The Sisters Grimm: The Inside Story

In the acknowledgments at the beginning of this, book 8 in the series, Michael Buckley comments that it was the hardest of all to write.  And once I was reading it I could see why.  The Inside Story starts off with Daphne and Sabrina, lost in a fairy tale in the book of Everafter.  Puck, Mirror, Pinocchio and their baby brother are nowhere to be seen, and Sabrina is being plagued by indecision and small panic attacks from Mirrors evil revelation.  If Puck hadn't appeared by the end of the chapter I might have been cruelly disappointed by book 8, but he did!  And between him and Daphne they kept up the amusing banter that always has me laughing out loud and quickly recouped the story for me.

Puck, oh Puck....one of the greatest 11ish boys on earth...or at least in the realm of story characters.  No seriously, I drive the hubby mad wanting to read all of Pucks lines to him.  He kills me!  For instance, wanting to keep the headless horseman's smelly rotten head for his mantelpiece, obviously it would be a conversation piece.  Particularly funny in The Inside Story, is Puck's determination that marrying Sabrina won't be that bad, everyone needs a wifely slave, and he spends most of the book planning the wedding, a very Pucktastic wedding (as Daphne would say). 

A slower book than The Everafter War, I still enjoyed it thoroughly (I did cruise through it in two days after all), though I noticed it had a definite added sparkle once Granny Relda showed up towards the end; I hadn't realised I'd been missing her up until that point.  For a story which branches off from the majority of its usual characters, as well as it's usual location it's no wonder Michael  Buckley found it hard to write, but he did a great job.  

Now my only worry is the to be concluded at the end!

The Sisters Grimm:The Inside Story, by Michael Buckley
Published by Amulet Books, May 2010