Mary Mary Quite Contrary

The Grimm Diaries Prequels #5

by Cameron Jace

The Fifth Prequel.

The Devil's take on fairy tales, exposing the origins of some of the most important, yet never explained, elements in the fairy world. Darker things the Brothers Grimm didn't want you to know about. More hints would just spoil the fun.

Let's just say that at some point in the Dreamworld even the devil was about so sell his soul.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fairy Tales, Short Stories, Retellings, Paranormal, Fiction

26 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 13, 2012

About the author

Bestselling author of the Grimm Diaries and Insanity series. A traveller and collector of out-of-print books from all over the world, obsessed with the origins of folk tales and the mysterious storytellers who spread them. Many of his books made Amazon's Top 100 Customer Favorites in Kindle 2015 & Amazon's Top 100 kindle list. Cameron lives in Yerba Buena San Francisco California. When he isn't writing or collecting books, he is playing music or enjoys the silence.

Reviews

[Zuleeza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars


WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE...

We have candy...and Cameron Jace.

(Wait, I heard there is a gif war among GR users? But, but my reviews need gifs and gifs need my reviews).

*Continue derping around as if the gif war didn't happen*

I AM AT LOST FOR WORDS, Mr Cameron Jace! Well played sir, well played. Strangely, there are still a couple of minor spelling mistakes but they didn't take away my attention from this little gem. I'm just so happy to witness how the author has (bloomed? evolved? metamorphosized? improved? okay, let's stick with improved) into an entertaining storyteller not just another writer anymore. I'm just amazed how drastic my opinion towards the prequels has changed. Before this I thought what's the point of writing so many prequels (there are seven in total) even though readers can get them for free? I thought prequels are just fillers and they will just take away the anticipation and the patience from the readers because it's like giving people seven appetizers before they can eat the main course! But in my case, it was the opposite because I seriously in dire need for Snow White Sorrow!

One thing that worries me is that the prequels up to this point has gotten somewhat complicated and lets face it, not everyone will want to read all the seven prequels first. For us, the prequels readers, I don't think we want to read many repetitions in the full book. So, Snow White Sorrow must meet the requirement for both groups and I'm really intrigued to see how the author will handle this.

Geez...I rant a lot these days.

Okay, Mary Mary Quite Contrary. Definitely my favourite prequel so far. There was no dull moment. Less dialogues, which is something that usually causes me to lose focus but not in this case because The Devil voice was very entertaining! A lot of references back to the earlier prequels were made and this novella ties many loose ends until by the time you finished with this, you will have your...

Sorry, I just freaking like gifs.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teens were running in the pink poppy fields, throwing dandelions at
each other, laughing with their eyes, and drinking white wine from the vines of the greenest
trees. Some sailed in chocolate rivers and bathed in fresh milk. Some leaned back in their
hammocks over looking Eden while reading Harry Potter book twenty-three – you don’t have
those on earth, I know. You have to have a membership in Heaven to read those.

[Kačaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Já z toho prostě nemůžu.
Genialita se nedá popřít.

Čachtická paní, Ďábel, Rumpelstiltskin, trochu Hitler, trochu Evil Queen, a Krvavá Mary v hlavních rolích. :'D

[Filip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyhle deníky prostě žeru. Dokonce i v pátém díle mi pořád rozum zůstává stát nad tím, jak dokáže Cameron Jace spojit příběhy, které známe všichni, ale nikdy nás je nenapadlo nějak propojit a vytvořit z nich tak originální a jedinečný příběh. Ďábel je strašně fajn postava a jeho názory na svět jsou pravdivé.Jednoduše si na kvalitu těchto krátkých příběhů nemůžu stěžovat. :3

Humans, in their most common attitude, can perform the scariest, most unethical, and malicious things, and then insist on calling me the bad guy.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neviem, či dať 4*, a či 5*.
Až ma príjemne mrazí po prečítaní takže zatiaľ 5*.
Idem si utriediť myšlienky, a potom vám tu začnem výskať.

