I've always liked an analogy for reading I once heard from an English teacher: sometimes your relationship with a book can be just like relationships with people. There are people you'll be instantly drawn to because they have a particular charisma or chemistry for you, yet with time you might realize they lack the depth and quality to be a good relationship. And there are people who don't immediately impress you or draw you in, but the more time you spend getting to know them the more they grow on you until one day you realize how awesome they are and how much you value your relationship with them. She usually shared this with students who were ready to dismiss a good book too quickly, to encourage them to keep reading, but I've found it's good advice in the reverse instance, too.

I absolutely loved the introduction to this book, for instance, and instantly assumed it would be great. Then I had to get through a period of disappointment in the middle of the book as I kept reading and realized the device was only good for so much and could get tiresome rather quickly. Luckily, I kept reading even longer until I got to the end and my final assessment is somewhere in the middle.

The device is a snarky, intrusive narrator--somewhere in the mix between Lemony Snicket and the grampa in The Princess Bride (film)--who keeps telling us just how awful and gruesome (and clever) his tales are:

Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.

I know, I know. You don't believe me. I don't blame you. A little while ago, I wouldn't have believed it myself. Little girls in red caps skipping around the forest? Awesome? I don't think so.

But then I started to read them. The real, Grimm ones. Very few little girls in red caps in those.

Well, there's one. But she gets eaten. . . .

Before I go on, a word of warning: Grimm's stories--the ones that weren't changed for little kids--are violent and bloody. And what you're going to hear now, the one true tale in The Tales of Grimm, is as violent and bloody as you can imagine.

Really.

So if such things bother you, we should probably stop right now.

You see, the land of Grimm can be a harrowing place. But it is worth exploring. For, in life, it is in the darkest zones one finds the brightest beauty and the most luminous wisdom.

And, of course, the most blood.

That's the start and end of the introduction. What I left out describes the bulk of the book--which is not the narrator but the tales themselves. They are a number of the traditional Grimm tales reworked a bit so they all feature Hansel and Gretel as protagonists to make one larger, ongoing story. The original tone, structure, and style is largely preserved, so the storytelling doesn't focus so much on voice or realism or character as most books do; but it's effective for the source material and if you give things enough of a chance you find those things are there, just in subtle, slow developing ways. This was a fun, worthwhile read in the end, just not quite in the way I expected after reading just the introduction.