A Tale Dark and Grimm Blog Tour: Guest Post by Adam Gidwitz

I love fairy tales! Honest! But if you are a 8/9+ boy and you are horrified at me saying that please do not go just yet. You see, I am talking about fairy tales as they were originally written: stories that might make even the likes of Darren Shan a little squeamish. Not the sanitised Disney-fied versions that have seem to be accepted these days as the definitive versions. The original Grimm tales were bloody and nasty, and now debut author Adam Gidwitz wants to raise children's awareness of these gloriously dark originals. He does so with A Tale Dark And Grimm, a book that follows two little children called Hansel and Gretel. Yes, I hear you say, we know that story already.... but do you? I certainly didn't and I lapped up his relatively thin volume that retells their adventures in a gory, blood-soaked and totally hilarious manner. You want an example? Fair enough - in the version you know did Hansel and Gretel have their heads chopped off before they had even met the witch? Exactly! Boys (and girls) will totally lap this book up as let's face it, 8+ kids have a passion for things that make you go "euuurrrrgghhhh" and then leave you rolling on the floor laughing.


Having loved this book I was really chuffed to be asked by the good people at Andersen Press if I would like to be involved in Adam's blog tour, and I feel honoured to be kicking the tour off on Day One. The blog continues tomorrow at the So Many Books, So Little Time blog, but in the meantime, it is my great pleasure to hand you over to Adam Gidwitz:

The Grimm Truth About Fairy Tales

Once upon a time, fairy tales were horrible.

Not boring horrible. Not so-cute-you-want-to-jump-out-the-window horrible.

Terrifying, bloody, disgusting horrible.

Now, if you’ve been raised on the drivel that passes for fairy tales these days, you probably don’t believe me.

First off, you’re constantly hearing the same fairy tale again and again and again. “Today, children, we’re going to read a Cinderella story from China! Today, children, we’re going to read a Cinderella story from Madagascar! Today, children, we’re going to read a Cinderella story from deep space!” And you, meanwhile, are wondering how many students have been convicted of murdering their teachers.

Second of all, those stories they keep telling you over and over are all about fairy godmothers, and talking frogs, and cute little girls in red caps. And they are generally about as interesting as a cookbook. In Swahili.

But you see, the real Grimm stories are not like that.

Take Hansel and Gretel, for example. Two greedy little children try to eat a witch’s house, so she decides to cook and eat them instead—which is fair, it seems to me. But before she can follow through on her perfectly reasonable plan, they lock her in an oven and bake her to death.

Which is pretty cool, you have to admit.

Or Cinderella. You think you know what one, right? But did you know that when the first step-sister tries to put on the slipper, and her big toe is too big, so she cuts it off with a knife? Or that the second step sister tries on the shoe, but her heel is too big, so she takes the same knife and cuts off a nice juicy chunk of her heel? And then, at the end, both step-sisters have their eyes pecked out by birds? Sweet, huh?

And that’s not to mention the stories that are so terrible adults deny their very existence. Have you ever heard of a story called Faithful Johannes? Of course not. Because in that story, two lovely little children get their heads cut off. By their parents. The heads get put back on, of course. So it’s no big deal.

What about the fabulous fairy tale Fowler’s Fowl? Heard of that one? Of course not. That’s because Fowler’s Fowl is about a lovely young woman who marries a very important doctor who lives in a very big house. He gives her keys to every room of the house, and tells her she can go anywhere—anywhere, that is, except the basement. He tells her that if she ever goes in the basement, he will kill her. So of course she goes into the basement, and what does she find? The bodies of all the women he’s married before her, hanging, dead, from the ceiling. And then, of course, he comes home. I won’t tell you what happens then. You can probably guess.

“Okay,” you are now asking, “if fairy tales are so horrible, why are all the versions of the stories I’ve heard so unbelievably, mind-numbingly boring?” Well, you know how it is with stories. Someone tells a story. Then somebody repeats it—and it changes. Someone else repeats it—and it changes again. Then someone’s telling it to their kid and taking out all the…well, the horrible, awesome parts…and the next thing you know the story’s about a sweet girl and a glass slipper and singing mice—and you’re so bored you’ve passed out on the floor.