---

Peter Pan a Diabol sú moji najobľúbenejší rozprávači. Maminka by si nebola spokojná s druhým menovaným, ale čo už.

O čo ide tentokrát:

Diabol sa v pekle nudí.
Z čoho nevzišlo nikdy nič dobré.
(Ale on si robí iba svoju prácu!)
Skrátka.
Je znudení. A nechtiac objaví niečo horšie, niečo čo by ho mohlo pripraviť o prácu.
Vďaka tej veci - záhadnému zrkadlu - sa prepisujú ľudské dejiny od Alžbety po Hitlera.
Za všetkým hľadaj zrkadlo. A Krvavú Mary.
Lenže Mary nedokáže nájsť ani Diabol. A chaos, ktorý spôsobuje nedokáže nikto zastaviť...alebo áno?

JE TO EŠTE KRAJŠIE PREPOJENÉ.



Dôvody (prečo):

1. Lebo to milujem.

3. Kvôli historickým súvislostiam a šialenému búraniu môjho pohľadu na vec v toľkých možných oblastiach života...ja som si to všetko umocňovala roky, verila som všetkým možným verziám, ale teraz! Teraz to už nikdy nebude ako predtým. Bude to temnejšie. No ja skapem. Akoby mi v mozgu vybuchovali ohňostroje po prečítaní tohto dielu.

2. Pretože Diabol je cool dude (nie tak cool ako Peter Pan, ale Pan je zase ...padlý diabol? tak to tam bolo? V každom prípade to znie perfektne a ťažko to prekonáva aj Princ temnôt. Sú vyrovnaní, ale Peter má občas navrch)

"Elizabeth had a knack for torturing girls more than boys – unlike me.
I am not a sexist; I love to burn them all."

4. Desivé ukážky ľudskej nátury.
Nejde síce o najpodrobnejší popis storočia, ale mám z toho občas triašku, keď sa rozhodnem pitvať text príliš. Fakt.

Znásilnenia, vraždy, mučenie, šialenstvo, túžba po večnej kráse, skáza ľudstva, vojny,...nie toto nie sú správy na Markíze alebo Nove.
Hento je retelling vašich najobľúbenejších rozprávok správne zasadený medzi historickými udalosťami.

"Humans, in their most common attitude, can perform the scariest, most unethical, and malicious things, and then insist on calling me the bad guy."

5. A autor ešte stále stíha núkať mi časti, pri ktorých nemôžem inak len sa smiať. Šialene dobré. Desivé. A predsa aj keď bol tento príbeh najkrvavejší určite bol aj najpohodovejšie vyrozprávaný...

6. ...čo trepem medzi riadkami som cítila tú stiesnenosť. Keď sa samotný Diabol bojí vás to predsa nemôže nechať chladnými
(zmrazenými vlastnou ľahostajnosťou pretože...ehm. Ja nič. Proste je tam veľa známych kamkov.), nie?

7. Z toho konca infarktujem.
(Just One Hell of NO! Vždy ma to tak dostane...už sa cítim ako retard, že to neočakávam.)

Som unesená!

(pôvodne som chcela dať ilustráciu s Krvavou Mary, ale mám blbý pocit to čo i len zväčšiť.)

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novella essentially begins with the line "Once upon a time ... in Hell, I was pretty bored" which pretty much sums up my reading experience of this series and in particular, this prequel. I don't know why I continued after the third one in all honesty but I always try to complete a book once I start reading it and this came in a bundle of 6 so I figured, since I'm almost at the end I should just continue reading.

The narrative voice was ridiculous, I wanted to throw my iPad across the room several times because I was reading from my kindle app. Thankfully I did not. I rolled my eyes due to the poor attempts at humour and the whole making light of people dying due to poverty, illness and war was just upsetting even though the narrator was supposedly the Devil. Bad move author, bad move.

