Snow White Sorrow (The Grimm Diaries #1)
Cameron Jace
Acknowledgement
It’s safe to say that this book wouldn’t have been possible without the awesome readers and fans who have supported me every step of the way. I actually tried to make a list of their names, and it filled out more than ten pages. So although I can’t thank you by name, you know who you are and what you mean to me. I am more than lucky to have you.
However, I ought to thank three supporters who weren’t only supportive but have worked hard helping me out, even before this book came out. I’d start with my great friend and editor, Danielle Littig who believed in the stories from first glance and did her best to make them better. Also, Susan Hocking, a writer, editor, and first reviewer ever. She believed in the stories when they were still ripe and confusing and never gave up. Last but not least, my current editor Melody Benton who worked on the book as if it was hers. She’s been awake many sleepless nights, not only editing but loving the story and picking up wrong timelines and plots then helping me make them better. Thank you.
‘I guess you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.
The phony one, the one you know
Was cooked up years and years ago
And made to sound all soft and sappy
Just to keep the children happy’
-Ronald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes
‘She'll sting you one day, Oh, ever so gently, so you hardly ever feel it. 'Til you fall dead.’
― Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm
‘Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it?
It makes you so vulnerable’
-Neil Gaiman
1
The Boy Who is a Shadow
The children of the town of Hamlin loved Charmwill Glimmer, famously known for being the greatest storyteller in the world. Unlike Santa Claus, Charmwill didn’t walk around with a sack full of gifts and wonders. Instead, he arrived with a parrot on his shoulder. The children giggled because they knew that it wasn’t an ordinary parrot. It was an enchanted book, which carried almost every fairy tale ever told.
Before Charmwill began reading, the parrot’s green wings magically transformed into the book’s cover, the yellow feathers turned into pages the color of old treasure maps, its backbone into the book’s spine, and its claws laced together into an obsidian lock that guarded the tales between the pages.
Charmwill unlocked the book by knocking on the parrot’s beak, which now stuck out of the middle of the book’s front cover like a doorknob. He knocked five consecutive times on it: tic-to-tic-tac-toc!
Once opened, Charmwill rested the book on his lap. Then he pulled out a golden comb and smoothed his long silver hair and beard with his hand. The children enjoyed playing with his beard, pulling it slightly and feeling its cottony texture. Charmwill didn’t mind. He joked that if he ever shaved it, he’d turn it into a marvelous pillow they could rest their heads upon while listening to his bedtime stories.
When the children had enough playing, Charmwill read them the most wonderful tales from his enchanted book, which he called the Book of Beautiful Lies.
The children’s eyes gleamed and widened, listening to his stern yet sweet voice. Charmwill’s wondrous tales had everything they were looking for: castles, dragons, villains, evil stepmothers, witches, enchanted frogs, unicorns, godmothers, pumpkins, coaches, candy, forests, mermaids, giants, dwarves, elves, breadcrumbs, princesses, princes, and of course true love kisses, which were Charmwill’s favorite part.
But the tales also had other elements the children liked. They told of scary things like vampires, werewolves, demons, monsters, shape shifters, boogeymen, secret societies, and forbidden powers which they had never heard of in fairy tales before. It was what made Charmwill’s stories fantastic, fabulous, and their favorite.
Between chapters, Charmwill Glimmer smoked his pipe. It was a special pipe, filled with Dragonbreath, which gave him certain powers. Like wizards had their own powers to face their enemies, the world of storytellers was the same, if not more interesting and adventurous. There were dark forces that didn’t want the world to know the truth about the fairy tales in Charmwill’s book. These evil forces were looking for him so they could steal it, but the man was smart and hard to find. He’d even called it The Book of Beautiful Lies to elude them, for in reality, the book didn’t tell lies, but only the untold truth about fairy tales.
“I love your fairy tales, Mr. Charmwill,” a little boy said. “They’re unlike the stories my grandma told me.”
“That’s because your grandma leaves out the scary parts,” Charmwill took a drag from his pipe, “which are the awesome parts.”