Aunt Marie's Book of Lore Review (With spoilers)

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Aunt Marie’s Book of Lore Review

WARNING This review does contain spoilers for both the book and the TV Series. If you wish to read the review without spoilers, please visit the previous blog post.

Blurb: As his Aunt Marie was dying, Portland homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt discovered he was descended from a long line of Grimms. As well as inheriting Grimm abilities from his aunt, she also handed him a collection of useful notes and artefacts, which his family had accumulated down the centuries. Among then was the Book of Lore.

A collection of observations about wesen species, this book records specific Grimm encounters with them, from Volcanalis on the slopes of Vesuvius, Italy, in 79 A.D. to Hexenbiest and Klaustreick in Portland, USA, in 2012. With details of how to identify, fight and - for the more dangerous and powerful - kill them, the information contained here may well mean the difference between life and death for Grimms and Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen alike.

To really appreciate this book you have to have watched Grimm. Marie is the aunt of Nick Burkhardt, a Portland detective who finds out he is what is known as a Grimm. As the name suggests, it is to do with the Grimm brothers. Nick is destined to kill what, to most of the world, are fairy-tale creatures.

  The Book of Lore is a record of what these creatures are, how they look, what they are called and how to kill them. It is a record centuries-old, written by Grimms to pass to their children. As a Grimm, Nick also records his own experiences in the book.

  Aunt Marie’s Book of Lore as it is presented, is how it appears towards the end of the series, after Juliette has burned Aunt Marie’s trailer. As such, it is incomplete. At the front of the book, essentially the contents, is an alphabetical list of the creatures, called Wesen, although some of them are crossed out. From 58 Wesen, only 31 are recorded in the book.

  Fans will definitely enjoy it; the way it has been done is very good. There are photos of many Wesen from the series, translations of the foreign text and details about the characters in the show that were revealed to be Wesen. Along with the drawings and photos of Wesen and the tools used to kill them is part of a police report about Adalind (the Hexenbiest) including her photo, her fingerprints and her signature. As this book is incomplete, it has no entries made by Kelly Burkhardt (Nick and Adalind’s son) any mention of Diana (Adalind and Renard’s daughter) or the relationship that develops between Nick and Adalind.

Sadly, the chapters on Fuchsbau (Rosalee) and Zauberbiest (Sean Renard) are two that have been destroyed. The chapter on Blutbad (Monroe) has survived and includes a photo of Monroe’s driver's license.

The book itself does show signs of having been in a fire; some pages appear singed and others have holes. The book itself is undamaged but a lot of the pages look as though they are photographs of the original ones post-fire damage. Some pages also appear damaged by stains such as blood and what I assume is spilled potion.  The front cover of the book features photos of Nick, Monroe, Hank, Juliette, Rosalee and Renard (all in human form).

 All in all, this is a great book, but only for fans of the show. To other people, I think some aspects would be confusing. There is only one thing I dislike about it. The entry on the creature known as a Hexenbiest (A female witch) has almost nothing. There is a reference to the main Hexenbiest which is encountered in the show and a drawing of a Hexenbiest but all the text, apart from a few notes by Nick, is not about a Hexenbiest. The text is a fairy-tale by the Grimm Brothers. I don’t why or if it has relevance I’ve missed but that’s the only issue I have.

 For Grimm fans, it’s great for others; it’s probably not worth it.