I still don't understand the relevance of this narrator. Sure, I get the introduction of Non-Grimm characters as long as they had small links to fairytales or sounded like them but the devil!?! What on earth did he have to do with this? It's almost as if the author was running out of material, which clearly isn't the case because there are at least 10 more prequels after this. This was just unnecessary. To make it worse, Peter Pan was involved with this one, and he was the narrator I disliked the most before this.

The mentioning of Harry Potter didn't save it either. I felt like the author was trying much too hard to link all these ideas and plots that are well loved. Sure, these are fairy tale retellings but a little originality would be nice. If the next one is as bad as this one, I will just give up because there is no point in torturing myself with this tripe any longer.

[Lauren (Northern Plunder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was first posted on Northern Plunder, if you want to see more reviews please click here.

This shorty story if from the point of view of the Devil's who is very bored with hell and ends up getting his hands on a mirror that can bring out the evil in people, so of course he starts to have some fun with it by pointing it up to Heaven which cause its to break into a million shards as it falls to Earth and enters the hearts and eyes of many, turning them evil. For the majority of this story we follow Elizabeth who has a shard in her eye, over time she becomes more evil and bloodthirsty until she is engulfed in this madness and only finds happiness in killing beautiful young maidens! Pretty disturbing huh? Well it gets worse, she ends up killing one who is her own blood, Mary. Mary is immortal and returns raining hell on not only her Mother but many people and uses mirrors to travel around inflicting pain and sorrow. Obviously the Devil enjoys this but as she gets very unruling and uncontrollable he stops her by trapping her in a mirror - the mirror. So do you see how it all ties up - Mary Mary Quite Contraty nursery rhyme > Bloody Mary ghost story > Mirror Mirror on the wall. I loved it! So cleverly done.

[E.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Once you read this, you will never see that nursery rhyme the same again!

Happy Reading

-Emily

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of the Elizabeth Bathory history AND of the bloody Mary legend. Long story short: perfection.

Now I do already know quite a lot about the Bathory history, so here the story (being a novella and therefore waaaaay too short) fell a bit short and it just felt kind of rushed and summarized (I really hope that somewhere in the books this will be expanded upon).

Now the Bloody Mary stuff I really liked (even though this to felt a bit rushed) I also really liked how her story explained more about the whole dreamworld thing.

So yeah, short review, yes, but hey this is a review for a very short novella and I don't want to spoil too much.

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how all the stories link together! I really liked this book, it was although a little boring at times. If want until the devil put Mary in a mirror that it started getting good. I am really looking forward to reading the novels of the series!

[IvKa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like I said, someone should have awarded me a medal. But nah, no one congratulates the Devil for doing his work well.

I am a good man. I just do bad things. It's a job.

No a nezamiluj si to.

[Lissa Smith Reads'~A Bookaholics Bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rated
3 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐
Kindle Unlimited Read
*2XRead

[ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

This one was very interesting.

[Kerris · Rating 4 out of 5]

o.O :D Tak jo, cekala jsem neco podobneho, ale Cachticka pani me opravdu moc potesila :D Moje oblibena postava z historie ^^ :D

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Já věděla, že Bloody Mary existuje! :D

[Carmen8094 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Mary quite contrary è il quinto prequel della serie dei Grimm diaries scritti da Cameron Jace.
Il narratore è questa volta il demonio, che racconta la propria versione della storia dello specchio al centro della fiaba della Regina delle nevi di Andersen. I frammenti dell'oggetto cadono nel cuore e negli occhi di alcune persone, facendo in modo che queste vedano solo il brutto che c'è al mondo, e diventino malvagie. Satana intreccia i frammenti al personaggio di Elizabeth Bathory, contessa realmente esistita ed accreditata come prima serial killer della storia, la cui vita, però, si è presto fusa con la leggenda.
Secondo il demonio, Elizabeth è la madre della Mary del titolo, ma, non avendola cresciuta, l'ha torturata e uccisa come qualunque altra sfortunata fanciulla capitata nel suo castello.
Essendo immortale, Mary ha però continuato a vivere e provocare morti e tormenti, tanto da spaventare lo stesso principe delle tenebre, che, per sbarazzarsene, l'ha intrappolata in uno specchio.
Specchio che poi, per pura malvagità, ha donato alla più buona e generosa delle regine, tramutandola in quella Queen of Sorrow già incontrata nel primo prequel, nonché madre di quella Snow White dalle caratteristiche... particolari...

