Four reimagined fairy-tale heroines must confront their inner demons to break a curse.Ella, Yuki, and Rory attend the prestigious Grimrose Académie for Elite Students in the Swiss Alps. They are currently grieving the death of one of their best friends, and while Ari's death by drowning has been deemed either an accident or suicide, her closest friends have their doubts. When they find an old book of fairy tales hidden in Ari's things, full of strange annotations in her handwriting, the girls start working-along with new student Nani-to investigate Ari's suspicious death. As they put together the pieces and discover other deaths that happened at Grimrose, they start to wonder if there was magic involved in Ari's death-magic that may also be at the core of their very lives, cursing them to unhappy endings. Grief, identity, and friendship intersect in this enthralling mystery with dark magical undertones that ingeniously plays with fairy-tale tropes to tell a feminist story about empowerment and grappling with how to break away from the confines of societal expectations of girls. Reminiscent of the works of Anna-Marie McLemore and Elana K. Arnold, this book ends with the promise of more to come. The main cast is queer and features diversity in disability and mental health. Rory and Ella default to White; Yuki's name cues her as Japanese, and Nani is Black and Native Hawaiian.Fans of empowering feminist fairy-tale retellings will love this. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Grimrose Academy is an elite coed boarding school in Switzerland, and the first days of the new school year are marred by the apparent suicide of Ariane, one best friend in a tightly knit group, along with Ella, Rory, and Yuki. Not convinced that Ariane committed suicide, the girls try to find out why she died. When a girl from Hawaii, Nani, is assigned to Ariane's room, she is drawn into the search when she discovers a hidden book of darker versions of fairy tales in Ariane's closet. A list of previously deceased students shows that some of the deaths appear to be tied to the tales. What is disconcerting is that Ella, Rory, and Yuki are also on the list. Pohl skillfully twists magic and mystery together to produce a story that slowly builds in suspense to its denouement, in which Ari's murderer is revealed. Even so, the ending indicates that the four girls have more work to do. Readers thrilled by fairy-tale retellings will appreciate this boarding-school mystery.

Four reimagined fairy-tale heroines must confront their inner demons to break a curse.Ella, Yuki, and Rory attend the prestigious Grimrose Académie for Elite Students in the Swiss Alps. They are currently grieving the death of one of their best friends, and while Ari's death by drowning has been deemed either an accident or suicide, her closest friends have their doubts. When they find an old book of fairy tales hidden in Ari's things, full of strange annotations in her handwriting, the girls start working-along with new student Nani-to investigate Ari's suspicious death. As they put together the pieces and discover other deaths that happened at Grimrose, they start to wonder if there was magic involved in Ari's death-magic that may also be at the core of their very lives, cursing them to unhappy endings. Grief, identity, and friendship intersect in this enthralling mystery with dark magical undertones that ingeniously plays with fairy-tale tropes to tell a feminist story about empowerment and grappling with how to break away from the confines of societal expectations of girls. Reminiscent of the works of Anna-Marie McLemore and Elana K. Arnold, this book ends with the promise of more to come. The main cast is queer and features diversity in disability and mental health. Rory and Ella default to White; Yuki's name cues her as Japanese, and Nani is Black and Native Hawaiian.Fans of empowering feminist fairy-tale retellings will love this. (Fantasy. 14-18)