Review: The Grimoire of Kensington Market, by Lauren B. Davis

The Grimoire of Kensington Market, by Lauren B. Davis

Recorded Books - 2019

Audiobook - 11 Hours, 3 Minutes
Narrated by Linda Jones

My Rating (out of 5)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Davis has created a stunning modern day fairy tale based on the classic story The Snow Queen, updated and relevant to today's society. Delicately nuanced and moving, it is a must read for those who love fairy tale retellings.

The Grimoire holds the worlds stories - all the stories. New stories arrive in a twinkle of light, and when the last person to remember a story dies, the book fades away by flame.  Maggie is the proprietor of this magical bookshop and caretaker of the world's tales.

"People didn't wander into The Grimoire, it wasn't that sort of bookshop. People found it by some force even Maggie the proprietor didn't understand. If one was meant to find the shop one did, otherwise it was unnoticeable."

Toronto is in the grips of an drug epidemic. Elysium a drug created by the silver world's Queen Srebrenka is highly addictive, and Srebrenka uses it to lure people into her silver world. While Maggie managed to recover from her addiction and escape Srebrenka's grasp, her brother Kyle has not. Srebrenka tries to lure Maggie back, but Maggie always resists and prevails. But when she receives messages from her brother asking for her help, she is overwhelmed by love and a sense of duty to her brother, and so she sets off into the magical silver world to rescue him. 

I cannot say enough about this wonderful story. A fairy tale for adults - yes, but so much more than that too. It is filled with scenes and quotes to warm a bibliophile's heart 💓. It is fantastical, magical tale of love and survival that parallels the dark horrors of drug addiction in real life - a subject near and dear to the author's heart as she lost her brother to addiction/suicide.  I can't imagine a more beautiful tribute than this exquisite and moving story. 

Narration was provided by Linda Jones who did a wonderful job. She has a lovely warm speaking voice that  was well suited to this story. Good cadence and tone, with very good range of emotion and character.

Happy Reading,

Christine