Mary Mary quite contrary è un racconto sorprendentemente buono. Il demonio narratore è ironico, cinico, divertente, le varie storie sono fuse senza creare la solita confusione (compaiono anche Rumplestiltskin e Peter Pan) e i dialoghi - spesso tasto dolente della scrittura di Jace - sono ridotti al minimo. La seconda parte perde un po' di mordente, ma il volumetto è sicuramente il migliore tra la prima serie di sei prequel.
Esso risponde all'interrogativo sulla misteriosa abitante dello specchio parlante della Regina di Biancaneve, sulle origini della malvagità della Regina stessa e dà una propria interpretazione della filastrocca del titolo, nonché alla leggenda di Bloody Mary.

https://iltesorodicarta.blogspot.com/...

[Michelle Mulder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.

This is the story with a interesting back story to this nursery rhyme.

This is so far one of the most disturbing and violent stories in the series. The Devil, Peter Pan, Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed who was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the family of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia) and her daughter Mary features in this short story.

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (5/25/2020)! 🎁

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a world where the Devil and fairy tales intertwine, Mary Mary Quite Contrary (A Grimm Diaries Prequel) by Cameron Jace shows the darkness lurking behind some beloved characters and tales.

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

With the splintering of a looking glass wreaking havoc in the world, the Devil narrates the developing situation with admiration as he sees the chaos and despair that particular people are unleashing with minimal bidding from him. The person he's most interested in is Elizabeth Bathory, whose life is filled with secrecy, violence, and blood. As Elizabeth proceeds on her bloody path she also leaves behind a daughter, Mary, who causes chaos in her own way, much to the dismay of the Devil, forcing him to find a way to contain her terrorizing ways in order for him to wrest back some control.

An interesting take on the fascinating and much debated history of Elizabeth Bathory and the lore behind the origin of the Bloody Mary legend. The incorporation of various fairy tales within the realm of Hell and the Devil was intriguing and at times rather funny; though it was odd to have Lucifer and Rumpelstiltskin refer to various media or cultural phenomenon, including speech, in a manner that felt unnecessarily anachronistic (or the fluidity of time wasn't well enough established for it to make much sense). A quick and fairly entertaining read, it's not necessary to have read the others in this series, but it would likely be helpful to better contextualize the various characters who are referenced throughout but aren't expanded upon within this short story.

[Ashley Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of the story line, I really enjoyed this one. However, the Devil's dialogue left much to be desired.

[Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original Review posted on Bookwryming Thoughts
Original Rating: 4.5

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author for free in exchange for an honest review. The review is not influenced in any way.

At first, I thought it was going to be told by Bloody Mary. Apparently, I was wrong. It's told by someone else. I should probably warn this review and story should not be read by kids 13 and under. Unless you can handle scary stories better than I can. Which is... pretty terrible from what I remember. No record of improvements. Yet.

I found Mary Mary Quite Contrary to be more of a Fairy Tale and History Lesson of Legends. And a pretty entertaining one at that, what with the point of view the story is written in. With that thought in mind, I was hoping that I wouldn't scream bloody mary murder in the middle of the night with my tendency of attracting nightmares like a magnet when I read a horror story. Those usually last for days... especially Bloody Mary's legend.

