Grimmworld: The Witch in the Woods, by Michaelbrent Collings

Shadow Mountain Publishing, March 2024 (not yet released)

ISBN: 9781639932320

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

Michaelbrent Collings writes good thrillers, and writes them fast: his pace has always been Dean Koontz-like. Grimmworld is his first attempt at a middle grade fantasy novel, and not surprisingly, it’s very good.  Collings has no trouble shifting his high-octane writing to fantasy, Kids and adults both will love this.

The book is a nifty new way to use Grimm’s Fairy Tales for backdrop.  The first 90 pages are a bit slow, but it’s just the setup for the real story.  Twins Jake and Willow Grimm are living in a new town, where their parents are involved in top secret research.  Through a collision of multiverses, the twins wind up in Grimmworld, where all the old fairy tales actually happen, for real.  However, the endings are very different in Grimmworld, and not happy ones, either– the original Brothers Grimm changed the endings when they wrote them.  Once the story shifts to Grimmworld, it takes off, and kicks into high gear. Jake and Willow do get some scientific explanation for the different worlds from a friend and wizard, Old Eli.  Collings does a nice job balancing a plausible scientific theory and making it understandable to young readers..  The ‘bubble’ analogy the author used really helps tie this section together.  The lovable, enigmatic mole-rat, Chet, also helps the twins, although his Cheshire-cat style of talking does drive them somewhat nuts.

The last half of the book is fantastic, with Jake and Willow attempting to save Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s oven.  There are a lot of outstanding riddles and puzzles in this section: riddling hasn’t been this much fun since Bilbo went toe to toe with Gollum all those years ago.  The ‘slow camel’ race and magic tree demonstrate real planning on the author’s part, and they are simple enough for readers to follow.  It’s the perfect wrap-up to a very good story.  Thankfully, this isn’t the end: Collings has already promised another if he gets a good response from readers.  Based on this, he won’t have any trouble getting it.

Bottom line is, this does what a good middle grade fantasy should do: thrill younger and older readers alike.  Schools should have this, to help kids see that reading has a LOT more to offer than staring at cell phones.  As for the author, who knows what else he has in his bag of tricks? Recommended.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson