SuitabookThe Forest Grimm
Kathryn Purdie
- Reading
- If the reader is sensitive to creepy fairy-tale imagery, read alongside them or pause after forest encounters. Agree beforehand whether they want to discuss the ending immediately, since its resolution and sequel-related questions may remain open.
- Themes
- Fate, choice and responsibility: Clara receives a prediction of untimely death, while the magical Book of Fortunes and the forest’s curse create pressure around wishes and decisions. The narrative appears to place personal courage and major choices alongside predictions and fate, without establishing that either wholly controls events.
- Loss, rescue and determination: Clara seeks her missing mother in the forest and is described as capable while living with scoliosis and chronic pain. Clara’s determination and capability are clearly foregrounded; the story gives her disability narrative presence, though one response wished it were shown more than stated.
- Reworking traditional fairy tales: The forest contains dark twists on familiar fairy tales, and the book weaves several reimagined tales into a new world rather than retelling them conventionally. The book uses recognisable fairy-tale material as a creative framework, with darker twists and an original setting rather than a straightforward reproduction of known stories.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the reader enjoys suspense involving missing people, ominous prophecies and fantastical peril. The book also includes kisses, flirtatious attraction, minor language, blood, impalement, cannibalistic themes, abduction and hallucinogens.