Title: Grimm Tales
Author: Philip Pullman
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 422
Rating: 3/5
You’d think that I’d like this one because I’m a pretty big Pullman fan, but the problem is that I’m not much of a fairy tale fan. I still wanted to pick this up because Pullman is one of those authors who I want to read every book by, but I wasn’t much looking forward to getting to it.
It was going to be a “main book” for me because I thought that I’d be absorbed enough to stick with it, but as soon as I started reading it, I knew it wasn’t going to be for me. And so I took it into my bedroom and used it as my bedtime book, reading through a couple of stories a night until I got to the end.
What I will say is that it was pretty good for what it was, and so if you’re a fan of fairy tales then you’ll probably enjoy it. Pullman is very good at what he does, and it’s not as though he’s never used elements of fairy tales in his stories. In fact, I’d rather read this than the originals, which I probably will get to at some point or another even though I’m not a fan of fairy tales. Did I mention that I’m not a fan of fairy tales, yet?
It’s hard to write reviews for books like this, because it would be harsh for me to give it a 2-star rating when it’s nowhere near that bad. It doesn’t deserve it, it’s just that I usually rate and review books based on my own subjective experience. Objectively, it’s a decent read; subjectively, not so much.
For some people, fairy tales are comforting, and with Pullman and Grimm working together, they should be even more comforting. I guess it’s like a hot cup of coffee – for some people, it helps them to start the day right, while for others, it just tastes like dirty bean juice. Personally, I’d rather drink coffee than read Grimm’s fairy tales, but that might just be me.
Anyway, all in all, I am glad that I read this one, but it’s easily my least favourite of Pullman’s books, and there have been a couple that I wasn’t particularly keen on. Having said that, I don’t know if I’d rather that he’d been working on more books in the His Dark Materials series either. I’d prefer more Sally Lockhart.
