Bad Grains [The Order of the Strawberry Circle #1], by Susanne Schmidt

I think a lot of people know some traditional German fairytales (who hasn’t heard of Hänsel and Gretel, or Rumplestiltskin?), but those stories have origins that go way, way back. (In case you want to impress people at your next party: The first publication date of Hänsel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm was 1812, when James Madison was president of the United States, the 4th president, while the story itself is even older.) We’ve seen modern interpretations of those (Hänsel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, or a lot of Disney productions), but what would a modern story in the spirit of those classic tales look like? Susanne Schmidt has asked herself this very questions, and Bad Grain is her answer. Follow me into the dark forest and find out more!

Alright, I lied a little in my excitement, because we’re not going into the woods. (Although that is always a great setting for anything spooky – everyone who has ever been in the woods at night knows how eerie they can get.) No, this time, we walk into a rye field, because someone has gone missing in that field. Hektor, Jo’s brother, went into that field – and never came out. Jo knows it, but she’s the only one – because as far as the world is concerned, there never has been a brother named Hektor.

Find out more about this story in our interview with Susanne!

Right from the start, I loved this premise. The rye field (with its implication of the scarecrow, which is to American Horror what the forest is to German Horror) is the first sign of a marriage between Grimm and American Horror Story, but not the last. Of course, if this was a book for adults, we could play with the theme of “has Hektor ever really existed, or was he something Jo’s mind invented to save her from something?”, but that’s psycho thriller genre, and not what Susanne was aiming for. She gears her story more towards Coraline, with Jo having to go into the fields herself with all the adults being so udder useless.

And just like Coraline, there is a serious, even dark tone underlying this story that is supposed to be a children’s story. The target audience shines through in the way conflict is depicted (rather tame), but I’m happy to report that as an adult, you will get a little more out of the story than what is written on the surface.

One way Susanne clearly departs from the traditional fairy tales is the way the world is depicted. The classics are pretty black and white, but while that sentiment shines through – especially in the way Jo looks at her world – it doesn’t hold to be true. There are shades of grey written in between the lines, and not every monster is evil – sometimes, they’re an necessary evil.

Drama unfolds when good people do bad things, even when they have the best intentions. And by rescuing her brother, Jo might have inadvertently unleashed something even more dangerous than the rye mother.

Of course, that’s a nice way to set the stage for the next installment in this series, one I’ll be eagerly waiting upon (Novembre 24 is the targeted publication date). I find this very refreshing, and I think there’s a lot of potential here for future stories. I’m going with 4.5 out of 5 stars, hoping for a little more sinister tones and grey lines in the next book.

Disclaimer: I’ve received a free Advanced Reader’s Copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.