Elizabeth is just your usual nerdy schoolgirl, until she lands herself a job at an unusual lending library that deals in objects. Among the antiques and collections of spoons, there is a basement full of exciting and interesting objects. One collection catches Elizabeth's attention though: The Grimm Collection, objects with magical qualities that were collected by the Grimm brothers themselves.
This is a definite teen read, but also one that can be enjoyed by adults who have a vested interest in fairytales. The content is mostly about friendship and romance, but there is a good mystery here as to who is stealing the Grimm Collection and why. You have a feeling about who it is, but really you can't guess for sure until the moment is already on you. As the book surrounds a mystery, I would have liked some more investigation into it, and that is fairly sparse. It would have elongated the book and made it a bit more engaging for me.This book centres around the objects in the Grimm Collection, so it stand to reason that you must know a little bit about fairy-tales. The research into this is really good, and I liked the way it was not just the well-known fairy-tales that were used. It really made me want to pick up my book of tales and flick through it, because some of the stories sound really interesting to read. Although this story is about fairy-tale magic, there are other collections in the dungeon that interest me, such as The Wells Bequest. This is actually dealt with in the companion book of the same name so I think I shall be reading that at some point.
So with the characters, I thought Elizabeth was great. She is pretty normal and kind of nerdy, reminding me of myself in the way that she is kind of proper in some ways. However, I didn't find myself invested in many of the other characters. Their personalities were good and quite realistic, but I found them also to be bland. This meant that when things did happen to them, I didn't really care. I did fins Aaron intriguing and I definitely enjoyed reading about Jaya the most although she did have a smaller part to play.
There was a little bit in the way of themes, with trust being the most prominent. Friendships and responsibility are also high on the list, but there weren't made too obvious.
I quite liked the way that the items were deposited for. Since the items were magical, instead of money you would deposit a part of yourself; your firstborn child, your sense of humour or smell. It's kind of creepy when this actually happens and it makes the characters realise that even the smallest parts of them are important and it honestly makes you value things you didn't realise you should, like a sense of direction.
This is my kind of book, and I am now even more interested in antiques and workmanship. It's a good read, but needed a bit more guts to it. Perfect for teens and lovers of fairy-tales.
Kyrax