Coincidentally, I ended up reading the story of one of the characters mentioned. I just didn't know about the devices that she used *shudders* but since I read only one source about creepy night creatures and legends, I give no comment (legends get twisted in so many ways from the actual). Besides the fact it's actually pretty gruesome if you think about it if you actually look her up after you read Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

I definitely don't know about the actual legend with Bloody Mary, besides the fact that if you called her name three times in the bathroom in the dark, she'll pop out and murder you. It also didn't matter what age you were. In this case, it seems to be a room with a mirror instead and teenagers. Yikes. No wonder restrooms make sense with the twisting of legends. Then again, I heard other twists to that as well from fellow classmates when I was younger. It's pretty typical with the twists.

I don't think I want to try it though. Like I mentioned earlier, that story haunted me for years. I blame my fellow classmates for even mentioning it. You guys have haunted me with a story for what might be eternity (it went away but you can rarely run from famous legends, especially scary ones, can you?). I still don't get the nursery rhyme that's mentioned though. Maybe I'll ask Professor Google about it later.

I once again found the Author's Notes at the end helpful in a way, but with one of the notes dinging a warning bell in my head, I better be careful when I read the actual diaries. No, I'm not avoiding the actual diaries like the plague when they come out. I'm one of those peeps who gets the shivers when reading scary stories.

[Nessa [October Tune] · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I’m not sure why I started reading these prequels, but I think I was just really curious about this series. But I’d read very mixed reviews about it. Of course, I wanted to find out for myself if they really were as bad as everyone said, or as awesome as anyone said, and I must admit I have very mixed feelings about these prequels. This review is about the stories Beauty Never Dies, Laddle Rat Rotten Hut and Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

What I liked:

I kind of liked that all the characters were quite different from their Disney (or original Grimm) counterparts. They were all a bit darker, a bit scarier, and I liked that. I would have liked it more if the stories hadn’t been so strange.

What I didn’t like:

For example, there were characters that weren’t at all in Grimm’s fairy tales; like Peter Pan (who was written by J.M. Barrie), The Hunchback of the Notre Dame (who was written by Victor Hugo). It all felt a bit weird having those characters there as well. Also, all the characters sounded like teenagers. Of course, some of them were teenagers (including Peter Pan, who annoyed me deeply by spending several sentences describing how beautiful he was); and Laddle/Little Red Riding Hood from the second story sounded a lot like a little child to me, even though she was sixteen for most of the story. But yeah, if you are writing about grown-up characters, please write them like they’re grown-up and not teenagers.

And there were a lot of references to popular things, like Harry Potter (Peter kept calling Dracula ‘Draco’, like Draco Malfoy, and this one: “[...] reading Harry Potter book twenty-three – you don’t have those on earth, I know. You have to have a membership in Heaven to read those.”); and the above quote (Christoper Lee played Saruman in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit). Though I normally like references to things I love, it kind of annoyed me in these prequels. It was almost as if the author wanted people to like his stories by throwing in these random unnecessary references.

There were also some mistakes in these stories. The biggest one, one that really annoyed me, in Beauty Never Dies was that Frankenstein was mentioned several times. But of course, like most people they meant the monster, not Frankenstein himself (Frankenstein was the doctor who CREATED the monster, not the monster itself. I believe that monster had no name). As an author, you’d check these kind of things before publishing something, right?

Yes, I can safely say that I am not really a fan of these Grimm Diaries Prequels, though I will probably keep on reading all of them (all eighteen), just to see if there are some hidden gems in it.

[Tricia (McAllister) Houseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is narrated by the Devil himself.
The Devil asks the children in his hell to provide him with something entertaining, because he has since found that humans are “boring.” Peter Pan, yep he’s in hell as a student of Lucifer, simply doesn’t get it. And the Devil keeps thinking that he should just banish him because Pan wants to stay young and never grow up. Pippi Longstocking gave the Devil a mirror, one that was not like current ones they had, this one was made of glass.
Having fun with this mirror, the Devil took it to look upon Heaven to see what the mirror would show. Let me back track a little, this mirror showed the ugliness of what ever was shown into it’s glass, no matter how beautiful it was.
So, during the fight to see what the mirror showed of Heaven, it shattered. Dropping pieces of it’s glass into the eyes and hearts of humans. Turning those people into evil individuals, part of this freighting the Devil but part wanting him to find the creator of the mirror.

