Alice and her mother Ella have been on the run from the "bad luck" that seems to follow them wherever they move to and they move around a lot. Then they get a letter telling them that Alice's grandmother Althea has died. Althea wrote a best-selling book "Tales from the Hinterland", a set of bloody Grimm fairytales, tales forbidden for Alice to read - her Mom won't discuss Althea at all with Alice. Now her mother feels comfortable settling down, and gets married. Unfortunately, someone from the Hinterlands kidnaps Ella and Alice though warned away from the Hinterlands tries to find them in order to free her mother.

I wasn't sure I could handle all the gloom and darkness, so I skipped to the end, decided I could deal, and then went back and read from the middle on to the end.
A very enjoyable tale. It has some of the flavor of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.