Stunning photo by @bookishsof!
Hello everyone!
Who is excited but nervous for today’s chapters? I feel like A LOT is going to happen in today’s reading!
Happy Friday and welcome to day 5 of our readalong of The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie. I’m so excited to be reading this one with you, I hope you all love it!
Today we’re reading from chapter 33 to the end of the book. Let’s do this!
When you’ve finished today’s section, catch up with me in the comments down below so we can discuss the beginning of the book. Happy reading!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie from Chapter 33 to the end of the book. Please only read on if you have finished this section!
!SPOILERS!
We start of today’s reading the Clara making her wish – a selfless wish to break the curse. The book then tells her she must ditch Axel and capture the Grimm Wolf. Anyone else find that a little odd?
She leaves the cave without Axel leaving both him and the book behind. She is then joined by the Grimm Wolf who guides her out of the trees and onto a bridge, a castle at the other end. I have a very bad feeling about this!
Surrounding them are trees filled with angry and terror-struck faces. Yep this is giving really not great vibes.
The Grimm wolf gives her some red rampion and begins eating some itself – Clara also does the same. This then enables her to hear here grandmother’s voice. She is the Grimm Wolf!
After crossing the bridge Clara hears a cry coming from the castle and instantly recognises it to be her mother. Her grandmother tells her that she is not prepared to meet her and she cannot be saved; she has changed the most and is no longer Rosamund as she once was, but evil.
Clara tricks her grandmother and locks her in a dungeon. Yikes.
Clara finds her mother on a bed, she does not recognise her own daughter and says her name is Briar Rose.
She tells Cara she needs a drop of her blood to be able to sleep as she hasn’t for three years. She asks her to prick her finger on a spinning wheel. Oh we all know how this story goes…
Clara tries to convince her mother of who she is and what she has lost but she won’t hear it and shoves her so that she accidentally pricks her finger on the spinning wheel. A drop of her blood falls to the ground and Clara collapses.
When she wakes up she realises she is paralysed except for her eyes and is being carried by her mother elsewhere; she sees the red veil Henni took when she left them. Has her mother captured Henni?
They enter a garden and there are dead bodies strewn about the castle garden; six of the lost villagers that she recognises. This is getting very dark and sinister… Did her mother kill them?
Cara is lying down in the garden and when she looks around she spots Henni with her eyes closed next to her. Suddenly her mother bends down and her canines lengthen and she latches her teeth into Henni’s neck. What is happening?! 😱
Clara then hears the voices of her grandmother and Axel and she tries to shout for help but instead gets her mother’s attention. As she gets ready to bite into her neck, Clara realises that the Fanged Creature in the Midnight Forest was her mother all along. She begins to drink from Clara’s neck to the point of her nearly blacking out.
Suddenly she sees fur and the Grimm Wolf crashes into her mother. She then sees Axel’s face and she can hear fragments of what he is saying before he kisses her and then she crashes into darkness.
Clara is looking down upon herself and Axel and realises she is dead. Axels races to find the spinning wheel with the book.
Ollie appears and tells her she made the wrong wish and that part of her gift to seeing the past is that she can also see ghosts.
Axel returns holding a thin iron rod from the spinning wheel. He returns Clara’s body and tells her what he wished for on the book – he had wished to bring the person back to life he loved most, his father. But he couldn’t complete the book’s instructions to do so since he never found his body.
The book had told him to drive a red spindle into the heart of the person he loved more than anyone. The book knew that person would be Clara and that this would happen!
Clara wakes back in her body and removes the spindle from her chest.
Her mother is now sucking the life out of the Grimm Wolf. Clara takes the red spindle wrapped in a scrap of her cloak and drives it into her mother’s heart. She falls to the floor blood sputtering from her mouth and before she stops breathing she says “Clara, my beautiful girl”. Anyone else sobbing?
The castle begins crumbling down all around them and they rush out, leaving her mother’s body behind.
They begin to make the journey back to the village with the Book of Fortunes where they find a better way to rescue Ella and the other lost ones. Henni has a theory that the curse is partially broken.
A few days later when they reach another river they find four people standing along the riverbank; Firoa, Ella and two children. Ella runs and hugs Henni. The children are Fiora’s and turn out to be Hansel and Grettle though they are now much smaller. They have returned to normal but don’t remember exactly what happened but that they weren’t themselves in the forest.
They all return to the village together.
And for the last of today’s reading, we have the epilogue! It is Henni’s sixteenth birthday and her chance to make her one wish to break the rest of the curse. But when she goes in to make her wish and hasn’t come out for quite some time, Clara suspects something is wrong.
The book keeps opening and closing to a page that has been torn out.
Clara decides to do what no one has ever done before and asks for a second wish. She wishes for Henni’s missing page.
A riddle pops up on the page – two people must be found to break the curse and they are hiding in the Forest Grimm. They must return to the forest once more to break the rest of the curse.
Wow, what a whimsically dark, romantic and slightly tense story!
What did you think of The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie?
Any theories for book two?