Using the assistance of Rumpelstiltskin, the Devil tries to track where the mirror came from. But there is not luck, while Rumpelstiltskin is great at finding evil little kids, he is not so great at finding the creator of the mirror.
The Devil begins watching Elizabeth Bathory, who pieces of the mirror in her eyes & her heart, making her an evil little child who grew to be an evil lady.
But during all of this, Elizabeth was impregnated by a peasant. Providing the Devil with a way to take Mary, the daughter of Elizabeth. This gave the Devil two individuals to watch. Believing that Elizabeth passed on some of the shards of that glass to Mary, but also that Elizabeth seem to “overcome” the evil trapped inside her.
Watching Mary grow up in a horrid life, the Devil stop watching Elizabeth. When Mary fled from her home and into the forest at 16, unable to locate her, the Devil when back to watching Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was into torturing the peasants, especially the females. Later she would begin bathing in their blood. To include the blood of her daughter, Mary.
On the night that this occurs, the Devil learns that those with the glass splinters are now immortal. Mary comes back attacking her mother, and becomes Bloody Mary.
Well, if I keep going, you will know the entire story. So to find out what the Devil did or what Mary did, you will just have to sit back and enjoy this story. I am off to read Blood Apples!

[Holly Letson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I like this story less than some of the others, I must say that I admire how all of these are building up to a climax right before the release of the first full book in the series.
--------------
This story is told by the Devil, who later mentions several other names he goes by as well. He tells us about Scholomance, his school where he raises children up in the art of being evil devils, and we are made to see him as a fun and lively--yet still evil Principal sort of guy.
Lucifer is bored with Hell until Peter Pan and a *Pippi Longstocking*-looking girl bring him a mirror one day. But, this mirror is different, being made of glass instead of copper, and is able to bring out the most evil in everyone. And, that's exactly what the Devil wants. He points the evil mirror up at Heaven, and it breaks into a million shards, which fall to Earth and enter the eyes and hearts of almost everyone.
We are then taken to the children, Kai and Gerda, from *The Snow Queen* story, as a shard has entered Kai and Gerda is trying to rescue him from it. She later does exactly that, but it is of little importance.
----------
For this is the story of Elizabeth, who also has a shard in her eye. She grows up that way, becoming more and more evil and bloodthirsty as she ages, and her bloodthirst only being satisfied by killing hundreds of beautiful young maidens. A method that backfires on her when she kills a maiden that she does not realize is her own flesh and blood.
Her daughter, Mary, is immortal, and comes back to kill her. They even create the nursery rhyme, *Mary Mary, Quite Contrary* about her. But, Mary is uncontrollable, and is entering mirrors everywhere to cause misery, pain and evil. Much as Lucifer loves this, he knows he must end it.
Lucifer and some Scholomancers trap Mary in a mirror, and send it to a beautiful queen. The queen one day asks the mirror: "Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Fairest of them all?", and of course, the response is her...but, not for long.
----------------------
I love how it all ties together.

[Sibil · Rating 5 out of 5]

In questo quinto prequel la voce narrante è... rullo di tamburi... il Diavolo! Ebbene sì, avete letto bene, è proprio il Diavolo che ci racconta una parte della storia: e così, passando da Peter Pan a Pippi Calzelunghe, dalla Contessa Bathory a Mary, protagonista della nota filastrocca per bambini e famosa "leggenda metropolitana", ci regala un altro pezzo del puzzle, un altro tassello da aggiungere alla storia della Regina Cattiva e di Biancaneve, perché, come sempre, tutto ruota attorno a loro due.

Ma ci vengono dati anche altri tasselli per far chiarezza su ciò che i prequel precedenti ci hanno raccontato. Jace riesce a tessere un arazzo complesso, che si scompone e ricompone come l'immagine offerta da un caleidoscopio mentre l'autore ci lascia briciole di pane fra le sue righe, in modo da fornirci pian piano le risposte e le domande.

