readers may feel that there’s far more exposition than action, the plot is interesting and takes several unexpected twists as the girls attempt to solve the mystery tied to their friend’s death. The story is dark and occasionally grim, but the interweaving of the various aspects of several familiar fairytales gives the narrative a distinctiveness that only adds to the mysterious aura.

But many of the fairytales are dark and end in death . . . certainly not fairytales of the Disneyesque variety . . . and most of the girls are thoroughly unlikeable, making it difficult for the reader to truly connect with them and care about them. For being best friends, there often seemed to be a great deal of tension between the girls; some background specific to the coming together of this small group might have helped clarify the relationships for the reader.

Astute readers may identify the culprit long before the surprising reveal, but the breaking of the curse and the saving of the Grimrose girls is left unresolved [for the next book?].

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley
#thegrimrosegirls #NetGalley

Ella, Yuki, and Rory are returning to their elite boarding school, Grimrose Académie; however, this year they will begin the year with a funeral for their friend Ari. Ari was found drowned in the lake by the school just before the semester began. The girls don't believe Ari's death was a suicide like the officials say. Ella, Yuki and Rory don't make any headway in finding a cause for their friend's death until a new girl, Nani arrives. Nani finds a book of fairy tales with a list of names that Ari had been taking notes in along with a threatening note. The girls piece together that the deaths at Grimrose seem to follow the endings of fairy tales. But, are the deaths at the hand of a human killer or a curse upon the school?

The Grimrose Girls is a young adult murder mystery combined with a little magical realism. The writing drives directly into the mystery as the girls attend Ari's funeral. Each of the girl's personalities were well developed and evident from the beginning. Yuki strives for perfection in everything, Ella has a need to please everyone around her, Rory wants to be herself, despite her parents best efforts to make her someone else and Nani needs to find her place within this strange group of girls and discover why her father sent her to Grimrose. I loved the incorporation of the fairy tales around each girl's situation. The suspense built as fairy tail deaths begin to find their matching students. The line between magic and reality was easily blurred as the girls were pulled into their fairy tales and seemed to play out their tragic stories. Even more than the mystery, The Grimrose Girls is a story of friendship, coming of age and self-discovery. Each of the girls takes on figuring out who they are without Ari, the glue of the group. They also find who they are in relation to their fairy tales and decide if they want to play into their fate or change it. With a diversity of characters and a wonderful storyline, I can't wait to read the next book.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

I was interested in reading this book because I enjoy speculative fiction and science fiction. I definitely enjoyed the writing style but there were some key details that pulled me out of the story.

The main character, Clover is living a normal teenage life when one day... aliens invade. I've thought about it!! I'm sure you have too. The battle is over for humans before it even begins. As Closer is on the run with her ex-boyfriend Noah... she sees him turned to dust right before her eyes. In a strange twist of fate though, the aliens appear to be completely uninterested in her.

Clover discovers that she's alone, everyone she knew and loved has vanished. So she begins to drive across the US. One of the things that I found bothered me was that Clover keeps her iPhone with her as she steals and drives cars across the country. Reference is made to her looking for a house with solar panels to charge her phone...but I got kind of distracted by the fact that this was a teenager who simply didn't plug in her phone using the car jack! That may seem like a small detail to focus on, but it was about authenticity to me. What teenager wouldn't want that phone plugged in and charged? What about the cell network? Even without humans to maintain it, wouldn't it have continued to function for a while? There were a few too many unanswered questions for my liking.

Eventually, Clover is playing with the CD player in the car and discovers a radio broadcast giving a thinly veiled hint that there may be survivors holed up at Area 51. Naturally, Clover heads there and finds that only a handful of teenagers have survived the alien attacks. One of them happens to be related to someone who previously worked at Area 51, but the adults have gone off to fight...and eventually stopped returning.

Clover sets about trying to motivate the group to fight to live rather than hiding from what is going on.

I enjoyed the diversity of the group of teenagers and, for the most part, their interaction seemed pretty realistic. I did find it a little difficult to believe that it would be simple for them to continue to run a place as significant as Area 51 with only a handful of teenagers.

I would say this would appeal to a young audience, perhaps one looking for a simple story that has a bit of a science fiction element to it.

