The Fairy-Tale Detectives

Publisher's Summary

The recently orphaned Sisters Grimm find out from their Granny, who they thought was dead, that they're descendents of the legendary Brothers Grimm. Now they must take over the family responsibility of being fairy tale detectives in a town where fairy tales are real. Their first case: a giant is destroying the town and it may have something to do with a boy named Jack and a certain famous beanstalk.

©2005 Michael Buckley (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Funny twists

I liked this story. It is not a re-telling of fairy tales with different endings, but a story of how the fairy tale creatures are alive and living in a modern day time. Of course fairy tale creatures would have to deal with many things, and we certainly see the other side of their personalities. Not a deep drama, but a light hearted mystery with a different perspective.

If you like Roald Dahl books then you should like this one as well.

17 of 19 people found this review helpful

Fun, Funny, Fairy, and the Kitchen Sink

Ever since their parents vanished a year and a half ago, eleven-year-old Sabrina Grimm and her seven-year old sister Daphne have been escaping from bad foster homes. And in the opening scene of Michael Buckley's The Fairy-Tale Detectives (2005), the first novel in his popular Sisters Grimm series, the girls are taken by their pinch-faced case worker Ms. Smirt to Ferryport Landing, NY, a quaint town without movie theaters, malls, or museums, to live with a dead woman. It develops that the woman, their grandmother Relda Grimm, is alive and well, and among the things the girls will soon discover is why their father lied to them that she was dead and what happened to the girls' mother and him.

They will also learn that nearly every fantastic being and artifact that ever appeared in any fairy tale, legend, or myth really existed and did the things that have been written about them, so that, for instance, a collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales is a history book and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a true story. We don't encounter such things in real life today because when the age of fairy tales was ending around the start of the 19th century and fantasy beings--Everafters--were being persecuted, they moved to America, where with the help of Wilhelm Grimm they settled in the mostly unsettled woods and fields of Ferryport, thinking to find there an unmolested haven. As time passed and more normal Americans began moving to Ferryport, however, persecution loomed again, so some Everafters tried to wage a pre-emptive war on humanity, but were prevented by a Baba Yaga spell limiting all Everafters to the five square miles of the town for as long as at least one Grimm descendent remains alive. So for 200 years the Everafters have kept a low profile, mostly hiding their magical natures and items, and the Grimms have been playing detective troubleshooters to defuse any problems arising between fairy folk and humans.

That premise permits Buckley to use any fantasy character (including Snow White, Little Bo Peep, Glinda the Good Witch, the Three Little Pigs, the Queen of Hearts, Gepetto, Ichabod Crane, and Mowgli) or item (including Excalibur, Cinderella's fairy godmother's wand, magic beans, and "the" magic mirror) he chooses. It's part of the trend in movies like Shrek (2001), books like Neil Gaiman's American Gods (2001) and TV shows like Once Upon a Time (2011-) to combine figures from various fairy tales, myths, and legends (often in our own world, often revised so that, for example, traditional villains become heroes and vice versa) to revivify such stories and their characters and to make them more relevant to today's readers. And it's fun to meet fantasy characters from beloved childhood tales rubbing shoulders in a new story.

But such stories may turn into inconsistent anything goes affairs, as when Relda Grimm tells her granddaughters that not all fairy tales are true, saying "For instance, a dish never ran away with a spoon," but why or where Buckley draws the line is fuzzy. Similarly, if fantasy stories are true histories of real events, how could characters who got killed in them appear alive now, like the Hansel and Gretel witch and Grendel? Worse, a diminishing of magic, a numbing of wonder, and a mundaning of fantasy may kick in the more disparate familiar characters are tossed together in a story, especially when, instead of fantastic effect, an author pushes page-turning action (as when the sisters ride on Aladdin's flying carpet--complete with a "kamikaze" dive, a car chase, and a moment when the rug "screeched to a halt"), and gives fantasy characters banal personalities and relationships (as when Beauty and the Beast bicker over being late for a ball), all of which is too much the case in The Fairy-Tale Detectives. The mystery genre itself is about solving rather than evoking mystery, and if fantasy characters are real, what happens to fantasy?

