tl;dr I think the book has a lot of potential, and with a few editing passes I think it would be a really enjoyable read. If the book was reworked and republished I'd certainly consider giving it another chance.

I really wanted to like this book. I love fairy tale retellings normally, so of course I jumped at the chance to read this. I love the *idea* behind the story. The synopsis really is what peaked my interest. Unfortunately, it was honestly difficult to read. The pacing was pretty slow and although the opening chapter was very interesting and well-written, there didn't seem to be many signs of that starting with the following chapter. There were times when I was confused about which character was being referenced, and there were quite a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this. ( )

Hansel and Gretel have grown up. They end up back in Germany after a family tragedy. Their mother warns Gretel's daughter to stay away from the woods. Something evil lives there. Awodiya doesn't listen and goes in. She learns that there's more to the story than what she was told. ( )

I was confused when the date on the starting page was 1993 as the story this was based on was originally written in the 1800's but realized to update it , it would be a modern version of it. I understand that this is a Novella and not a Novel so it is a shorter read, but more background would have been appreciated. Plus it seemed like there was to much unnecessary information was provided, such as the difference between jellyfish. But after that I enjoyed the updating of the fairy tale. Learning that Gretel taking the spell book did give insight whey the witch was so intent on getting back at Gretel. I liked when Awodiya tried to talk to the witch about changing her ways. Now I'm curious about the changes in Awodiya eyes. It was a good attempt the updating of a fairy tale, I just feel it could have been told differently. ( )