I was interested in reading this book because I enjoy speculative fiction and science fiction. I definitely enjoyed the writing style but there were some key details that pulled me out of the story.

The main character, Clover is living a normal teenage life when one day... aliens invade. I've thought about it!! I'm sure you have too. The battle is over for humans before it even begins. As Closer is on the run with her ex-boyfriend Noah... she sees him turned to dust right before her eyes. In a strange twist of fate though, the aliens appear to be completely uninterested in her.

Clover discovers that she's alone, everyone she knew and loved has vanished. So she begins to drive across the US. One of the things that I found bothered me was that Clover keeps her iPhone with her as she steals and drives cars across the country. Reference is made to her looking for a house with solar panels to charge her phone...but I got kind of distracted by the fact that this was a teenager who simply didn't plug in her phone using the car jack! That may seem like a small detail to focus on, but it was about authenticity to me. What teenager wouldn't want that phone plugged in and charged? What about the cell network? Even without humans to maintain it, wouldn't it have continued to function for a while? There were a few too many unanswered questions for my liking.

Eventually, Clover is playing with the CD player in the car and discovers a radio broadcast giving a thinly veiled hint that there may be survivors holed up at Area 51. Naturally, Clover heads there and finds that only a handful of teenagers have survived the alien attacks. One of them happens to be related to someone who previously worked at Area 51, but the adults have gone off to fight...and eventually stopped returning.

Clover sets about trying to motivate the group to fight to live rather than hiding from what is going on.

I enjoyed the diversity of the group of teenagers and, for the most part, their interaction seemed pretty realistic. I did find it a little difficult to believe that it would be simple for them to continue to run a place as significant as Area 51 with only a handful of teenagers.

I would say this would appeal to a young audience, perhaps one looking for a simple story that has a bit of a science fiction element to it.

I was interested in reading this book because I enjoy speculative fiction and science fiction. I definitely enjoyed the writing style but there were some key details that pulled me out of the story.

The main character, Clover is living a normal teenage life when one day... aliens invade. I've thought about it!! I'm sure you have too. The battle is over for humans before it even begins. As Closer is on the run with her ex-boyfriend Noah... she sees him turned to dust right before her eyes. In a strange twist of fate though, the aliens appear to be completely uninterested in her.

Clover discovers that she's alone, everyone she knew and loved has vanished. So she begins to drive across the US. One of the things that I found bothered me was that Clover keeps her iPhone with her as she steals and drives cars across the country. Reference is made to her looking for a house with solar panels to charge her phone...but I got kind of distracted by the fact that this was a teenager who simply didn't plug in her phone using the car jack! That may seem like a small detail to focus on, but it was about authenticity to me. What teenager wouldn't want that phone plugged in and charged? What about the cell network? Even without humans to maintain it, wouldn't it have continued to function for a while? There were a few too many unanswered questions for my liking.

Eventually, Clover is playing with the CD player in the car and discovers a radio broadcast giving a thinly veiled hint that there may be survivors holed up at Area 51. Naturally, Clover heads there and finds that only a handful of teenagers have survived the alien attacks. One of them happens to be related to someone who previously worked at Area 51, but the adults have gone off to fight...and eventually stopped returning.

Clover sets about trying to motivate the group to fight to live rather than hiding from what is going on.

I enjoyed the diversity of the group of teenagers and, for the most part, their interaction seemed pretty realistic. I did find it a little difficult to believe that it would be simple for them to continue to run a place as significant as Area 51 with only a handful of teenagers.

I would say this would appeal to a young audience, perhaps one looking for a simple story that has a bit of a science fiction element to it.

I honestly loved this book so much more than I thought I would. Clover was the perfect main character. She was strong, but still a vulnerable teenager just trying to make it in a world where aliens had invaded and wiped the planet clean of almost all humans. Adam, Flint, Andy, Rayen, Avani, Violet, and Brooklyn were all amazing supportive characters.
The first part did go pretty fast, but I'm glad there was enough detail to keep me reading, and not so much that it was just filler.
The twist was one I didn't actually see coming and how it was all handled in the end was perfect, plenty of drama, fighting and finding true friends.