Even the Brothers Grimm changed the fairy tales some. So I’ve written a book that goes back and sets them right. You see, there is a story behind the stories of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. A story that winds all throughout that those horrible, bloody tales, like a trail of breadcrumbs winding through a forest. It appears in stories you may never have heard, like Faithful Johannes and Fowler’s Fowl. And in some that you have—Hansel and Gretel, for instance. It is the story that you will find in the book A Tale Dark and Grimm.

Now, this story isn’t for everybody. It is scary, and gory, and grim. But it is a tale worth knowing. For, in life, it is in the darkest zones that one finds the brightest beauty and the most luminous wisdom.

And, of course, the most blood.

Review: Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer by Derek Landy

The sixth instalment in the historic, hysterical and horrific Skulduggery Pleasant series. Think you’ve seen anything yet? You haven’t. Because the Death Bringer is about to rise…

The Necromancers no longer need Valkyrie to be their Death Bringer, and that’s a Good Thing.

There’s just one catch. There’s a reason the Necromancers don’t need her any more. And that’s because they’ve found their Death Bringer already, the person who will dissolve the doors between life and death.

And that’s a very, very Bad Thing…

I have spent some time agonising over how to write this review without giving away any spoilers, and the only thing I can think of is to make it shorter than most of my reviews. There is just so much happening in this book that it is nigh impossible to say much at all about the story without giving something away that may spoil the book for the few die-hard fans out there who have not yet read it. I will do my utmost however, although if you have not yet read Mortal Coil, the fifth book in the series, then I suggest you navigate away from this page now.

Mortal Coil was an incredibly dark book, and as I mentioned in my review last year, one of my favourite in the series so far. There were so many great revelations, and the climactic scenes had me gasping for breath, especially regarding the fate of one of my favourite characters, Tanith Low. However, Death Bringer may have just usurped Mortal Coil and could now be my favourite book in the series, although the complete absence of Tanith from the story was a slight disappointment. So what makes it so good? I think the best way of doing this without giving away spoilers is in list form, so in no particular order:

• The dialogue. It's brilliant, and there seems to be so much more of it in this book. In fact, I think the increased dialogue between Sulduggery and Valkyrie is possibly the main contributing factor to the book's length. Derek Landy has created so many great characters, but what makes them stand out so much is the banter between them, and especially between his two main protagonists. It is consistently funny, occasionally poignant, and shows the deep bond that has grown between these two over the course of their adventures together.
• The action. There are some amazing action scenes in this book, and they are some of the best we have seen from the author. There was one scene where I suddenly started choking as I had not realised that I had been holding my breath and my lungs need to breath suddenly caught up with my brain's fixation on the story I was reading.
• More character development. Some of Landy's characters have remained pretty much on the sidelines of the main plot so far in the series, and although ever present we still do not know a great deal about them. One such characters is China Sorrows, and in Death Bringer we find out a great deal more about her history, and it is far from being good.
• More revelations. I don't think I am particularly stupid so I hope I wasn't the only one who did not see one particular revelation about Skulduggery coming. In fact, I was so surprised that I think my brain went into shut down, and I spent a good five minutes just staring at the page in shock.
• I've saved the best until last..... Valkyrie and Skulduggery. There will be moments in this book when you may actually find yourself disliking these two, and Val in particular. It is easy to forget that she is just a teenager, and yet she has achieved so much and seen so many horrors at such a young age. What kind of effect would that have on a teenager? In Death Bringer we really start to find out. We see her ego, her selfishness, her betrayal of trust, her moodiness - at times she becomes a thoroughly unlikeable young lady, and the story is all the better for it. 

Another great addition to the Skulduggery series, and it continues to be one of my favourite series around at the moment. It is just a pity that we will probably have to wait another year for Book Seven in the series. However, SP fans, make sure you hit the book stores in March 2012 as Derek Landy is contributing a Skulduggery Pleasant novelette for World Book Day, called The End of the World. This book will be set after the events of Death Bringer, but whether Tanith will feature I do not know. Whatever the outcome, I have a feeling that she will feature quite heavily in Skulduggery Pleasant Book Seven, and I am sure it won't be good for Valkyrie or Skulduggery. 

*** Undead Competition Result

The lucky winner of the copy of Undead by Kirsty McKay is:

D Randle

Well done and thank you to all of you who entered. I will now endeavour to contact the winner through by email. Please reply within 48 hours or I will draw another name out of the hat. Many thanks to Chicken House for providing the prize.