As always, thank you so much for taking part in another FairyLoot readalong! We hope you had the best time and enjoyed the book – we’ll see you again soon for another!
Love,
Jodie
Finishes! And not at like midnight so that’s uncharacteristic for me. 😘
What IS characteristic for me is that once again, I’ve ended on mixed feelings about The Forest Grimm. I really loved it conceptually and the setting and visuals were so much fun. I loved all the folklorey bits. However, I thought some of the actual storytelling could have been better. It felt like the characters spent at lot of time jumping to conclusions or making speculations and framing them as fact, which annoyed me. Also none of the characters suuuuuper stood out to me – if any, Ella, Fiora and Ollie struck me as the most interesting and they didn’t appear a whole ton.
Also, I so should have trusted my instinct that the wolf was grandma lol.
ALSO also did anyone else think the fact that the book went missing in the first place is because someone wished for the death of another? I was surprised it didn’t, so I guess my theory for book 2 is that that’ll play a big part in it, and so will Ollie and his pennies. However I think I’d rate this book 2.5 so I’m not sure I’ll read the sequel – though I think it’d be a more interesting story with Henni as the lead if I were going to.
What did you think of The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie?
– I really enjoyed it – I gave it 4.5 stars overall. Looking forward to reading book 2 to wrap up some missing questions. I’m very intrigued to who the person could be still inside the forest I don’t think it’s Ollie.
Any theories for book two?
– I hope Ollie gets his happy ending. I think book 2 will end with the book being destroyed and no more wishes being granted. I also hope we get to see more of Clara’s magic being used.
Well…I guess it was *kind of* an ending. The curse partially broke. Some people came back. The book is doing its wish thing again.
But also what a letdown that we spent the whole book watching Clara try to save her mom only to have to kill her in the end. I’m also confused how they don’t know or at least have narrowed down who wished for murder, what with the whole ceremony they have. They may not know who wished for what, but they know who made wishes recently.
I’m on the fence about reading more…I liked it, but I didn’t love it.
I have such mixed feelings about this one. I really wanted to love it and I enjoyed the concept of including all the references to different fairytales however I thought it was a bit lacking. I reaaaally wanted more out of the friends to lovers trope tbh! Everything towards the end felt flat but I did enjoy the story from the start it was just the end that felt a bit meh.
I was disappointed that the fact the book went missing because of the murder wasn’t some major plot of the story. I understand that she found the book but then there wasn’t really any storyline around that so hopefully that will be included in book 2.
Wow what a ride that ending was!!!
I kinda feel like Clara’s wish was almost too simple? I know it led to something horrific and awful but there’s a tiny part of me that wonders if stuff is going to come back especially with her making a second wish!!
I was so Shocked by the grandmother being the wolf, really thought it would be the mother but this was a great twist, I was so sad to see how the scene with her mother went but also it was in line with the rest of the book how dark it was!
Overall enjoyed the ride GREATLY on this!! I don’t know if it needs to be a duology?! I feel like it could’ve wrapped nicely here but I’m also excited to learn more of about the book, the forest and perhaps the mystery of the murder?! I am looking forward to book 2! Hope FL does a version to match!
I don’t really know what to think of this book. I feel like this could’ve been better, both the writing. It seemed that a lot of it was rushed. I also thought that there would be at least more about the fact that the book was lost because of someone wished for the death of another person but it was never mentioned again. I will probably be reading the sequel but this book was not as good as it could’ve been.
I don’t have any specific theories for book two, most likely the three of them will venture into the forest again, will meet another set of characters who are inspired by fairytales and will break the curse I guess.
I loved it way more than I thought I would! I am glad i gave it a chance. I cannot wait for the sequel. I have so many unanswered questions. Who killed with their one wish and why? What did Ella wish for? Why do the village turn into fairytale characters? Will Clara find those buried coins?
1. What did you think of The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie?
I liked it, but didn’t love it. I think most of that is due the fast pacing and me not fully standing behind Clara and Axel. I also got the idea it was a bit repetitive sometimes. What I did like a lot were the cameos of the fairytales in their darker versions and not the romantisised ones.
2. Any theories for book two?
I have to be honest and thought it was a standalone book. I had forgotten about how the curse came to be until that epilogue. I hope it focusses more on the mystery aspect in book 2, trying to solve that murder and not as much the adventure part. I also hope more fairytales will make their cameos.
I also hope we’ll learn more about how the magic of the forest works and why/how the lost became that way and turned into these fairytales.
I really liked it! I thought it was really creative and engaging.
I wonder if book 2 might delve into a romance for Henni. I also think it will explore the murder mystery that was referred to in this book and share more of Ollie’s story. Was he supposed to be a specific fairytale character?
I liked it way more than I thought I would! I’m glad that I read it this time of year, I think it was perfect for the end of fall. I just feel a little bit of a letdown that we spent the whole book watching Clara try to save her mom only to have to kill her in the end. I don’t have a lot of theories for book two, at the begging I thought it was going to be a standalone so I was surprised to it will have a sequel.