Thread ready for this month's discussion.

Well did anyone read this for the book group this month?

 I just read it and loved it!  It was such a wonderfully written story, and seeing how David grew throughout into such a wondeful young man was lovely!

The only thing I didn't like was the ending, with him having such a tragic life, I felt so sad for him, after all he went through, and how he grew, it seemed wrong!

Nat

I have to be honest, I really struggled with this book.   Everyone else has raved about it, but I had difficulty with the fantasy/fairytale bits of it.   It started off really well, and I thought I was going to enjoy it, but then when David meets the Woodsman it all got a bit surreal for me.  

 See, this is where I really got into it and loved, it, when all the fariytale aspect came in, but then Iam a sucker for a fairytale still, and especially loved the more adult spin it put on them!

Nat

I'm not a bit lover of fantasy/fairy tales etc but I really enjoyed this one.  It was a lot darker and more bloodthirsty than I thought it would be, with some really believable characters.  I really felt sorry for David as a little boy, but I did want to give him a shake at times for the way he was treating Ruth.  Having said that, it did all happen a bit soon after his mother had died.

Some nice humour too - loved Snow White and the Dwarfs!

Nat, I agree David's life afterwards was quite sad, but I thought the actual ending itself was really well done.

I thought the ending was lovely, as he got back his family. That they'd been waiting for him.
Really enjoyed the 'real' fairy stories told by the woodsman, very dark and gothic.
Would have liked more of those. What was red-ridinghood like???? I'll never see her in the same way again!
 It did lose me perhaps in the middle, the proper fairytale part.
I think the beginning and end were more interesting for me, more poignant/moving...and of course realistic.
Although he'd been awful to his stepmother and brother, it seemed perfectly normal behaviour considering how
fast his father had remarried ,a very fairytale thing to do (cinderella/snow white).
Not my usual type of read, never really tried fantasy type books. But overall i thought it very good.

I enjoyed it.  I liked the adult spin on fairytales, but I'm sure that I've come across similar things before (although I can't quite remember where), especially the part about the dwarves being unionists. 

I thought the ending was very well done.  I liked that it wasn't an outright "they all lived happily ever after" and whilst his life did seem sad, most people#s lives do contain a certain amount of loss.

Well, I cried at the end, much to the consternation of my kids!  Great book, and a keeper of rme which is so not what I expected at the start. 

And I agree with Seanat - what about naughty little Red Riding Hood...just reinforces my belief that most fairy stories are NOT suitable for children!!

Helen

I read this a while ago. I was quite unsure about it to start of with but I really warmed to the central character and thought that the fairy tale people were fascinating and a more than a little scary. Loved the ending.

Fabulous story telling..well worth a re read at some point for me...

I just gave up on this after 80 pages, can't get into it. So I decided to read the comments on this thread to see what I'm missing and I have to say the little red riding hood comments make me hesitate. May go back to it but not just now!