The Everafter War

The Sister’s Grimm by Michael Buckley is about two sisters, Sabrina and Daphne, whose parents mysteriously disappeared when they were children. When they get shipped off to live in a fairytale village with their grandmother, they realize she's strange. She has spell books, a magic mirror and even Cinderella’s slippers. When a giant steals their grandmother, it becomes a giant problem! The girls have to find a way to get their grandmother back and stay alive at the same time!
I’d give this book 5 out of 5 stars. I personally love fantasy and this book is full of it. It has a little piece from every fairytale. There’s never a dull moment and there is lots of action. Also, there is like one picture per chapter and it’s nice. I’d recommend it to any young girl who likes fantasy. ( )

I did not enjoy this one as much as the others. It was much darker without as much humor. But if this holds true to my preferences - I really enjoy one and then the next one not so much. Looking forward to seeing what the The Inside Story has to offer
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I'm already reading book seven of this fun series, and Buckley is bringing events to cataclysmic proportions. The Everafters are officially at war, with the Scarlet Hand bearing the much bigger force and malicious intent. Prince Charming is head of the resistance, and the Grimms are living with him and Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and the other fairy tale denizens who have decided to fight against their misguided townsfolk. In true fairy tale fashion, the encampment has sprung up in full scale almost overnight, and bears traces of the magical all over its wooden catapults, barracks, and fortresses.

While the Scarlet Hand has the superior numbers, Grimm and company have clever minds - not to mention that they're the good guys, after all - and cook up schemes of deception and ambush. The only problem: every time they put a plan in place, the enemy always seems to know every move before they make it. The Grimms decide that there must be a traitor in the camp. The warfare escalates, with some tragic effects, but the Grimms turn their attention to the skill in which they are most proficient, sleuthing. As they try to find the camp saboteur, Prince Charming and Snow White keep rallying their troops to fight and fight again.

I have enjoyed this series throughout, and the latest installment is no exception, although the format has radically changed. As I wrote at the beginning, Buckley is accelerating the pace as he draws the threads of the plot together, and that means that this story focuses much more on the large scale conflict and plot, of necessity. The initial set up of the series was that the Grimms lived in Ferryport Landing, and though their relations with the Everafters were tense, they were grudgingly accepted. The family used their unique position to help keep the peace in town, by working as detectives and mediators, and keeping the whole mess from exploding in chaos. These state of affairs lasted for hundreds of years. The first books, then, were unique mysteries, with lots of fairy tale recasts, as Granny Relda and Sabrina and Daphne and Mr. Canis snooped around to catch criminals without letting the outside world and normal people realize the truly magical nature of this town. Now, though, the uneasy alliances have broken completely, the Scarlet Hand has driven all regular folk out of town and the Grimms are living in hiding. No more mysteries around town are possible with this change in dynamic. All the tension that was being kept pressed down by careful negotiations has broken to the surface, and that means that the only place for the series to go is resolution; the overarching plot line, that of the evil Scarlet Hand, was in the background, but now that it has been brought to the forefront, the author has to deal with it, and with the conclusion of this framing structure comes the conclusion of the series.

In other words, I'm of mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I appreciate that Buckley is not dragging out his story to interminable lengths, where the larger mysteries lose their urgency and therefore, their importance. I do want to see what happens to the Grimms, who is behind the Scarlet Hand, and how the town will end up. So far, I like how Buckley is raising the stakes, and not heading towards an anticlimax that is just patched on at the end. The conflict he set up between the Grimms and the Scarlet Hand, and the Everafters in general, was too large to be tidily dealt with in one book, and he is appropriately devoting some time to it. On the other hand, I loved the format of the series. The Grimms' private detective agency, questioning fairy tale suspects and using magical artifacts to solve mysteries. Although Buckley throws us a little mystery in the form of the saboteur, it's just not the same. I'm happy to see the larger questions finally answered, but oh so sad to see a creative episodic book series terminated so soon. Truthfully, if Buckley decided to start a new series after this one has concluded, where the Grimms are just fairy tale detectives around town and we don't have any arch nemesis looming on the horizon, just crimes that accompany any town but with the added interest of magic, I would be happy to read it. This series was compelling enough for my personal interests in reading that I am sorry to see it end, but am excited to read that ending nonetheless. ( )

This series has its good points -- female protagonists, some cool characters, humor. And its bad points -- too much action, too many characters, uncertainty of tone, chaos.This particular book is all about a war, so it's a lot of battles and well, that was the most boring of the LotR movies, so I certainly think it's the most boring of these books. Also, Puck is getting increasingly gross. If this series is trying to be aimed at girls, or girls and boys, it's leaning a little too heavily on the boy's side in this book.The book also seems to be afraid of emotion. The most emotional scenes feel abrupt, wrong, and flat. (Think Sirius going through the Veil in book 5.)I'm also not keen on the direction this series seems to be headed for the next book. ( )

War's a-coming in Ferryport, but Daphne and Sabrina might not be around to join it. Their parents woke up and their dad wants them out of all this mess PRONTO.

Daphne and Sabrina still aren't getting along. All Sabrina wanted was for her parents to wake up and life to go back to normal. But when they do wake up, it's obvious life can't return to how it was and it's hard to go forward when your parents think you're a good two years younger than you actually are and don't realize the importance of what's happening right at home.

And then we find out who the leader of the Scarlet Hand is! OMFG.

This book is war, both familial and actual. It's gritty and sad and we lose some beloved characters. The only comic relief is Puck's revenge on Sabrina for infecting him with the horrible disease known as puberty.

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