An UnEnchanted Review

I must apologize for getting this UnEnchanted review to you so late. I do hope that you will forgive me, as I try to make catch up with all of my reviews for the rest of the week. I must admit that there will be spoilers. I will try and not write any spoilers, but in looking back I realize that these are the elements of the book that influence my decision in why I gave my ratings on Goodreads.

UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn was really good. I gave this book four out of five stars on Goodreads. It is the first book of the An Unfortunate Fairy Tale series. This was one of the books that I started in 2014 that for some reason I did not finish reading the book the first time that I picked it up. I do not remember why I put the book down, but I do remember the book being amazing and that I enjoyed the book. I am glad that I picked it up. It was a fun read and the twisted fairy tale element was a lot of fun.

The first book in the series develop the setting for Mina Grime being part of the Grimm fairy tale curse.  She starts to piece together the family history and has decided that to protect her little brother by participating in the family curse and to protect the human realm from the evil fae.

I really enjoyed the book. I love the twisted fairy tale.  Twisted fairy tale is when you take a fairy tale and change an element or two within the original tale to create a different tale. I enjoyed seeing the changed story for Hezel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. There was also the minor tale of the stag and the lion.  I also enjoyed how Hahn incorporated these tales within the main story, and used these tales as riddles to help our main character grow. Another thing that I enjoyed, was the world, or worlds, development. The premise of the story is that the cures/ tales incorporate themselves in our modern world and that it uses its surrounding to help tell the tales. I also enjoy the premise that the Fae world is both a part of our world, as well as being another layer on top of our world. It is a bit hard to explain it without giving out spoilers due to the fact that explanation of the world(s) does partake in the story itself. Hahn did an amazing job setting up the world, the story, and explaining why things work the way they did, without having such a slow beginning. Finally the last thing that I enjoyed was the knowledge of how tales and the Grimoires evolve throughout the centuries. It fits with our own timeline in how these tales have changed and evolved over the centuries.

With everything that I love there are a two things that I did not enjoy.  The first one is the slow beginning. I know that I claim that she did not have such a slow beginning, however when you first get into the tale you don’t realize that you are hitting the ground running. It feels slow, and you are in Mina’s perspective learning about the curse and trying to survive life. Don’t get me wrong. I love being in Mina’s perspective, but when a certain line was stated, I felt as though we focused on the wrong details. This was just an annoyance, but in all, I do realize its importance to be written in such a way that we kind of feel that lull. The other thing that I did not like was that when the “story” was finish grouping the tales together, no one remembered what happened. Hahn does hint that Mina’s mom will remember, but you know for the fact that Mina will be alone in solving these tales in this realm. This was what brought the book down to four stars. I was really hoping that she would have a sidekick. Not really one to help fight or solve, but someone to help her with her morale. I know that the Grimm fairy tales are very dark tales, and it takes really strong people to just read through them.

With all of this said, I do need to put a few more warnings up. I would love to say that I recommend this book to everyone who is 14 years or older. If the 12 or 13 year old is mature, they can read the book, just make sure that they talk about the book. The story itself is great and fun to read. I believe that everyone would love the character and world(s) development, as well as the concept of having to relive these tales. However, because they are related to the Grimm Fairy Tales, the story itself does get dark, and I have the feeling that the series will just get darker. Hahn does a nice job twisting the fairy tales to where they are a bit lighter and bring, but at the same time still keeping true to the original tales. With that said, if you have depression or anxiety, please think before you read this. If you want to read this book, read it with someone else, especially if you do not have those illnesses in check. There is also some abuse. Mina does gose physical abuse by some of the other characters attacking her, but mental abuse from living through the stories. Like the anxiety and depression, please check yourself before reading this book. I do care about you as my followers, and I want to make sure that I keep you in a safe and happy environment.

Thank you for reading this review. Please tell me what you think in the comments below. You can also follow me at Facebook.com/superbookworm. I do hope that your New Year is going great, and that you have started new adventures.  Happy Reading!