Ogni prequel ha la sua voce narrante e la voce dell'autore rimane in secondo piano, non predomina i singoli narratori, che ci offrono così punti di vista unici e personali, e la voce che ci accompagna in Mary Mary Quite Contrary è una delle voci più originali e irriverenti di tutta questa serie: è originale l'idea, è originale lo svolgimento, ed è originale anche l'intreccio e il minestrone che fa di fiabe, credenze, verità storiche e leggende. E, come se non bastasse, alla fine di questo prequel troviamo alcune righe scritte dall'autore per spiegarci cosa sta dietro a questo prequel, quali questioni lui voleva provare a risolvere e la cosa mi è veramente piaciuta tantissimo.

Vi lascio una piccola chicca, perché certe cose vanno condivise! :

"Some leaned back in theri hammocks over looking Eden while reading Harry Potter book twenty-three - you don't have those on earth, I know. You have to have a membership in Heaven to read those."

Bene, con questa piccola perla vi lascio e spero di tornare presto con l'ultima puntata. Non so cosa mi aspetta nell'ultimo prequel ma dopo questi ultimi due non vedo l'ora di scoprire cosa ha combinato Jace!!

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Free book from Kindle store.)I was really disappointed by this story considering that the majority of the characters, including the title character, are not Grimm related. This is the Grimm Diaries, yet few of the hundreds of Grimm characters actually made it into this story. Like in Beauty Never Dies, Jace pulls from a lot of other sources instead of sticking to the Grimm stores. The main story (based on The Snow Queen) of the splinters of the looking glass is from Hans Christian Andersen and the author even attributes the character of the devil to Andersen instead of the Grimm brothers (even through plenty of their tales features the devil as well). Peter Pan and Dracula are also mentioned as in Beauty Never Dies. And Mary Mary Quiet Contrary/ Bloody Mary and Elizabeth Bathory show up as well, none of which have anything to do with the Grimm tales. Rumplestiltskin did make an appearance. I did like the connections made between Bloody Mary and Bathory with the Queen of Sorrow, but overall I was let down by the lack of Grimm characters. Jace focuses on the big characters from the fairy tales that always seem to be the focus of these sort retellings (Cinderella, Little Red-Cap, Little Briar-Rose, etc.). Interesting new take on the tales, but they're still the same stories that get the most attention.Also there were a few contradictions that confused me. In this story the devil mentions that he likes squirrels over people because they can't talk, but in Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, Ladle notes that squirrels can talk. I'm assuming they all live in the same universe but some small details didn't line up.And in this prequel it is revealed that Peter Pan was in Hell, a fact that Peter himself does not alludes to in Beauty Never Dies as far as I remember. It seems like something one would mention at some point. Similarly to the other prequels, the connections are cool, but the writing doesn't come up to the same level. The rambling conversation between the devil and Rumplestiltskin was silly and dull.

[Joan{missing the vampire bunny slippers!} · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall..." The queen pleaded.
"It's Mary, Mary on the wall, my queen,"

Dark, very original and totally unexpected! :D
When I started reading this I had no idea what the story was about. And boy did I love finding out! :D I have always had this huge love for fairytales and their darker side. The evil witch sends the hunter into the forest to bring her the heart of Snow White and when he fails she tries and tries again 3 times to kill her herself. The wolf eats both the grandma and little red riding hood until the hunter rips his stomach and pulls them out! Hansel and Gretel after being left in the woods by their parents because they can't afford to feed them, are captured by an evil witch who wants to cook them for diner and in order to escape they push her in the over where she burns alive and so on and so on! The Brothers Grimm's tales if you put aside prince charming and the happy endings were always a little scary! Murders, kidnappings, etc... Not that I didn't like them... They wrote some of my favorite stories as a kid, but still... :)
So to get back to this book the narrator is the Devil! And he tells the story of Bloody Mary as only 'he' can! :D Mary has always been a scary character, say her name in front of a mirror 3 times and she 'll come out and hurt you! Mirrors where always thought to have magical properties. Now, what the author does is connect this urban tale with Snow White! You can imagine how! :D

"Mary, Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Oh I loved this!!! :D Even though it was mainly narration it was sooo original! One of the best short stories I 've read and by far my best prequel so far!