Kvetching aside, The Fairy-Tale Detectives is enjoyable. Although Buckley's writing mostly lacks poetry, magic, and wonder, it is exciting, funny, and vivid, and has some heightened moments, like when the sisters walk through the mirror, and some great lines, like "You would hug the devil if he gave you cookies," or "Who could tell what a woman who had swords hanging over her bed was capable of?" The sisters are spunky (if a little too snappy), loyal, vulnerable, and strong, and their growing realization that they may finally have found family and home is moving. Other characters like Relda Grimm and Mr. Canis (her lupine border, bodyguard, and friend) and Elvis (her 200-pound, slobber-tongued Great Dane) are appealing. I liked Puck, the 4,000 year-old self-proclaimed Fairy Prince and Trickster King who has decided to stay in the form of a twelve-year-old boy till the sun burns out. And Prince Charming makes a fine mayor: arrogant, snide, and power-hungry.

The reader L. J. Ganser's appealing voice and energetic manner are fine (especially for Sabrina and Daphne), with one exception: he's unconvincing and inconsistent with foreign accents like Relda Grimm's slight German one and Prince Charming and Jack the Giant Killer's thick English ones (especially when Jack says things like, "You can't keep a bloke like me down, can you? Nosiree-bob!").

Finally, although Catherynne Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland on a Ship of Her Own Making (2011) is more magical, being written with rich, poetic, and wonder-filled prose and peopled with characters of the author's own devising rather than with ones plucked from classic fantasy stories, kids must love The Fairy-Tale Detectives, and adults who like (sub)urban fantasy, everything-fairy-and-the-kitchen-sink stories, and exciting, funny, page-turning kids' books should like it too.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Not My Cup of Tea, but the KIDS Dig it.

This isn't a book, I'd normally download and listen to, but the kids were growing troubled by listening to Dante's Inferno on the way to school. 9 and 11-year olds can be so damn fickle. Once we got to the 7th circle of Hell my kids (both OK with heresy but not OK with violence) were ready to bail on me, Virgil and Dante.

So, finding myself now lost with my kids (and without an audiobook to distract me from their constant questions about truth and beauty) while driving through the woods, I decided to download the Sisters Grimm. Definitely more my kids' speed.

40 of 52 people found this review helpful

Funny childrens book

This is a book for children, and adults do not have to like it. The concept is funny and quirky. A nice and easy going book accessible to most children. And if they like it, there are more in the series which is a great gift idea.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Mildly Entertaining

Listening to this was not the best use of 6+ hours, but I was moderately interested most of the way through. Even though transplanting fairty-tale characters into a remote corner of modern America sounds like a recipe for great creativity, it seemed, instead, to be immensely predictable. There was nothing offered to enrich any of the characters, they just seemed to robotocically perform for a modern adventure of sorts. I like few things better than really beautiful and/or creative children's literature, and I felt this offered neither quality. At the same time, the adventure moved along at a nice pace and kept me somewhat involved.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Kids enjoyed this.

All three of my kids listen during our commute to school. Ages 9, 11 and 13. They all loved the book.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

A great read

The use of Fairy tales to inspire mystery will not only get you wanting to read the rest of Buckley's tales, but inspires (if not re-inpires) you to read the classic tales.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

GIANTS ARE REALLY STINKY

EVER AFTERS
You should like this almost as much as the LIBLINGS. This was entertaining all the way through, a little predictable in places for adults, but not too much so. There is often a question on who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. PRINCE CHARMING is not so charming. It is a great take on what fairy tale creatures would be like in the modern world. Book two is in my wish list.

50 of 71 people found this review helpful

FINALLY!

I have enjoyed all of The Sister Grimm books. I am so excited for this audio series because we have FINALLY found a series my 8 year old son wants to listen to! We have tried many books including Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and The Spiderwick Chronicles and while I have enjoyed reading and listening to each one of them, my son has complained every time we start an audiobook. I am so happy that we found a series that an uninterested reader/listener is ASKING for. This series is wonderfully written and beautifully narrated. It is a must have for our family road trips!

8 of 11 people found this review helpful

Great Story Teller

At first I was somewhat critical as the story sounded like a blend of Harry Potter and the Unfortunate Events series, but as the story progressed I quickly came to realise that The Sisters Grimm is a great novel in its own right. I am planning to use this story in my classroom as I believe my 11year old students, both boys and girls, will love the plot and the characters.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful