Gretel and the Dark

⭐⭐ based on 1 review.

Written by Eliza Granville.

tl;dr: A weird hybrid attempting to create a Pan's Labyrinth style child-psychology twist that never quite lands, but does contain some interesting historical musings on Freud and early psychology.

Review

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

Note: This review was originally posted as a regular article as part of my 100 Words challenge on 26/07/15.

About two weeks ago we chanced upon our (currently yarn-bombed) local library. I was still riding the Ways With Words guilt trip regarding reading, so picked up the first vaguely interesting book I saw.

I chose Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville, believing I'd picked up a modern noir fairy tale (I was wrong). The book jumped between two time periods with face-palmingly obvious connections that the characters frustratingly ignored. It all felt a little try-hard, until the end when everything neatly slotted into place. Suddenly, the whole thing had been about kids coping during the Holocaust. Huh.