[Lily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review originally featured on Bookluvrs Haven

After finally really enjoying one of these prequels, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, this installment was a major disappointment.

The editing is no longer a cause of frustration. But the story itself was.

It was mostly told, not shown. So I couldn't really connect with any of these characters. They were all kept at a distance, and even though this was the darkest of the prequels, I could have cared less about finishing this one, even though it was only about 29 pages.

I once again struggled with the dialogue. I just couldn't connect it with the characters. Here is an example:

“How come I don’t know about that stuff? I am freakin’ Lucifer.”

“Because you spent your time hatin’ not participatin’” Rumpelstiltskin said. *

(sigh)



No.... Just No.....

Unfortunately, this is very likely the last review I will write on the Grimm series, because it is very likely the last one I will read.

I sincerely thank the author for his generosity in extending the free promotional news my way.

Though I recognize the originality, the execution of it is just not calling out to me to continue any further.

It is time for me to move on.

* Jace, Cameron (2012-09-13). Mary Mary Quite Contrary ( A Grimm Diaries Prequel #5 ) (Kindle Locations 416-418). . Kindle Edition.

[Zachary Flye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Mary Quite Contrary: Told from the Devil's point of view this tale is more history than fairytale. While I'm not opposed to the Devil as a narrator, or even the Devil as a character in these stories (which I got over after reading the Author's notes), I was put off by how much this Devil felt like a mischievous boy more than an evil and sinister Prince of Darkness, and with his weird and confusing knowledge of the future which seems fairly inconsistent throughout the story, his narration was less than desirable. The story itself however was really cool, it just shows how the author weaves these fairytales through known history. With the inclusion of folk tales such as Bloody Mary, the nursery rhyme "Mary Mary Quite Contrary" hence the title, and the somewhat debated history of Elizabeth Bathory, who is apparently the most prolific female serial killer in history. The one thing that was missing was that other than a passing mention or two of Peter Pan there wasn't really any connection to the larger story, that is until the end of the book when it comes abundantly clear where this fits into the overall story.

Rating:

Much like the Little Red Riding Hood story this one was very well crafted, however unlike that story I never got the feeling that this Devil narrator fit with the story very well. It was disappointing as I was looking for a really nice and malevolent Devil, but instead got someone who's voices was eerily similar to that of Peter Pan, which may have been on purpose, but I expected more out of the Devil.

[Célia Dias · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is told by Devil himself, bad thing. So here we have some spoilers.

Basically we have the Devil (a fallen angel) that takes pleasure in watching the humans doing bad things. One day he finds a mirror that brings the worst in people and he loves it, so much that takes the mirror to heaven and watches them lose their minds.
The problem is when the mirror shatters and all the pieces spread around the world the Devil wants them back, but is a mission impossible, so he follows one of them that fall in the eye of a baby. Elizabeth Bathory, know serial killer in ancient times.
She ends up killing her own daughter, Mary (the one from the legend) and she takes revenge on her mother.
They are so bad that the Devil is scared of them, specially of Mary. So he managed to capture Mary inside a mirror. The Devil, being a fallen angel is not entirely bad, has good deep inside him, that's why he is so revolted by some actions made by them under the influence of the mirror.

How does this fit in Grimm stories, very simple, is this mirror, with Mary inside, that spreads evil in the good heart of the Evil Queen from Snow White. Apparently she was a saint in person before that :P

This story is very interesting, the author mixed grimm stories with other characters from legends (Mary and Devil) and from real life (Elizabeth) and the result is very good. I enjoyed it even being a book so small.