Book Review :: Unenchanted, by Chanda Hahn

UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn
Published by Smashwords Edition
on December 29th 2011
Genres: Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 235
Format: eBook
Source: Amazon
Goodreads

Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated, that is until she saves her crush's life on a field trip, changing her High School status from loser to hero overnight. But with her newfound fame brings misfortune as an old family curse come to light.

For Mina is descended from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business. Which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her its next fairytale victim.

To break the fairy tale curse on her family and stop these deadly events, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end.

Last updated on 19 January 2022

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The story: Unenchanted by Chanda Hahn

Unenchanted, by Chanda Hahn, is about teenager Mina Grimes who lives in a small town with her mother and younger brother. She lives a reasonably normal life – school, home, hanging out with her best friend Nan and saving people before they tumble to their deaths in bakeries.

When Mina saves the popular Brody Carmichael’s life, she doesn’t think much of it – she did what anyone else would do in that situation. But after that event, and a few other less-than-normal happenings, her mother tells her the biggest secret she could have hidden from her daughter. Mina’s last name is actually Grimm…as in the Brothers Grimm. Mina is a direct descendant of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, the brothers who wrote all the fairy tales. The family has a curse, and it’s up to Mina to break it, or it will pass to her little brother, Charlie.

With hints of fairy tales (that have modern twists) around every corner, a ridiculous best friend who has more character than Mina herself and is a little too addicted to Twitter, a doomed relationship, a magical book called the Grimmoire, and a mysterious Jared who pops up, Unenchanted is a fun twist on the fairy tales we all know and love. It was a good concept, and I enjoyed the overall storyline.

My thoughts on Unenchanted

There were a few things that were a bit annoying, like the lack of editing (seriously people! Triple-check your editing at least twice over before you publish it!), and the typical, perhaps clichéd, female protagonist (she’s clumsy, average looking, not great at school, ‘ordinary’, and by no means popular). The end was a bit flat and abrupt, but it was clever at the same time. As Mina has to get through over 200 of the fairy tales to break the curse, and in Unenchanted she only got through two (I think?), it could be a loooooong series.

It wasn’t the greatest book in the world, but I didn’t expect it to be. Having downloaded it as a freebie and not really knowing what it was about, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a fun book if you want something short and a bit fluffy to read. I think I will read the next one (Fairest), just to see what other fairy tales Hahn can twist into modern-day events.

Have you read UnEnchanted? What did you think?